MIDDLESBROUGH: Marouane Fellaini scored his first Premier League goal for 15 months as Manchester United extended their unbeaten Premier League run to 18 games to move up to fifth with a 3-1 victory at relegation-threatened Middlesbrough on Sunday.
Jesse Lingard added a stunning second and Antonio Valencia a stoppage-time third after an embarrassing mistake by former United keeper Victor Valdes as Jose Mourinho’s side ended a 19-week stay in sixth by climbing a place.
Their latest victory as they became the first club to record 600 Premier League wins puts them a distant 17 points behind leaders Chelsea but two points ahead of their nearest rivals Arsenal and Everton in seventh, boosting their hopes of a top-four finish in the race to qualify for a place in next season’s Champions League.
Middlesbrough pulled a late goal back through substitute Rudy Gestede, but they remain second-bottom, five points adrift of safety after an 11th league game without victory as caretaker manager Steve Agnew tasted defeat in his first match following the departure of Aitor Karanka.
Gestede initially appeared to bite defender Eric Bailly in a stoppage time melee on the edge of the visitors’ area in an altercation missed by referee Jon Moss and his assistants. Replays showed there was no contact as the pair engaged in an angry clinch, but punches appeared to be thrown afterwards in the players tunnel a both sides left the pitch.
United were last beaten in the league at the end of October, a record which rarely looked under threat once they took a deserved 30th minute lead through Fellaini.
The Belgian international midfielder had scored his previous league goal in a 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth in December 2015, but had few problems in ending that barren run with his third goal of the season. Ashley Young cut in from the left to send over a searching cross to the far post, and as Valdes and former Manchester United defender Fabio hesitated, Fellaini was left with the simple task of heading the ball into an unguarded net from close range.—AFP
