MUFC Logo

 

 

Crystal Palace vs Manchester United: preview

 

?Crystal Palace v Manchester United

Source. www.flickr.com

Crystal Palace

The Eagles are having a hard time while their heart, motor and main striker Wilfried Zaha is still injured. He won’t be ready for the Wednesday game and his absence was felt at last Sunday's clash with Fulham, which ended with a disappointing 0-0.

From the last season Crystal Palace had high expectations, but until now they hasn’t solved the main problem with consistency, which is the main element when a team fights for a place in Europa League, notes the expert on bookmaker-ratings.com, and adds that London team is currently only ten points from relegation positions.

But it’s not all doom and gloom for The Eagles. The team is using created moments quite well, judging by the expected points table, where Fulham got 6 points more than they could’ve, based on scoring chances (xG) they created and conceded in all games until February 25th. Plus good news from physio might inspire the squad a bit: Jeffrey Schlupp and Connor Wickham are fit to play, according to Roy Hodgson.

Manchester United

Manchester United is off something unfamiliar for this season, which are two consecutive goalless draw games - with Real Sociedad at Europa League and Chelsea at Premier League - and last one took a lot of energy from Ole Gunnar Solskjær squad. Daniel James,  Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Bruno Fernandes created pressure without the ball to help defence and changed attacking positions to confuse opponents while trying to create scoring opportunities.

In the light of these facts and knowing that the match will be in midweek we might see some changes in the starting squad. It’s well known that Edinson Cavani is fit to play, while Paul Pogba is still missing from the squad. But the Manchester Derby is this Sunday, so Solskjær might keep Uruguayan striker until the big game, or use him as a substitute, so the player can get in shape faster after the injury. We might see Antony Martial, who can get a chance for his 17th match in the starting eleven this season to better his stats of 4 goals and 5 assists.

The most important statistics would be that Manchester United is the third best team in away games, in which they never lost this season. Crystal Palace, on the other hand, conceded at least once in four of their five last games. The goal difference for the last five games for the teams are: Manchester United 16 to 5 (for and against), Crystal Palace 4 to 7 (for and against)

Crystal Palace vs Manchester United expectations:

The favourite in this game is obvious, it’s Manchester United, while Crystal Palace previously lost two games with similarly matched opposition as Red Devils. But due to possible changes in the squad The Eagles might score a goal.
 
West Cumbria Reds Branch Flag.......as seen behind the Stretford End @ all Home games
MUFCINFO.com is not an official Manchester United website.
All pages are designed, maintained and copyright © Mark Graham.
Email: mufcinfo@sky.com