Manchester United -v- Crystal Palace
Premier League
Old Trafford, Manchester
Saturday 24 August 2019, KO 15:00 BST
Referee: Paul Tierney Assistants: Eddie Smart; Adrian Holmes Fourth Official: Mike Dean
VAR: Craig Pawson Assistant VAR: Dan Robathan
Manchester United will host Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon in the Premier League. It will be the first traditional 3 pm kickoff for United this season. The sixth match last season was played at this time. These matches are not shown live on television in the United Kingdom. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be seeking to continue his good start.
Roy Hodgson has not been successful so far this season and will be looking for a reaction from his squad. It will be tough for them to get a result at Old Trafford, knowing that they have travelled to the stadium six times without a result since last winning a match there in November 2011 in the League Cup. That will only make it tougher for them.
Form: United unbeaten this season with Palace seeking their first win of the Premier League season after poor pre-season campaign.
Manchester United: DWWWWW
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 D, Chelsea 4-0 W, AC Milan 2-2 (5-4 on penalties) W, Kristiansund 1-0 W, Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 W, Inter Milan 1-0 W
Crystal Palace: LDLDWL
Sheffield United 1-0 L, Everton 0-0 D, Hertha Berlin 4-0 L, AFC Wimbledon 2-2 D, Bristol City 5-0 W, Bromley 1-0 L
Top Scorers: United has scored five competitive goals so far this season with Palace yet to score in the season proper after a poor start.
Manchester United: Despite winning all six pre-season matches, the competitive season for United started last weekend with a 4-0 victory over Chelsea. The goals scored in pre-season are no longer counted with the season now in full effect.
Goals: 2 – Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, 1 – Daniel James
Assists: 2 – Paul Pogba, 1 – Andreas Pereira, Marcus Rashford
United started the 2019/20 season magnificently last weekend by beating Frank Lampard’s Chelsea 4-0 at Old Trafford. In their second match of the season, United visited the Molineux once again, the third visit of 2019. After two 2-1 defeats, it was down to United to change that. It was a result at 1-1 although Paul Pogba had a penalty saved in the match.
Crystal Palace: Hodgson’s side has not yet scored a goal in a competitive match this season so the goal stated below have come in the four pre-season matches played before their Premier League opener against Everton, a 0-0 draw and the 1-0 defeat away to Sheffield United.
Goals: 2 – Brandon Pierrick, 1 – Andros Townsend, Christian Benteke, Connor Wickham, Jeffrey Schlupp, Max Meyer
Assists: 1 – Connor Wickham, David Boateng, James McArthur, Luka Milivojevic, Max Meyer
Palace has started the season poorly with a 0-0 draw at home to Everton on the opening weekend of the Premier League season, a match which saw Everton down to ten men for the final 14 minutes as Morgan Schneiderlin was booked for the second time. Last weekend, a 1-0 defeat away to Sheffield United continued a poor start for Hodgson’s side.
Team News: United nearly at full strength to face Palace on Saturday; Zaha could feature against his
Solskjaer will be without both Eric Bailly and Tim Fosu-Mensah for the visit of Palace and so far has no new injury concerns to deal with. With a match each week before the first international break of the season, there is ample time for players to rest between matches. The Norwegian may rotate players but I would not expect wholesale changes. Daniel James might lose his place with Mason Greenwood getting an opportunity.
Wilfried Zaha is likely to start against his former club on Saturday with Palace seeking a first win of the Premier League season. Mamadou Sakho might be back in contention to face United after sitting out the end of last season whilst James Tomkins has not played in any pre-season matches yet and is not fully fit to play for his club. James McCarthy, Gary Cahill and Victor Camarasa could all feature against United.
Predicted Starting XI: A strong United squad with a mixture of youth and experience, added to the confidence built this summer could prove too much for Palace.
I don’t expect many changes to the squad which has beaten Chelsea and drawn against Wolves this season. David De Gea and the back four; Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw will remain the same. The midfield; Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba should stay the same too. Anthony Martial will again lead the line, supporter by Marcus Rashford, Angel Gomes and Mason Greenwood. In my opinion anyway.
Match Prediction: Palace not in great form against United since last beating them in 2011; losing 11 and drawing twice in 13 matches.
United has played Palace 55 times with United winning 37 matches, drawing 11 and losing seven times. Palace last defeated United in the League Cup back in 2011 – a match which directed Sir Alex Ferguson to sign Wilfried Zaha. 13 matches played
Manchester United 3-0 Crystal Palace
