The Crystal Palace defender netted a humiliating own goal to gift Louis van Gaal’s men an early lead before Matteo Darmian doubled the advantage.
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However, Van Gaal did see England centre forward Wayne Rooney continue his comeback from two months out with a knee injury in a deeper midfield role – a solid 75-minute performance that may have put him in contention for a start in the weekend FA Cup semi-final against Everton.
With the win, United are now just one point behind fourth place Arsenal and two points off Manchester City who are third in the league table. At the end of the season it counts much more.
Martial was causing plenty of problems for Martin Kelly down Palace’s right-hand side, and the 20-year-old forced Speroni into a good save with a curling effort before setting up Wayne Rooney to shoot straight at the goalkeeper. The Togolese global has netted goals for Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Theatre of Dreams earlier in his career.
Contrast that with Everton and there appears to be a clear favourite for the FA Cup semi-final. Adebayor is 14/5 to score anytime and a cool 9/1 to score first.
“One or two changes I will definitely do just to increase the energy”.
It was a first goal for Darmian in United colours, after arriving from Torino in the summer, and it came on the anniversary he shares with his other half. The 0-0 bore draw is priced at 10/1.
The France striker signed autographs for fans at Old Trafford, with the players expected to travel to their team hotel before returning to the stadium prior to kick-off.
United were beaten 3-0 at Tottenham 10 days ago, and could only lurch past now-relegated Aston Villa 1-0 at home at the weekend. You can get odds of 11/2 for a 1-0 home win.
For Crystal Palace, meanwhile, another season of Premier League football seems likely.
“The FA Cup, for Manchester United, is going to be a big, big event – but for us, it is a huge event”, Pardew said. Only Stoke City (37) have scored fewer goals than United (40) in the top ten teams in the Premier League.
United remained dominant but Speroni continued to thwart their chase for a second goal.
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United won’t complain with the relatively easy win.
