Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United made it four wins out of four in the Premier League on Wednesday, beating Newcastle to close the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea, which was held at home by Southampton.
United was forced to dig deep to emerge with a 2-0 win against a disciplined Newcastle side at St James’s Park.
The victory leaves it in sixth spot in the table with 38 points, just three behind Arsenal and six adrift of Chelsea.
Substitute Romelu Lukaku broke the deadlock just 38 seconds after coming on midway through the second half, pouncing after Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka had spilled a fierce Marcus Rashford free kick and Rashford himself made sure of the points in the 80th minute.
Misfiring
It was a frustrating evening for Chelsea as the side failed to score for the third time in its past five games
the home side shared six goals with Watford in a helter-skelter first half.
The results: Bournemouth 3 (Ake 34, Wilson 37, Fraser 40) drew with Watford 3 (Deeney 14, 27, Sema 38); Chelsea 0 drew with Southampton 0; Huddersfield 1 (Mounie 33) lost to Burnley 2 (Wood 40, Barnes 74); Newcastle 0 lost to Manchester United 2 (Lukaku 64, Rashford 80); West Ham 2 (Arnautovic 66, 68) drew with Brighton 2 (Stephens 56, Duffy 58); Wolverhampton 0 lost to Crystal Palace 2 (Ayew 83, Milivojevic 90+5-pen).