ROBIN van Persie struck a late equaliser at West Ham United for the second time this season as EPL champions-elect Manchester United scraped a 2-2 draw.
Just as he had in the 2-2 FA Cup draw at Upton Park in January, van Persie found the net in front of the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand to rescue United from being penalised for a sluggish display.
But West Ham manager Sam Allardyce was not happy with the goal that appeared to be scored from an offside position.
“It’s their job to give the offside decisions that appear in front of them,” Allardyce said.
“This is a blatant one, this is not a position he should or shouldn’t be in. He can see Van Persie is two yards offside – he should put his flag up. He doesn’t.”
West Ham had looked set to earn a hard-fought win through a vicious strike from Mohamed Diame, who restored the hosts’ lead early in the second half after Antonio Valencia cancelled out Ricardo Vaz Te’s opener.
But it wasn’t meant to be. United now need just six more points from the last five games before the trophy can return to Old Trafford.
We don’t like losing and they showed that tonight again,” Ferguson said. “We had to stand up to a lot, we went down twice but we kept going. We played like champions tonight.
“It was magnificent in terms of determination and courage to play … that’s five left – three at home and two away.”
With the draw, West Ham climb one place to 11th – one point short of the 40-point mark – and their top-flight status seems all but secure.
Allardyce is eager to tie on-loan striker Andy Carroll to a permanent contract and the Liverpool man demonstrated his worth with a brilliantly uncompromising display.
CHELSEA INTO THIRD
CHELSEA moved third in the Premier League as John Terry scored twice following a David Luiz thunderbolt in their 3-0 win against west London rivals Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Brazil star Luiz lashed home from 35 yards in the 30th minute before Terry netted with a brace of close-range headers in the 42nd and 71st minutes.
Rafael Benitez’s side are one point ahead of fourth placed Arsenal and three in front of fifth placed Tottenham in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
Benitez made four changes to the starting line-up that lost 2-1 in the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester City on Sunday.
In came Frank Lampard for his 600th appearance for the club as well as Terry, winger Victor Moses and striker Fernando Torres.
Cottagers boss Martin Jol also tinkered with his team and brought in Mladen Petric and John Arne Riise for the injured Damien Duff and Kieran Richardson.
The hosts started on the front foot and had a chance to take the lead within three minutes.
Sascha Riether crossed for Bryan Ruiz, but he couldn’t keep his cushioned volley down from close-range.
Fulham took time to settle at the back. Brede Hangeland looked nervy when he skewed a clearance into the air and Torres set the ball up for Lampard to strike straight at goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer in the 10th minute.
Dimitar Berbatov’s volley on the edge of the box was deflected off Terry and deflected for a corner.
Then the Bulgarian striker played in Giorgos Karagounis, who failed to hit the target with his shot from 20 yards drifting wide of Petr Cech’s far post.
But it was almost straight after the former Liverpool defender saw an effort saved by the Blues keeper that Chelsea opened the scoring.
With Luiz in acres of space the centre-back shot and Schwarzer had no chance of keeping his goal-of-the-season contender out of the net.
Following another spell of pressure from the Cottagers, Chelsea struck again.
Juan Mata’s deep cross-field ball towards the far post was met by Terry, who headed down into the ground and past Schwarzer from just six yards.
TEVEZ SAVES CITY
CARLOS Tevez struck late on to give Manchester City a 1-0 win against unlucky Wigan in their FA Cup final dress rehearsal at Eastlands.
Argentina striker Tevez netted his 11th league goal of the season seven minutes from full time to narrow the gap to 13 points between City and Premier League leaders Manchester United, who only drew at West Ham.
City’s win could delay United’s title celebrations as their bitter rivals will only clinch the trophy in the next round of fixtures if Roberto Mancini’s men lose at Tottenham on Sunday while United beat Aston Villa on Monday.
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez was keen to get across the message about the importance of staying in the Premier League and there were only muted celebrations from the Latics on Saturday when they beat Millwall to reach their first FA Cup final.
Martinez made two changes with forward Franco Di Santo and keeper Joel Robles replacing Callum McManaman and Ali Al Habsi respectively.
City had Micah Richards making his first appearance since the England defender suffered a knee injury in October.
Aleksandar Kolarov, Joleon Lescott and Javi Garcia also came in for Gael Clichy, Matija Nastasic and James Milner.
Mancini threw the towel in on the title weeks ago and the FA Cup may represent their only realistic hope of silverware this season, but five wins from six games is at least delaying United’s coronation.