There is one catch up match in the Premier League on Wednesday evening when Crystal Palace play host to Manchester United at Selhurst Park in a clash which could be key to the overall picture at the top of the table.
United go into the match in fourth place after their win in the Manchester derby at the weekend and a win here will move them into second spot for 24 hours at least. Palace are kind of in no man’s land but a win will give them something to build from.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels with the build-up at Selhurst Park beginning at 7.30pm and kick off taking place at 8pm.
Crystal Palace
This doesn’t feel like this has been as good a season for Crystal Palace as the last one was to an outsider looking in. I suspect one of the reasons for that is because they have only won six of their 18 matches to date but they are around the middle of the table which is probably the ceiling they have right now, so I would imagine there is a contentment within the Selhurst Park ranks, as well as an intrigue as to whether they can climb higher.
Palace go into this match off the back of four defeats in their last five matches and the real issue they have is that they have failed to score in any of those losses. The win in among that run was only at Bournemouth who are sinking fast. The Eagles have only lost four home matches all season with those coming against the leaders Arsenal, Fulham, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur so while Selhurst remains a tough place to go, they have an issue beating London sides here so might be glad this isn’t a London derby.
Manchester United
The Red Devils were in a bit of a limbo heading into the World Cup break but having sorted out the Cristiano Ronaldo issue which clouded over them, they have come out of the intermission with four successive victories in the Premier League and progression in both cup competitions and all of a sudden people are speaking positively of Manchester United once again. That will only escalate if they win here because they will move into second spot and announce themselves as title contenders.
United have won five of their eight away matches this season, with heavy losses at Brentford, Manchester City and Aston Villa blots on their landscape but two of those were very early in the season when Erik ten Hag was sorting out the mess he inherited. Slowly but surely, United are looking more convincing in their attacking play but more importantly they look so much better defensively having conceded just two goals in their last five Premier League matches.
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Team News
Crystal Palace could well be without Joachim Andersen after he was forced off the field in the defeat to Chelsea at the weekend. Should he not be fit them James Tomkins will come into what could be an otherwise unchanged side.
Manchester United are expected to monitor the fitness of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial with Wout Weghorst ready to make a debut should either not be passed fit for this one. Diego Dalot misses out so Aaron Wan Bissaka is likely to face his former club.
Betting
I think Manchester United will win this match but I don’t expect them to run away with it and they are a little short for a match I fancy will be a fairly tight affair. This fixture doesn’t have a history of being a high scoring one in recent times and I’m not convinced anything changes in that regard here unless something bizarre happens. I don’t really want to invest a strong bet on United but Palace’s form needs to pick up before I back them.
There is a player market which interests me here though and that comes in the booking one where the 7/2 on Aaron Wan-Bissaka to be booked looks a little on the high side. He hasn’t been booked this season but the only upward team he has faced was Manchester City and they did most of their attacking down the other flank. We know Palace will go down the left through Wilfried Zaha and in two of the last three fixtures between these two that the Ivory Coast international has been involved in, the United right-back has been booked. Wan-Bissaka is going to get little or no help from Antony down that side and even Casemiro can’t really commit himself in helping out as a yellow card for him puts him out of the huge clash with Arsenal on Sunday. It isn’t just Zaha that Wan-Bissaka might need to deal with. Tyrick Mitchell and Ebere Eze will head out to his wing as well so this could be a long 90 minutes for a man who will probably be fired up facing his former club.
Tips
Back A.Wan-Bissaka to be booked for a 2/10 stake at 4.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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