Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca praises Man Utd's unexpected aggression

Despite the plaudits, it was Chelsea who came away with the points, courtesy of a rare headed goal from Marc Cucurella. The Spanish full-back rose to meet a corner in the first half, scoring what proved to be the only goal of the match.

Manchester United believed they had equalised when Harry Maguire found the net, but the goal was ruled out by VAR for a marginal offside, adding to their mounting frustrations.

This defeat marks United's 18th in the Premier League this season - a sobering statistic for a club of their stature.

"It's very important at this stage of the season to win games," Maresca told journalists.

"We also paid attention in the way we won the game. I think tonight we struggled with the ball, because we didn't expect them to be so aggressive man-to-man. I usually watch five or six games of the other team.

"And I've never seen them so aggressive man-to-man. They surprised us a little bit on that. But I think between first-half and second-half, we created enough chances to deserve to win the game."

He added: "I expected a very tough game and the reason I was so happy because we beat a team that against Arsenal, Liverpool, City, was hard to beat them."