Draw with Chelsea was Man United's best performance of the season, says Gary Neville

Reliant on Robin: Van Persie rescues Manchester United a point against Chelsea

Gary Neville says Manchester United have stepped up a level and had their best performance of the season in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea.

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A red card for Branislav Ivanovic rallied United in the final minutes of the game and Robin van Persie secured a point for the home side when he scored from a close-range shot in the final minute of added time. Didier Drogba had opened the scoring for Chelsea in the 53rd minute after some poor defending let the veteran striker have a clear header at the near post.

It was a much improved outing by Louis van Gaal's side, who now look ahead to a derby match against Manchester City next Sunday. Sky Sports expert Gary Neville was impressed with his former club's performance against the Premier League leaders but says they must continue to build.

The Super Sunday panel believe Manchester United's performance against Chelsea was a vast improvement The Super Sunday panel believe Manchester United's performance against Chelsea was a vast improvement

"It’s a big goal for United," Neville told Super Sunday.

"They’d have been deflated – because they did play well in the game – to come out and lose. It will feel like a win.

"The performance level, forget the result, but the performance level was a higher level than Manchester United have produced all season against an excellent team; the best team in the league.

"They had to step up a level today and they did. I thought they were fantastic in the first half and they genuinely caused Chelsea problems."

Improvement

Louis van Gaal says his United side need to be more clinical but praised their improved performance Louis van Gaal says his United side need to be more clinical but praised their improved performance

The draw puts United on 12 points and only four away from the Champions League qualifying spots, but Neville insists that despite the improvement, there's still plenty to work on.

"The only disappointment today was the star player [Angel] Di Maria – he was the only one that probably dipped below the level he has been, the rest of them were fantastic.

"[Adnan] Januzaj was better than Monday night, [Luke] Shaw was better than Monday night – it was a step up today and they’re going to have to step up again this week because playing at the Etihad is going to be a different game to this today.

"They’re going to have to get better and better and keep improving.

"They needed that goal at the end to get that reward for a better performance. I know he [Van Gaal] says they could have won but they also could have easily have lost – Chelsea looked like they were seeing that game out quite comfortably.

"If you’d have said to a United fan before the game, 'you’ll get a point here today', I think they would have snapped your hand off. If you’d have said, 'you’ll get a point and you’ll have that level of performance' - that’s a win win.

"Today they can be happy but next week they’re going to have to step it up again."

Reliant Robin

Van Persie's last-gasp goal rescued United from a second defeat at Old Trafford this season and Neville believes the Dutch striker benefitted from the absence of Wayne Rooney and Radamel Falcao.

"Van Persie has benefitted today from Rooney and Falcao not being available.

"Probably after 50-65 minutes he would have been pulled off. The fact that he’s actually been allowed to play 90minutes and the chance has come very late for him – he might not have had that chance if the others were fit.

"I’ve never seen Chelsea as spread and as split in midfield with the space and pathways through to Van Persie. [Juan] Mata and [Marouane] Fellaini did really well in those positions, I thought the defence got back quickly as soon as they gave the ball away, Van Persie looked livelier than he has done.”