Manchester United began their campaign on the worst possible note with a shocking 3-1 loss at the hands of Crystal Palace. The Red Devils were far from best as they stuttered across all departments to slump to an embarrassing display at Old Trafford.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer named new signing Donny van de Beek on the bench along with Mason Greenwood and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Crystal Palace capitalised the slow start and lethargic display by the Red Devils to snatch an early lead. Andros Townsend latched on to a low cross by Wilfried Zaha past De Gea to deservedly put the Eagles in front.
With no real urgency presented by the trailing Manchester United, the half finished with the scoreline reading 1-0 in favour of the visitors. Mason Greenwood was brought in right at the start of the second half, in place of Daniel James on the right wing.
Despite boasting the majority of the possession, Manchester United failed to capitalise on it and were caught on the counter attack. The woes for Red Devils continued with Victor Lindelof getting penalised for a handball which resulted in a penalty. The spot-kick was confirmed after referee Martin Atkinson confirmed the call with a look on the pitch side monitor.
Jordan Ayew’s ensuing penalty was saved by De Gea but the Spaniard was off his line and the referee called for yet another penalty. Former Manchester United player Wilfried Zaha converted from the spot this time to give Crystal Palace a 2-0 lead with 20 minutes left to play.
van de Beek’s debut goal in vain as Manchester United slumped drastically
Debutant Donny van de Beek was brought on to replace Paul Pogba in the midfield and instantly made his mark with clever runs. The Dutch midfielder pulled one back for the hosts in the 80th minute.
Victor Lindlof’s horrid day on the pitch continued after a failed clearance was caught by Wilfried Zaha, who proceeded to slam the ball into the back of the net for his second goal of the game.
The 23-year-old midfielder reacted to the loss and lamented the pace of the game with which Manchester United played against Palace. He said:
“First match for the club, a day you want to win. It doesn’t matter how, you want to win and I’m really disappointed that we lost 3-1 at home, that’s really bad.
“In the week of training we did really well, we trained good so my feeling was really positive. But today we played too slowly, too long with the ball and I think against an opponent like Crystal Palace you need to speed up the game to create something. That was not good enough.”
Crystal Palace have had a bright start to the Premier League with two wins out of two.
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