Manchester United vs Crystal Palace Preview: Team stats, analysis and predictions

Manchester United kick starts their Premier League campaign on Saturday evening when they entertain Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.

United didn’t play on the opening of the weekend of the 2020/21 Premier League due to their involvement in the Europa League last season. Meanwhile, their manager, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, has reiterated that it is vital for his side to hit the ground running.

Manchester United won their opening match last season 4-0 against Chelsea but they lost their next three games, including this similar fixture today.

Crystal Palace stole a 2-1 win against United at Old Trafford last season and would be looking to replicate the same event this afternoon.

Palace already won their first game of the season courtesy of a lone Wilfried Zaha strike against Southampton.

Team News

Manchester United could hand Donny van de Beek his Manchester United debut in their Premier League season opener against Crystal Palace. The Holland international looks poised to play a part on Saturday evening.

Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also confirmed that Paul Pogba who tested positive to coronavirus a few weeks ago would be available, including Luke Shaw who has recovered from an ankle injury.

Phil Jones (knee), Axel Tuanzebe (foot) and Sergio Romero (extended holiday) are unavailable for Solskjaer, who refused to confirm whether Dean Henderson or David de Gea would start in goal.

Crystal Palace boss, Roy Hodgson, is set to name the same side which earned an opening-day victory over Southampton.

The Eagles made 10 changes for the midweek Carabao Cup clash at Bournemouth, with only Jeffrey Schlupp starting from the weekend win, as they looked to avoid any more injuries.

Palace still have Nathan Ferguson (knee), Gary Cahill, James Tomkins (both hamstring), and Patrick van Aanholt (shoulder) sidelined, but Mamadou Sakho, Jairo Riedewald, Christian Benteke, and Connor Wickham have returned to fitness although are not deemed match-fit.

Stats and facts heading into the match (Backed by Opta)

• Manchester United have only lost one of their 22 Premier League meetings with Crystal Palace (W17 D4). However, this defeat came in this exact fixture last season after Patrick van Aanholt became the first (and to date, only) visiting player to score a 90th-minute winner away to Man Utd in the Premier League.
• Crystal Palace have never previously won back-to-back league trips to Manchester United; only six sides have won away at Old Trafford in consecutive Premier League seasons – Man City (three in a row on two occasions), Bolton, Liverpool, Southampton, Tottenham and West Brom.
• Crystal Palace are unbeaten in their last four Premier League away games against the two Manchester sides (W2 D2) – the last side to go five such games unbeaten in the competition were Chelsea between May 2013-October 2014 (W2 D3).
• Manchester United have won their opening Premier League fixture more often than any other side in the competition (19), though this is the first time their season opener has not taken place on the opening weekend.
• Crystal Palace have never started a top-flight campaign with two consecutive victories before, last doing so in any division in the 2006-07 Championship.
• After a run of three home league defeats in five games between April-August 2019 (W1 D1), Manchester United have lost just one of their last 17 Premier League games at Old Trafford (W9 D7).
• Manchester United haven’t lost a Premier League game kicking off at 5.30pm since December 2015 (1-2 vs Bournemouth), winning 13 and drawing five of their 18 such games since then.

Prediction

Manchester United 2 – 1 Crystal Palace