Marcus Rashford races through (Getty)

Manchester United simultaneously blew open the title race and proved they remain a force to be reckoned with as they beat league leaders Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday.

With Tottenham having closed the gap at the top to four points with their win over Bournemouth on Saturday, the pressure was on for Chelsea in this game.

But where they excelled under similar circumstances against Man City recently, they floundered against their former manager Jose Mourinho.

That owed to a superb performance from the hosts, both tactically and individually.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was rested and in his place in a central role Marcus Rashford excelled. It was the teenager who opened the scoring in the seventh minute and he caused Chelsea’s backline – missing Marcos Alonso due to an illness picked up in the warm-up – problems all afternoon.

Rashford scores the opening goal (Getty)
Rashford celebrates his goal (Getty)

His early strike came from a sublime pass by Ander Herrera, which perhaps shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.

Chelsea were kept quiet in the first period with Eden Hazard nullified by Herrera and Diego Costa growing increasingly frustrated.

With most expecting a response from Chelsea in the second period, Manchester United managed to strike early again with Herrera smashing a deflected shot past Asmir Begovic, who came in for the injured Thibaut Courtois.  In a show off how much this was an off day for Chelsea it was N’Golo Kante who surrendered possession to Ashley Young who then provided the assist.

Gary Cahill didn’t cover himself in glory in the build-up either.

Ander Herrera scores the second (Getty)
Ashley Young and Eric Bailly congratulate Herrera (Getty)

Chelsea offered few glimmers of producing a comeback on an afternoon when their title push took a big hit and Manchester United’s top four ambitions were given a shot in the arm.

So who impressed – and who didn’t?

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