Premier League - Owen rescues point for United

Manchester United were held to a 2-2 draw by Bolton Wanderers in an exciting Premier League encounter at the Reebok Stadium.

Zat Knight gave the Trotters an early lead before a brilliant solo effort from Nani got United back on terms on 23 minutes. Martin Petrov  then fired the home side back in front midway through the second half with a sweeping counter-attack move that he had initiated, but Michael Owen rescued a point for the Red Devils with his first touch after coming off the bench.

The result means United move up to second in the league, three points behind leaders Chelsea.

United, looking to take full advantage of defeats suffered by both Chelsea and Arsenal on Saturday, started the brighter, but it was Bolton who opened the scoring.

With Rio Ferdinand again left out of the squad as he nears his return from injury, Jonny Evans continued to partner Nemanja Vidic at centre-back. The Ulsterman has been struggling for form of late, and he was again culpable when he couldn't stop Knight steering a sixth-minute corner into the far bottom corner with the outside of his boot for his first goal since February.

An open and entertaining phase of the match saw Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs force goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen into action, while Johan Elmander just failed to meet Kevin Davies's flick-on with an outstretched boot, enabling Edwin van der Sar to parry.

Nani levelled the score midway through the first half when he picked up the ball in his own half and surged forward. The Portuguese ghosted between Knight and Stuart Holden, past Sam Ricketts and drilled a clinical low drive past Jaaskelainen for his second goal of the campaign.

Wayne Rooney had a tame effort from the edge of the box saved and Vidic sent a header wide from a corner just before the break, but the two sides went into half-time on level terms.

Giggs was replaced by Park Ji-sung early in the second half after picking up a hamstring problem, while Rooney came off on the hour mark for Federico Macheda and had his ankle wrapped in ice.

Soon after Rooney's removal Bolton were back in front. Petrov led the break from a United corner, picked out Lee Chung-yong with a fine crossfield ball and continued his run. Lee played the ball in to Elmander with his back to goal, and the Sweden striker found Petrov again. The Bulgarian cut inside and fired in a shot that deflected off Darren Fletcher and beat Van der Sar for his first Bolton goal.

United, Chelsea and Arsenal had not all lost on the same Premier League weekend since March 1995, and Owen made sure that did not change soon after replacing Fletcher on 71 minutes.

Nani bent in a free-kick from deep on the right and Owen glanced a looping header that went in off the far post for his third goal in a week.

Nani turned swiftly past Lee and flashed a strike wide of the far post, while Elmander did the same at the other end after outpacing Vidic, but the game ended with a third successive home draw for Bolton and a third straight away point for United.