rediscovered their famous fighting
spirit by roaring back from behind to
beat Stoke City 3-2 on Saturday and
re-energise their Premier League title
defence.
David Moyes's side trailed 2-1 at
halftime and looked on course for a
third successive home game without
victory in the league, only for goals
from Wayne Rooney and Javier
Hernandez to secure a much-needed
win.
United remain eight points behind
Arsenal, who won 2-0 at Crystal
Palace to consolidate their position at
the head of the table, but they have
closed to within three points of the
top four.
Stoke took a fortuitous lead in the
fourth minute at Old Trafford when
Jonny Evans's attempted clearance
from an Erik Pieters cross cannoned
against the prone Peter Crouch and
flew into the net.
Robin van Persie equalised in the
43rd minute, tucking home after
Asmir Begovic parried a Rooney
header, only for Marko Arnautovic to
restore the visitors' lead on the stroke
of halftime with a superb free-kick.
Stoke lost the influential Arnautovic
to injury in the second half and
United capitalised by turning the
game around with a pair of goals in
the space of three minutes.
Rooney cleverly flicked a looping
header over Begovic to equalise in
the 78th minute, before substitute
Hernandez completed the comeback
with a back-post header from Patrice
Evra's teasing cross.
"It was a big challenge to make sure
we won the game, but we did it. We
showed great energy after the
midweek game against Real Sociedad
to go until the end," said United
manager Moyes.
"I was worried it wouldn't come,
especially when we were 2-1 down.
But I think we deserved it in the end.
We kept at it and deserved to score.
"It may be a turning point – we know
we have got to do it in style here at
Old Trafford."
With Chelsea not in action until
Sunday, when they host Manchester
City, Liverpool took advantage to
climb above them into second place
thanks to a glorious hat-trick by Luis
Suarez in a 4-1 win over West
Bromwich Albion.
The Uruguayan broke the deadlock
with a fine goal in the 12th minute,
picking the ball up in a deep position,
drifting past one defender and
nutmegging another before drilling a
low shot past Boaz Myhill.
He added a second five minutes later
with an improvised header from just
inside the box and completed his first-
ever Anfield hat-trick 10 minutes into
the second half by nodding home a
Steven Gerrard free kick.
James Morrison replied with a
penalty in the 66th minute, but
Daniel Sturridge restored Liverpool's
three-goal advantage in style 13
minutes from time with an exquisite
chip from the left-hand edge of the
area.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers
praised his two goalscorers, saying:
"They're very hard to contain. Both of
them have different qualities and
both are goalscorers.
"I thought our midfield three today
were excellent. We're just looking to
keep improving, not getting carried
away, and the boys at the top end did
their job and got the goals."
Earlier, Arsenal survived the
dismissal of goalscorer Mikel Arteta
to overcome Palace at Selhurst Park
and preserve their status at the top of
the standings on the 150th
anniversary of the Football
Association.
Arteta put the visitors ahead with a
47th-minute penalty, but he was
contentiously shown a straight red
card with 25 minutes remaining for a
last-man foul on former Arsenal man
Marouane Chamakh.
Wojciech Szczesny produced two
stunning saves to thwart Palace, who
parted company with manager Ian
Holloway on Wednesday, before
Arsenal made sure of victory late on
when Olivier Giroud headed home
from Aaron Ramsey's dinked cross.
"We showed a lot of resilience and
patience and good organisation
against a team who were really up
for it," Arsenal manager Arsene
Wenger told BT Sport.
"I honestly believe (Arteta's
dismissal) was the wrong decision. It
was very far from goal, he was not
the last man, and even the foul was,
to me, accidental."
Southampton climbed to third in the
table with a 2-0 win over Fulham at
St Mary's in the day's late match.
Mauricio Pochettino's side continued
their surprising start to the season as
England striker Rickie Lambert
opened the scoring with a 20th
minute header and Jay Rodriguez
added the second two minutes before
halftime.
Second-half goals from Romelu
Lukaku and Leon Osman earned
Everton a 2-0 win at Aston Villa, for
whom Lukaku's Belgian
international colleague Christian
Benteke saw an early penalty pushed
over the bar by Tim Howard.
Norwich City dominated their home
game with Cardiff City but had to
settle for a 0-0 draw that kept Chris
Hughton's side in the relegation zone.
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