Manchester United remained in touch with the league leaders with a hard fought 1-0 victory away to Stoke City on Boxing Day.

Stoke held out for more than 80 minutes but were unable to prevent Carlos Tevez as the Argentine striker capped his rare start for the club with the winner seven minutes from the final whistle. It was a far from perfect performance from the league champions who looked short of fitness following their Club World Championship victory in Japan.

United received an early blow when Rio Ferdinand was ruled out just before the match with a back injury and was replaced by Jonny Evans. The Northern Ireland defender almost let the hosts take an early lead when his lost Ricardo Fuller but the Stoke striker failed to convert his chance.

The visitors' best chance of the match fell to Nemanja Vidic who narrowly headed a Ryan Giggs corner wide of the target. United stepped up the pressure in the second half with Tevez and Paul Scholes going close to breaking the deadlock but it was Stoke who went close to taking the lead when Danny Pugh missed the target from eight yards out after reaching a Rory Delap throw-in.

The hosts were reduced to 10 men in the 72nd minute when Andy Wilkinson was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Cristiano Ronaldo. United made full use of their numerical superiority by scoring the winner in the 83rd minute when Dimitar Berbatov flicked on the ball for Tevez to convert from close range