Stoke force draw to end United's perfect start

Manchester United's perfect start to the season ended with a 2-2 draw at Stoke City, whose battling performance in a seesaw game denied the leaders a fourth successive Premier League victory. Stoke set out to stretch United with long balls wide and took the lead on 43 minutes when Darren Fletcher found Mame Diouf, whose whipped cross was bundled over the line by Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. It was the Cameroonian's first goal for Stoke and the first United had conceded this season.

Manchester United have only won three of their past eight #PremierLeague games against Stoke.https://t.co/HYHJbrHKnr #STKMUN pic.twitter.com/vvCXWilqjg

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) September 9, 2017

United probably spared themselves a halftime dressing down over their poor defending by bouncing back two minutes later with a bizarre equaliser that cannoned into the net off the back of Marcus Rashford's head from Paul Pogba's forceful header.

Hear more from the #MUFC boss following our draw with Stoke... pic.twitter.com/6FwUABGOgz

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 9, 2017

Jose Mourinho's side have shown their resilience by scoring consistently after the break and took the lead on 57 minutes with Romelu Lukaku's fourth league goal of the season. But Stoke would not be beaten and, after Jese had been denied by David de Gea's instinctive save, Choupo-Moting scored his second with a far-post header from a corner.

FT: Stoke 2 #MUFC 2.

A back-and-forth encounter ends even with @MarcusRashford and @RomeluLukaku9 scoring for the Reds. #STKMUN pic.twitter.com/91UGWBE6bv

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 9, 2017

United are now joint leaders with Manchester City on 10 points.RESULTSArsenal 3 (Welbeck 6, 50, Lacazette 27) Bournemouth 0Brighton 3 (Gross 45, 48, Hemed 63) West Brom 1 (Morrison 77)Everton 0 Tottenham 3 (Kane 28, 46, Eriksen 42)Leicester 1 (Vardy 62-pen) Chelsea 2 (Morata 41, Kante 50)Manchester City 5 (Aguero 25, Jesus 45+6, 53, Sane 77, 90) Liverpool 0Southampton 0 Watford 2 (Doucoure 38, Janmaat 66)Stoke 2 (Choupo-Moting 43, 63) Manchester United 2 (Rashford 45+1, Lukaku 57)