Bolton 1 Manchester United 1
Manchester United salvaged a point from what seemed a certain defeat at Bolton this afternoon when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored in the last minute to secure a 1-1 draw at the Reebok Stadium.
The Norwegian forced home a David Beckham cross to give United a point with just 15 seconds of normal time remaining after a vastly superior Bolton had taken the lead when defender Bruno N'Gotty headed home a Youri Djorkaeff free kick after 61 minutes.
That appeared to have earned Bolton three well-deserved points, until Solskjaer's late strike. But despite the point, United's title hopes took a hit.
A win for them and a defeat for Arsenal at Manchester City later today would have put United level with Arsenal on points at the top of the table, but United could now finish the day five points behind the champions.
Before the afternoon matches, Arsenal topped the table with 57 points from 27 matches, followed by United with 55 from 28.
Bolton, who would have completed a home-and-away league double over United after winning 1-0 at Old Trafford in September, moved five points clear of the relegation zone with 26 points from their 28 matches.
Although United beat Juventus in the Champions League in midweek, Saturday's draw completes an otherwise miserable few days for the club.
They were knocked out of the FA Cup by Arsenal last weekend and then became embroiled in two controversies involving manager Alex Ferguson who kicked a football boot into star midfielder David Beckham's face after the Arsenal game and then claimed in an interview that United had agreed a deal with England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to replace him a year ago when he was considering retirement.