Evra - We Were Lucky

Patrice Evra struck the late equaliser for United against Sunderland – albeit via a fortunate deflection off Anton Ferdinand – but he was far from happy when the final whistle went at Old Trafford.

It was a performance lacking in the vim and vigour that had seen United move to the top of the Barclays Premier League the week before with a 2-0 win over Stoke City. And Evra remains unsure whether United even deserved the point.

“It was a big disappointment because it was a poor display,” was the Frenchman’s honest assessment. “We are very disappointed about the way we played. It was a bad game. We drew, and one point is a bonus. We are pleased to get a point, but I don’t even know if we deserved it.

“We are very frustrated because it looked like we didn’t have any energy or power. It was a bad game for us. You have to say Sunderland played very well. We just didn’t look sharp. Our game was slow, we lost a lot of challenges and in the first half we were very poor.”

United made more of a fight of it after the break, as Berbatov started the half with a wonderful volleyed equaliser, and Evra finished it with a more fortunate leveller after Kenwyne Jones had again given Sunderland the lead.

“After Berbatov scored the team pushed on, but then Sunderland scored again,” said Evra. “It was difficult to come back again after that. We did manage to in the last few minutes. But it’s still not a good result for us.”

Such was Patrice’s disappointment, he isn’t even claiming the goal that rescued a point for United. “I just tried to strike it towards goal and it came off Anton Ferdinand. It was a good goal for us, but it’s an own goal. Next time I’ll make sure I score a proper goal!”

United have been uncharacteristically unsure in defence this season, notching up a third of the number of goals conceded as last season after only eight games.

“Yeah [we are worried about it],” said Patrice. “We have conceded a lot of goals and I’m not happy with that because I am a defender. If you want to win the league, I think you need to keep clean sheets. Last season we conceded 24 goals and we don’t want to concede more than that this season.”