Ex-Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho ready to return to football

Diego Costa’s stoppage-time goal negated a second-half strike from Jesse Lingard as Chelsea and Man United played to a 1-1 draw.

But they gained a point on fourth-placed Manchester City, who lost to Leicester, and now trail their local rivals, who occupy the last Champions League qualifying spot, by six points.

Van Gaal cannot possibly be so naive to think that United would not tap up a prospective manager in the current climate, but he also can’t admit publicly that he fears that is the scenario otherwise his legitimacy as United manager would be undermined among fans and the players.

“I never had doubts but it is still remarkable that after the four defeats in a row we have started to win”.

Louis van Gaal was left deeply frustrated after his Manchester United team allowed Chelsea to score a late equaliser as the two teams played to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. The state in which he left Chelsea will not have enthused the United hierarchy however, with United in need of a rebuild and restructuring itself despite spending $400m+ under the Dutch manager.

“We were slow out the blocks today, which is unlike us”, said beaten manager Eddie Howe, whose side remain five points above the relegation zone.

Costa and Nemanja Matic threatened with headers, the latter obliging De Gea to leap to his right and save, while Costa drilled a shot across goal and wide from Oscar’s pass.

The Chelsea defender’s partner will have looked on with concern after her husband had to be substituted in the second half at Stamford Bridge and was carried off on a stretcher after suffering a painful-looking knee injury.

“John could tip the balance in the Premier League title race for one of those sides”, said Redknapp.

“I can not believe John Terry won’t be there next year”, said the Sky Sports pundit.

The 21-year-old France global screamed in agony after landing awkwardly following an aerial challenge and following four minutes’ treatment he was stretchered off, with Gary Cahill coming on.

“It was hard to win because two monsters are together, but it was easy to win matches”.

Until the last quarter we played very well and could have scored more goals.

Chelsea wanted a penalty as the first half came to a close and it looked a decent shout as Daley Blind appeared to use an arm to block John Terry’s shot. I can have everything together and I don’t need to give up on one of them. “But you have to control the game better and we did not do that”, he told reporters.