MANCHESTER, England -- Three thoughts on Manchester United 1-1 Swansea at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
1. Top for hopes fade as Manchester United held
Manchester United suffered a blow in their bid to finish the season in the top four with another home draw in the Premier League.
Wayne Rooney's penalty at the end of the first half -- his 252nd goal for the club -- gave United the lead before Gylfi Sigurdsson scored a sublime free kick 10 minutes from time to earn a point for Swansea.
It was United's 10th home league draw of the campaign as they missed the chance to go above Liverpool, who face Watford on Monday.
It all came at an added cost for Jose Mourinho, who saw Luke Shaw and Eric Bailly both limp off to further deplete his injury-ravaged squad.
Swansea got what they deserved. They were the better team for much of the first half and only went behind through Rooney's contentious penalty.
In first half stoppage time, Marcus Rashford was played in by Jesse Lingard but there seemed to be minimal contact -- if any -- when he went over a sliding Lukasz Fabianski. Referee Neil Swarbrick took his time to point to the spot to further anger the Swansea players when he did finally signal.
Rooney, starting for just the sixth time in 2017, sent Fabianski the wrong way to score. The United captain might have doubled United's lead early in the second half but his shot hit Anthony Martial on the back when it looked to be heading in.
Swansea's best chances fell to Fernando Llorente and Jordan Ayew when they were to top in the first half and David De Gea had to make two good saves.
But the Spaniard could do nothing about Sigurdsson's free kick after Rooney's foul on Ayew had given him the chance to bend his strike over the wall and into the net from 20 yards.
Llorente might even have won it during six minutes of stoppage time as United were left to rue more injuries and more ground lost in their fight for the top four.
2. Severe injury crisis for Mourinho
Even with Juan Mata returning to the squad, Mourinho still had to pick his team from the only 14 senior outfield players he had available.
And it didn't take long for things to get even worse -- Shaw hobbled off after just seven minutes. It was also a double blow for Mourinho because it also meant a planned rest for Antonio Valencia was cut short.
Mourinho will not be especially pleased the Ecuadorian was needed so early on against Swansea, particularly with the Europa League semifinal first leg against Celta Vigo on Thursday.
To add to the problems, Bailly was forced off in the second half to leave Mourinho without a recognised senior centre-back. Daley Blind and Matteo Darmian ended the game in the centre of defence.
Player fatigue is becoming a big problem, not helped by Mourinho seemingly losing more players which each passing game. United's match against Swansea was their 57th of the season, compared to Swansea's 38th. That's 19 more -- the equivalent of half a Premier League season.
Should United get to the Europa League final in Stockholm next month, they will have another seven games to play.
As Mourinho has said more than once, he needs players back from injury as quickly as possible. He's made no secret of his desire to see Chris Smalling and Phil Jones put their bodies on the line. They will be under even more pressure to return now.
3. Swans show fight in survival bid
There is hope for Swansea
Swansea are still in trouble. Sunderland are already down and it looks like Middlesbrough will join them at some stage. It leaves one more team to go down and it will probably be between Paul Clement's men and Hull.
The 3,000 Swansea fans who made the 500-mile round trip to Manchester will have seen encouraging signs. In the opening stages they were by far the better team. And in the first 20 minutes they had 57 percent of the possession and had five shots to United's one.
It was the type of performance that made you wonder how they were in the bottom three. They wouldn't be had they played like that all season.
They are two points behind Hull with three games to play and face Everton at home, Sunderland away and West Brom at home before the end of the season.
Having two home games is a bonus, while Sunderland have nothing left to play for.
The flip side, though, is that Hull also play two of their last three games at home. And their form at the KCOM Stadium has been superb since Marco Silva took over in January. They have won their last four home games and they will fancy their chances against Sunderland next weekend, too.
Rob is ESPN FC's Manchester United correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @RobDawsonESPN.
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