Manchester United are on a roll and they do not want it to end any time soon. Erik Ten Hag’s team is getting past their opponents, counting wins with every passing match and now it is time for the Red Devils to make their first trip of 2023. The destination is London, where they will face Crystal Palace in yet another Premier League encounter. After beating Manchester City last weekend, there is not a lot of time to rest and a potential win could see Ten Hag’s team jump into the second place, behind only Arsenal, although with an extra game played than City.
Team News
Patrick Vieira will be without James McArthurt and Nathan Ferguson, while Joachim Andersen could miss out the match after the centre-back had some calf problems in the match against Chelsea. Apart from that, the situation is pretty clear for Palace who will once again be led by former Man United player Wilfried Zaha. He has a good record against the Red Devils, since he already scored three goals against his former team.
Things for Man United and their personnel are different. Donny van de Beek and Axel Tuanzebe are out due to their long-term injuries, while Jadon Sancho is expected to stay out of contention since he has not trained with the first team for a while now, working on his fitness levels. Diogo Dalot is a doubt due to his hamstring injury, while Anthony Martial had to come off in the match against City. It was not clear what was the problem, but it remains to be seen if he will be able to return to the starting lineup. We could see Wout Weghorst make his full debut for Man United since arriving on loan, too.
Form Guide
What can we say about Manchester United’s form which has not been said in the past couple of weeks. The winning streak continued last weekend, with a brilliant 2-1 win in the Manchester Derby against Pep Guardiola’s City. Now Erik Ten Hag’s team will want to continue that at Selhurst Park. The streak is now nine consecutive wins long, and it amounts to 12 wins in the last 13 matches. However, United’s match against Palace will be the first away game in 2023, since they played their last four matches at Old Trafford, scoring 11 goals and conceding just twice.
As for Palace, they could not have been in more different form to United’s. The London-based side won only one match in their last five, losing the other four. On Boxing Day, they lost 3-0 at home to Fulham, before beating Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium. But then came two more home losses, 4-0 to Spurs and 2-1 to Southampton. Granted, their run of matches has not been easy, as last weekend they lost to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge 1-0. Palace are safe in 12th place with 22 points, six behind 10th-placed Chelsea and five ahead of Leeds, who are in 14th.
Predicted Outcome
Considering their brilliant form, we predict Manchester United will beat Crystal Palace 2-1. This will not be an easy affair, it was not the last time United faced someone outside of Old Trafford (1-0 win against Wolves), but the Devils should have enough about them to see off Palace in this hectic run of matches.
Leave a Reply