Smalling Rues Missed Opportunity Against Chelsea

Chris Smalling felt Manchester United missed out on a chance to get the better of Barclays Premier League leaders Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Robin van Persie’s injury-time equaliser salvaged a point, but the Reds had trailed because Didier Drogba had taken one of the few chances that came the Blues’ way. Van Persie had been thwarted by Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on three occasions, while elsewhere United could not convert possession into enough meaningful chances.

"I think we deserved the draw," Smalling told MUTV. "But we will probably see this as an opportunity missed. The amount of chances we created compared to them was a greater number, I think, and we scored in the 90th-plus minute, so we will take the draw.

"They are the league leaders, but when we do our evaluation of the game we could have done a bit more than that."

Smalling, who partnered Marcos Rojo in defence for the first time, was pleased with the never-say-die attitude that eventually earned United a point.

"They are an experienced team who know how to kill a game but we showed that fighting spirit, and we kept going right till the end," he said. "We kept going; those last 15 to 20 minutes were a real onslaught from us. We deserved that and it will give us a bit of confidence going into a big period for us.

"Their only chances came from our mistakes, so we need to cut out those sloppy balls. On the whole our team structure is getting better with each game. We kept fighting and we deserved that point, but how we played against the league leaders showed that we can go to any team and cause problems."