Fernando Torres wished the Old Trafford pitch would have opened up and swallowed him whole.

With eight minutes left on the clock, plus injuries time, the under fire striker had a chance to bring Chelsea within one goal of Manchester United.

He rounded goalkeeper David De Gea and with an open net at his mercy and just a few yards out, somehow Torres managed to put his effort wide.

A delicate chip early from the Spaniard will have been forgotten after this, probably the worst miss in Premiership history.

The game finished 3-1 to United who extend their lead at the top of the Premier League, after neighbours City dropped points at Fulham who came from two goals down to draw 2-2.

But it was a bad day at the office for Liverpool who went down 4-0 against a rampant Tottenham.

Goals from Luka Modric, Emmanuel Adebayor (2) and Jermain Defoe saw off the Reds who had Charlie Adams and Martin Skrtel dismissed.

“We started the game short of the level we have been at recently.

“They started better than us and Modric scores a great goal to put them one in front. Then Daniel Agger gets injured in the process of trying to make the tackle, but it’s a great finish.

“That was the start of our downfall. We started poorly and they began better than us, despite the other incidents which are best left unanswered. We can look at ourselves and the start we had in the game because that dictated what was going to happen to us
“I think Tottenham started really well and played really well. It’s best that we stick to what we can dictate the future of and that is playing football. We cannot legislate for results.

“We also want to be respectful to Tottenham who played particularly well.”

Sunderland beat Stoke by the same scoreline completing Sunday’s fixtures.

On Saturday two own goals from Arsenal saw them lose away at bottom of the league Blackburn Rovers 4-3, Norwich beat Bolton 2-1 and Everton beat Wigan 3-1.

Swansea and QPR both put three past West Brom and Wolverhampton without reply.