MAN UNITED 2, CRYSTAL PALACE 0
Manchester United are suddenly putting the heat on neighbours City and Arsenal in pursuit of a Champions League place.
With their rivals faltering in recent days, United’s sixth straight home Premier League victory against Crystal Palace moved them to within one point of the Gunners and two of City as a top-four finish suddenly looks achievable.
An own goal from Damian Delaney and spectacular strike from Matteo Darmian gave the fifth-placed Reds a comfortable victory against effectively a reserve Palace side.
It doesn’t wholly tell the story as United’s dominance was such they had 16 goal attempts to Palace’s five with 10 on target to their opponents none while the corner count was also 10-2 in their favour. They also had two thirds of possession.
It was therefore a pleasing performance for United manager Louis van Gaal whose only criticism was that his side did not win by a wider margin.
He said: “I told the player after the match it was a good game, and their only remark was that we didn’t score too many goals.
“It was a match of 5-0, but I am pleased how we played and created a lot of chances and didn’t give away any other than one to Adebayor.”
Van Gaal added that it was a huge three points for the team.
He continued: “I said to the players before the game we need to close the gap and win which we did.
“It is another game. First we can enjoy it and recover within two days to play again.”
United’s manager also revealed that he was not surprised to see Darmian score his first goal for the club.
He said: “Darmian surprised me in training on Monday when we did a finishing session and he was top scorer.
“He was executing with his left and right and scored with his left today. I am very happy for him.”
United made three changes from Saturday’s starting line up against Aston Villa.
There were recalls for Wayne Rooney, Jesse Lingard and Matteo Darmian as Marouane Fellaini, Memphis Depay and Marcos Rojo made way.
There was no way van Gaal could contemplate playing a weakened side as a top-four place remains more of a priority than Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Everton.
Palace, safe from the threat of relegation, made seven changes from Sunday’s game at Arsenal which they drew 1-1.
Manager Alan Pardew made no secret of his intention to freshen his side in readiness for Sunday’s FA Cup semi final against Watford.
United made a dream start taking a fourth minute lead thanks to a helping hand from the visitors.
Left-back Darmian made a raid down the flank and his low cross was put through his own goal by Delaney with an attempted clearance from 10 yards.
It was a remarkably open game as Marcus Rashford forced a diving save from Julian Speroni while at the other end a volley from Emmanuel Adebayor trickled wide.
United kept pushing for a second goal as Anthony Martial forced a good save from Speroni who also kept out a low drive from Rooney.
Delaney came close to putting his own goal for a second time trying to cut out a low cross from Martial while under pressure from Rashford.
Rashford and Rooney both had shot, but both went straight at Speroni who, five minutes before the break, pulled off a superb save to turn away a goalbound shot from Martial.
United, who had six on-target goal attempts in the opening period, continued their pursuit of a second goal.
Rooney had a shot blocked by Pape Souare while Mata shot into the side netting.
The second goal came in the 55th minute, a screamer from Darmian. Daley Blind’s corner was headed out by Delaney and the Italian chested the ball down and fire a half volley which flew into the net off the upright. What a way to get off the mark as this was his first goal for the club in his 37th appearance.
And it could would have been 3-0 not long after but for Speroni’s great double save to deny Rashford and Lingard.
Depay replaced Rashford mid-half as van Gaal made his first change, and that was soon followed by Ander Herrera coming on for Lingard.
And 13 minutes from time came the final substitution when Rooney made way for Fellaini.
As the changes were made, sadly the game petered out in the last half hour with United in cruise mode and Palace clearly having their sights fixed on their FA Cup clash with Watford.