Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace: 3 observations from the game
As the Premier League resumed at Old Trafford, Manchester United left a lot to do after the derby defeat last time out while Palace looked to avoid dropping into the relegation zone. With Luke Shaw injured, Young shifted to the left allowing Darmian to start from the right back position. Wilfried Zaha was back from a hamstring injury to face his old club.
The game started just the way Jose Mourinho wanted, with United on the front foot from the word go. In the quarter of the game, both the sides had some half decent chances to score with Wilfried Zaha coming close to break the deadlock for the visitors.
At the half-hour mark, United had two glorious chances - one from Lingard and then from Martial, but Hennessey was up to his task on both occasions. Late in the first half, Palace put the ball at the back of the net from a free-kick only to be ruled out as offside. It was a real let-off for Jose Mourinho's team.
The onus was on Red Devils to force the issue in the second half. With United pushing high, Lukaku had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside. Palace looked the better team with Townsend coming close to give Roy Hodgson's side the lead in the second half. Zaha was running the show for the Eagles keeping both Smalling and Lindelof modest in defence.
United barraged the Palace defence late in the game with long balls, but the Eagles defended their lines well. It was another frustrating evening for Jose Mourinho who lost further grounds in their title ambition.
Here are the three observations from the game.
#3 Another disappointing first-half performance from United
After the derby defeat, Jose Mourinho expected a much better response from his side today. However, he did get one, but it was just for the first ten minutes of the half. Since then, they allowed Palace to come back into the game with the Eagles creating some decent chances of their own.
Manchester United had all the possession, but it left them vulnerable to counter attacks. Regarding individual performances, both Martial and Pogba were miserable with the latter giving away cheap passes quite often in the first half.
It is becoming a norm that United won't perform their best in the first 45 minutes leaving everything to do in the second half. It comes off sometimes, but most of the times it doesn't.