Match Review: Crystal Palace vs Manchester United

Manchester United kept within touching distance of Leicester and Chelsea in the race for top four, after a 2-0 win against Crystal Palace.

It wasn’t an easy game for United with a Palace side with something to prove after five defeats on the bounce before their encounter with the Ole’s side. Added to this, was the pressure of Leicester securing a victory over Sheffield United earlier in the day. 

Crystal Palace has numerous chances in the first half and were quite frankly very unlucky throughout the game with a handful of VAR decisions going against them. The most noteworthy was Victor Lindelof’s challenge on Wilfred Zaha that arguably should have been given as a penalty. The centre back tackled the Englishman from behind catching both the ball and his ankles at the same time, but VAR deemed it not clear and obvious in terms of the error, so Palace were not awarded the spot kick.

Minutes later, United went one up after a brilliant bit of football despite a lacklustre first half performance. Marcus Rashford started the build up in his own half and the move involved Portuguese starlet Bruno Fernandes, which led to the Englishman finishing the move off. 

In the fifty fifth minute of the game, Palace thought they’d managed to grab the equaliser as Jordan Ayew finished for the Eagles. However, this goal was ruled out for offside by the finest of margins, when it was reviewed by VAR.

Anthony Martial bagged the winner for United in the seventh eighth minute for the Reds with another great bit of football from Ole’s side. 

The win extended United’s undefeated run to nineteen games in all competitions, which could be a part of a great end to the season for them. They were far from at their best against palace and were very thankful for their goalkeeper David De Gea as there were numerous points in the game he kept his side in it, however a win is a win and at this late point in the season, the three points is all that matters. 

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