Cristiano Ronaldo rescues Premier League point as Manchester United hold Chelsea

Cristiano Ronaldo secured absentee-hit Manchester United a scarcely-deserved Premier League draw against Chelsea as Old Trafford witnessed more protests against the Glazer family.

With Champions League qualification all but beyond them following defeats at Liverpool and Arsenal, interim boss Ralf Rangnick’s side escaped with a point on a night dominated for the most part by Thomas Tuchel’s Blues.

Marcos Alonso’s volley was the only goal wasteful Chelsea managed against United’s porous defence and that was cancelled out two minutes later as star man Ronaldo struck to seal a 1-1 draw.

The build-up was dominated by news that Rangnick was considering taking over as Austria manager and protests against the Glazer family’s ownership at a second-straight home match.

‘Glazers out’ read a banner above the tunnel before kick-off at Old Trafford, where a mixture of David De Gea’s saves and poor-decision making meant Chelsea failed to turn their 11 shots into a deserved lead.

Tuchel’s men finally broke the deadlock when Alonso volleyed home in the 60th minute but it did not kick open the floodgates. Instead, former Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic’s clipped ball put Ronaldo through to equalise.

Outstanding Reece James struck the post in the closing stages but United, without eight players on Thursday, somehow ended Chelsea’s club record run of eight-successive away wins in all competitions.

It was one-way traffic in the first half, with James stinging De Gea’s palms from 20 yards before slipping in Timo Werner to get away a low shot on goal.

United managed to avoid conceding inside the opening five minutes in a third-successive match, but the space Chelsea continued to find was alarming.

Kai Havertz directed the ball wide after