KEY POINTS:
Manchester United produced a stirring second-half Old Trafford comeback to beat Blackburn Rovers 4-1 this morning (NZT), and stretch their Premier League lead over Chelsea to nine points.
United deservedly trailed to a 29th-minute Matt Derbyshire goal but second-half strikes by Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Park Ji-sung and
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer secured a seventh successive league win and piled the pressure on Chelsea, who were playing at Watford later in their game in hand.
United, with seven games remaining, still lead on 78 points from Chelsea on 69 from a game less.
Earlier on Saturday, Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick as Liverpool beat Arsenal 4-1 at Anfield to leap-frog the Londoners into third place on 57, two points ahead of Arsenal, who have a game in hand. Both still look destined for the Champions League qualifying places despite fifth-placed Bolton Wanderers beating Sheffield United 1-0 to move to 50.
It is becoming very tight at the bottom as Sheffield United are now only one point above the drop zone after West Ham United beat Middlesbrough 2-0 and Charlton Athletic beat Wigan Athletic 1-0, while Manchester City won 1-0 at Newcastle United to edge clear. Blackburn, who beat United home and away last season, were looking good for another Old Trafford win after an impressive first half.
United lost centre back Nemanja Vidic to what looked like a serious shoulder injury and the long delay in treating him seemed to affect their concentration as some poor defending of a Morten Gamst Pedersen cross allowed Derbyshire to swoop and knock in the loose ball.
United were transformed after the break and Scholes showed all his class and experience to level after 61 minutes when he burst past two defenders then produced a calm finish to beat Brad Friedel.
Ryan Giggs then somehow hit the bar from in front of an open goal but Carrick spared his team mate's blushes when he fired in the second in the 73rd minute.
Park tapped in the third seven minutes from time after Friedel failed to hold a Cristiano Ronaldo shot and substitute Solskjaer completed the impressive comeback in the last minute.
"The great thing we showed was the composure to not lose our heads, keep our nerve and keep on playing and by doing that we kept on making chances in the second half," United boss Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports.
"The intensity of our game was absolutely fantastic but so was the support -- that probably put us over the line today.
"They were absolutely fantastic and the players were all talking about it in the dressing room -- they couldn't believe the volume of noise coming out today."
Liverpool were all over Arsenal in the day's early kickoff and never looked back after Crouch clipped in a sharp near-post effort in the fifth minute.
He headed his second late in the first half and rounded off the scoring nine minutes from time for his first club hat-trick.
- REUTERS
