Luke Shaw believes the 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Old Trafford is “huge result” for Manchester United, describing Chelsea as their toughest challenge of the season.
Robin van Persie’s equaliser in the fourth minute of added time answered Didier Drogba’s strike to claim the point for United. Shaw said: “It’s a huge result for us when you look back at the game maybe we could have got more than one point but end of day never gave up showed that today but we know if we took our chances maybe it could have been three.
“We know what Chelsea are about and when they went 1-0 up they didn’t lose shape and they kept pressing. We found that hard at times but in the end we got that chance and we took it.”
Shaw said José Mourinho’s team proved United’s sternest challenge yet. “It was our toughest test so far and we know what José is like,” the left-back said. “He drills his team into sort of a shape and that shape sometimes you cant break it down but I am happy with the goal at the end but we could have got more.”
Shaw praised David De Gea’s display. “If you look at David’s save just before their goal, it was a world-class stop and I think, in the past few weeks, with what he has been doing, it’s amazing to see him come into form like this now.”
He also pointed out how Thibaut Cortois kept Chelsea in the match. “We’ve seen what Courtois has done in the past six months, not just for Chelsea but before that [with Atlético] so we know what his qualities are and he’s proved to be a great buy for them. We had a lot of chances and, with him in goal, he helped them a lot. Robin had a few and I think it might have been Adnan [Januzaj] who had a shot as well. There were those chances but he’s a world-class goalie and he helped them a lot.”
Regarding how Old Trafford reacted when Van Persie’s late goal – his third of the season – went in, Shaw added: “It’s a feeling I’ve never felt before. The whole crowd got up and you saw how much it meant to all of us. We all jumped on each other. It was crazy, the fans, the stadium sort of erupted. It was a great feeling and I was proud to be involved in that. We spoke in the dressing room and we knew we could have got three points with the chances we had and maybe we could have done a bit better on their goal. But that’s football at the end of the day.”
After an injury hampered start to his United career the 19-year-old believes he is finally settling in. “Definitely, it’s always hard at the start but I felt really good,” he said. “I felt fit and strong so hopefully now I can get a run of games and keep improving and keep getting my fitness up.”
