Manchester United and ETH’s winning run came to an end when Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise’s bending effort from a free kick dented top 2 hopes for United last night at Selhurst Park. Palace made it one each in the 91st minute in the stoppage time. Thus the 10-match winning streak couldn’t be continued by Ten Hag.
In the 44th minute, Bruno Fernandes gave United the lead. It was again wonderful build-up play where Eriksen and Rashford were involved. Fernandes lashed the ball in with a superb strike well inside the penalty box.
Our record against Crystal Palace is not that great either in the last 6 meetings and thus it ended in the same manner yesterday.
Here are the 5 things we learned from the match.
1. Bruno Fernandes is back on the scoring sheet for Manchester United.
His goal drought finally ended when he scored on the weekend in the Manchester derby. But scoring in the back-to-back games was such a soothing thing to watch when his clinical finish found the back of the net against Palace.
Prior to tonight’s clash, the former Sporting Lisbon captain had not registered a goal or an assist in four meetings against the Eagles.
2. Casemiro is suspended for the Arsenal game.
Erik Ten Hag played a gamble with Casemiro. The 5 times UCL champion will miss the next match against the Gunners as he picked up a yellow card on the brink of his substitution in the 80th minute. This could be a major blow in the central defensive area.
He was solid in the midfield once again, when everyone was out of their position Casemiro was always there to cover up the space in no time.
This shows how important he is to the squad. But he could have been the winner for Manchester United in the last few seconds left to be played. He completely misjudged the ball from the corner.
3. Rashford’s greediness cost us the 3 points.
There were two or three occasions where Rashford could’ve easily passed on the ball to his teammates or could’ve kept the ball in the play rather than shooting from an improbable range. He was in hunger to score in the 8th consecutive match across all competitions.
4. De Gea was in stupendous form once again for Manchester United.
He played extraordinarily well that one couldn’t even imagine in their wildest dreams. The two most crucial saves that he made simply proved why he should be the number one still now for Manchester United. The first atrocious stop that he made was Edouard’s brilliant effort. That could’ve been a sure-shot goal if the timing of the jump was not correct.
But in the end, Olise had the last laugh when he equalised in the stoppage time thus the Spaniard International failed to keep his 9th clean sheet intact.
5. Wout Weghorst’s debut wasn’t a bad one either.
New signing Weghorst who is on a loan from Burnley started for United. He had a few good touches and one or two beautiful runs. But at the same, we can’t expect someone like him to be on the scoresheet. It also takes time for a new player to adapt to the PL condition. He started in place of the injured Martial.
