Manchester United Face Stern Test at Crystal Palace | OneFootball

Manchester United travel to London looking to return to winning ways when they take on high-flying Crystal Palace, with both sides coming into this match off the back of defeats.

United’s Prospects

United’s five-match unbeaten run, the longest under Ruben Amorim to date, came to an end last weekend as they fell to a 1-0 defeat to ten-man Everton. They come into this fixture in tenth place in the Premier League table, five places and two points behind their opponents.

The record Premier League winners have a very poor recent history in the capital, north or south of the Thames, having won just three of their last 26 away games in London. Sixteen of those losses have come since April 2023. It is something the 40-year-old Portuguese coach is looking to put right.

“It’s hard to point one thing why we are not winning away. There’s a lot of issues. We are improving. We have an advantage in the away games. But we need to know how to finish the games in order to win.”

With no European football to contend with this campaign after their disastrous 2024-25 season, the Red Devils are at an advantage by having just one match a week. But for Amorim, playing in Europe was and will continue to be on his mind.

“So in our club, there is no excuses. About Europe, I already talked about Europe. And I said the same thing last year when we were in Europe, and I said the same thing this year, the advantage and the disadvantage of not being in Europe. So there is no excuses. Last year or this year, we have always to win games.”

Eagles Flying High

Palace will be looking to bounce back from a difficult evening in the Conference League. On Thursday, they suffered a costly 2-1 defeat to Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg, missing two open goals in the process. Despite a summer of transfer ambiguity, and a mixed start to life in European football, the Eagles have excelled in the top flight so far under Oliver Glasner. They sit in fifth place on 20 points and are punching above their weight with their dynamic Austrian head coach. 

It will not be an easy task to break down the south Londoners’ defence, with their total of nine league goals conceded only bettered by league leaders Arsenal’s six.

Palace have also had a very good recent record against United, having won three of their last four league games, as many as they had in their previous 30. The Red Devils have also failed to score in each of their last four Premier League games against the Eagles; only against Blackburn (1920-1922) and Everton (1971-1973) have they ever failed to score in five consecutive league games.

Palace Resilient

Despite the disappointment in France, Glasner says his side have to take the defeat on the chin and go again in the league.

“I don’t think [it’s the most disappointed] since I’ve been here, but definitely this season a little bit. Maybe like the late defeat at Everton, it just feels that it was completely unnecessary and it’s our fault. On the other side, we have to accept it, the effort was there, but it’s a game we definitely shouldn’t lose, at least getting a goal, but like always, we try to learn from it.

“I am really looking forward to this game. They [United] are doing well, I think we are doing well and also [after Thursday’s] defeat, we won’t lose our minds. It is just now, again, finding the right tweaks where we can adjust with no time for training.”