Man Utd seal third place after five-goal thriller

Manchester United clinched third spot in the Premier League with a game to spare after defeating Nottingham Forest 3-2 at Old Trafford.

Fixture: Manchester United vs Nottingham ForestScore: 3-2Goalscorers: Shaw (5'), Cunha (55'), Mbeumo (76')/ Morato (53'), Gibbs-White (78')

After seeing their four-match winning run scrapped at Sunderland, the Red Devils were poised for maximum points in their final home game of the season as Forest targeted successive victories at United to extend their unbeaten run in the league.

The home team made the ideal start four minutes gone when Bruno Fernandes worked a move right of the area and crossed to the back-post for Luke Shaw to bring the delivery under control to slot in the bottom-corner.

Forest went close to drawing level ten minutes later after a thread through the area released Morgan Gibbs-White who dropped a shoulder to the near side to unleash a shot, but Senne Lammens was equal to the task, before Bryan Mbeumo carved out a move to get goal-side only to see his shot arrowed off the face of the upright minutes later.

The Red Devils lead ended in the 52nd minute after a curling cross from the right by Elliot Anderson picked out Morato and the Brazilian headed past a rooted Lammens with no offside called by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).

However, the host restored the lead two minutes later when a loose ball following a ricochet shot by Mbeumo landed perfectly for Matheus Cunha to curl in the bottom-corner as the referee awarded the strike after consulting VAR.

The Red Devils were completely on the up from this point on in the match and were in for a third goal through a left-footed strike edge of the area by Amad Diallo, but a solid near post save by Matz Sels denied him.

Sels was beaten though within the closing 15 minutes after a well-worked low cross from the right by Fernandes picked out Mbeumo who opened up his body and tucked in the net.

Forest refused to throw in the towel and halved the deficit when Gibbs-White came short on the edge of the area and made space for himself to side-footed a delivery from Anderson in the bottom-corner.

In light of it, the English giants still opted to refresh their starting stall ten minutes before time and Mason Mount, Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu came on for Mbeumo, Casemiro and Cunha.

The Red Devils looked to seal victory deep into stoppage time when Diogo Dalot made a forward run to the area and picked up a loose ball from Fernandes to come inside on the near side but he fired against the upright, as they had to settle for the 3-2 win.