Manchester United would have closed to six points behind
Chelsea in fourth if Aston Villa had been beaten. Instead, after a sluggish opening-half display, they and their visitors engaged in a kind of high-speed ping-pong following which a draw felt the right outcome.
The breathless fare made a fine spectacle but for Ole Gunnar Solskjær the bottom line is that United have won only four of 14 league games this season. So unless Spurs, on Wednesday,
Manchester City (Saturday) and Everton (Sunday-week) are beaten then Solskjær will not better the 24 points from 17 matches José Mourinho had accrued before being sacked on 18 December last year.