Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Crystal Palace (Premier League)

Manchester United fail to rise to second in the Premier League table with a tight 1-1 against Crystal Palace.

Manchester United sported a new striker for the evening, with fresh recruit Wout Weghorst donning the No.27 jersey in the absence of United’s No.9, Anthony Martial.

It was immediately clear that Erik ten Hag wanted the Dutch striker to get involved, with both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Casemiro trying to find Weghorst in the opening minutes with crosses that were blocked or otherwise well defended.

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The opening 10 minutes saw a few half chances for both sides, with all players getting a fair amount of space as the game got off to a fast started.

Just before the 10 minute mark, a beautiful layoff from Weghorst sent Bruno Fernandes flying down the left wing, and his outside-the-boot cross could not find Antony, who was flying in to try and get any sort of connection on the ball. It was an encouraging opening sign none the less.

The fast start of the fixture was broken up via an injury to Lisandro Martinez, who was elbowed in the jaw by Jean-Philippe Mateta, who was then sporting a black bandage on his head and was deemed fit to continue by the medical staff.

After Martinez’s injury, there was a definite lull in the intensity of the fixture, with the only highlight between that an the 30-minute mark was a header Weghorst sent looping just over the bar.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, David de Gea was forced to make an absolutely stunning save to deny Odsonne Édouard, which set the game to light with Antony steaming down the right to win United a corner barely a minute later.

And it was this fire that gave United the lead, with a calm and composed Fernandes curling the ball in after Marcus Rashford’s lovely pass to Christian Eriksen, who cut the ball back to the edge of the area from the left hand side to hand Fernandes his chance just before half time.

Crystal Palace certainly started the fixture will more urgency surrounding their play, however the fixture continued to be a fairly dull and uninspiring afffair during the third quarter of the 90 minutes.

Antony and Weghorst made way for Alejandro Garnacho and Scott McTominay on around 70 minutes, with Ten Hag no doubt looking to inject some pace to United’s attack and security to United’s lead.

One massive negative from United’s perspective is the yellow card Casemiro received with just 10 minutes to go. As he has now accumulated five yellow cards, he will miss United’s incredibly important fixture away to Arsenal this weekend.

Fred joined in on the action to replace Eriksen with the clock counting towards the end, however a stunning free kick from Olise in the dying moments meant the points were shared in London, with United’s winning run coming to an end.