Manchester United have insured that they have kept the pressure on Manchester City after beating Swansea 1-0 at the Liberty Stadium this evening. City had gone eight points clear of United after beating Newcastle 3-1 earlier on in the day.

Javier Hernandez scored the only goal of the game only 11 minutes in after an error by Angel Rangel let in Ryan Giggs, the Welshman’s ball into the area was tapped in by the Mexican striker from five yards out.

A horrific miss from Scott Sinclair should have meant that the hosts were on equal terms. Wayne Routledge crossed the ball, which deflected off Michael Carrick and straight into the path of Sinclair was six yards out and had an open goal to aim for but he fluffed his effort and the ball was cleared away.

Giggs came close from a free-kick with 10 minutes of the first half remaining. Man United had another opportunity just before half time but unfortunately Hernandez was unable to find Wayne Rooney and the chance went.

Second half saw Sir Alex Ferguson make a forced substitution. Patrice Evra picked up a yellow card and had been struggling, the manager wasn’t going to take any chances so Fabio Da Silva replaced him.

It was the Swans who had the better start to the second half. Swansea had a corner after the ball had been cleared away by Nemanja Vidic. Mark Gower hit the ball towards the far post, Garry Monk’s header at goal was cleared by Vidic.

Wayne Rooney hit a speculative effort with 20 minutes remaining but Michael Vorm was able to collect his long range strike. After that, pressure grew on the United goal in the remaining 20 minutes.

The home side were awarded a free-kick after a foul from Fabio. Gower took the free-kick, United didn’t clear and after a couple of seconds of choas in the penalty area, the ball fell to Danny Graham who shot but the ball was blocked and finally cleared away from danger.

Darren Fletcher came on for Ryan Giggs in the final 15 minutes, his first contribution to the game was to find Luis Nani, the Portuguese winger tried to find Phil Jones but his pass went behind for a goal kick.

Man United’s final substitution of the game was to bring Antonio Valencia on for the goal scorer Hernandez with five minutes left of play. The final few minutes saw Rooney through on goal but he was only able to chip the ball onto the roof of the net, Jones had a low shot hit the post and rebound to safety and Nani curled the ball wide of the post.