Man U vs. Crystal Palace
Venue: Old Trafford
Kick off: 3PM
Manchester United play host to Crystal Palace in their Premier League fixture at Old Trafford knowing that just a point will be enough to take the club back to the top of the standings ahead of Manchester City’s meeting with Chelsea.
As for Crystal Palace, Roy Hodgson faces the task of trying to end a run of six games without a point as they look to improve their chances of avoiding being cut adrift at the bottom of the table.
Jose Mourinho will still be furious with witnessing his team lose a clean sheet in the 90th minute against CSKA Moscow on Wednesday evening but all in all, the Portuguese takes his side into their meeting with Crystal Palace full of smiles.
That has rarely been the case since his arrival at Old Trafford but eight wins from nine games in all competitions has left everyone associated with the club believing that this can finally be the year where they reclaim a place among European football’s elite.
During that period, United have netted 28 goals – a complete turnaround from their struggles last season – and while Romelu Lukaku continues to score at will, much of the attention has been on the rebirth of Anthony Martial.
Meanwhile, Palace have already extended the worst-ever top flight start for a generation to six matches and despite the strength of their upcoming opponents, they cannot afford to go almost a quarter of the way through the campaign without any sort of a return.
The enforced absence of Christian Benteke comes as a blow but it at least gives Palace the chance to steer away from an over-reliance on last season’s top goalscorer, something which could have acted as a detriment if the Belgian was to continue to look shot-shy in the final third.
Man United possible XI: De Gea, Valencia, Bailly, Smalling, Blind, Matic, Herrera, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Martial, Lukaku.
Crystal Palace possible XI: Hennessey, Tomkins, Dann, Sakho, Van Aanholt, Milivojevic, Cabaye, Puncheon, Loftus-Cheek, Townsend, Sako.