Crystal Palace 4, Manchester United 0
Manchester United sunk to a new low after a 4-0 thrashing at Crystal Palace to lose a record 13th Premier League game this season.
Embed from Getty ImagesUnited transfer target Michael Elise topped and tailed the rout – scoring a double either side of goals by Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell while Andre Onana prevented a worse result with a string of saves and substitute Odsonne Edouard hit the post right at the end to hand the Reds their biggest defeat of the season.
In fact only Nottingham Forest have lost more Premier League games by a margin of four goals or more (four to United’s three) while Palace completed a Premier League double over the Reds for the first time.
And the defeat meant that United cannot now match the 64 points that they earned in the David Moyes season in which they finished seventh – the record low Premier League finish for the Reds.
Under pressure United boss Erik Ten Hag conceded that his injury-hit team were once again below par.
He admitted: “We have underperformed. We didn’t act how we wanted to do it, it wasn’t good enough.
“We should have kept fighting.
“Everyone sees our back line, we have huge problems but at the end of the day we have to deal with it.”
But he refused to blame make-shift centre back Casemiro who had a poor game in defence, adding: “You can’t put this on one player.”
“I have to work with the players who are available. All season we have had huge problems, many times we sorted it out – this time we didn’t.
“If the right players are available we have a good squad but we missed almost the whole back line.”
But he struck a bullish tone as he looked to end the season on a high, adding:
“We still have 9 points to play for and we must fight for them.
“I will keep fighting. I have prepared the team the best way I could do but it wasn’t good enough. I take responsibility.”
United gave away 18 shots on goal to the clinical Eagles but only had 7 of their own on a night which once again confirmed that they had conceded a league high number of shots on goal.
United have now shipped 81 goals all competitions this season – the most in a single campaign since 1976-77 and with three games to go United languish in 8th place with a -3 goal difference and in serious danger of missing out on European football at all next season.
If they can’t get into Europe through a 7th place or higher finish they would have to win the FA Cup against a Manchester City side who are in title winning form at the moment.
Casemiro had a rotten game in a makeshift central defensive partnership with veteran Jonny Evans he had two goals ruled out for a foul and offside but was dribbled past a Premier League season high eight times in the game.
And without injured Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, and Harry Maguire, United looked bereft of ideas and senior options on the bench and were dreadful on the pitch.