Crystal Palace 4-0 Man Utd (Olise 12′, 66′, Mateta 40′, Mitchell 58′)
SELHURST PARK — If Manchester United fans had ever dared to wonder how their team might cope without Bruno Fernandes, they need wonder no more after a shameful surrender at Selhurst Park.
Crystal Palace were superior to their abject visitors in every department. Goals from Michael Olise and Jean-Philippe Mateta had them 2-0 by half-time. Strikes from Tyrick Mitchell and Olise again made it 4-0 barely past the hour mark. Odsonne Edouard almost made it five in added time but hit the post.
It would have been the perfect ending but Palace were in red and blue dreamland long before then. United by contrast had been plunged into a black hole of despair.
How Palace fans must wish Steve Parish had appointed Glasner sooner. The Austrian has transformed everything in less than three months, from the playing style on the pitch to the mood in the stands.
Palace play with greater coherence and identity under Glasner than United do under Erik ten Hag. That’s a damning indictment of the Dutchman’s near two-year tenure at Old Trafford. Sir Jim Ratcliffe will be getting increasingly twitchy.
It will take much more than Ineos’s deep pockets to transform United into an acceptable football team, but acquiring players of Olise’s class would certainly help matters.
The Frenchman scored a fine opener that showcased the breadth of his talents and of United’s deficiencies, individual brilliance paired with collective negligence.
Olise sauntered past Casemiro as if the Brazilian were a fan plucked out of the away end rather than a serial Champions League winner, kept KobbieMainoo at arm’s length as he drove towards goal and then picked out the bottom corner with an effortless finish.
United’s covering defenders retreated so much it was as though they had been planted on an invisible, malfunctioning travelator.
The 22-year-old could have had a hat-trick by the 22nd minute, but instead it was Mateta who extended Palace’s advantage. Just like the first goal a Palace forward ran a United defender ragged to score.
Mateta and Jonny Evans were the respective actors this time, the former deceiving the latter with a clever touch before lashing a lethal finish past Onana from an acute angle.
Everyone connected with Palace is enjoying themselves more under Glasner, none more so than Mateta. This was the Frenchman’s 12th Premier League goal of the season, nine of which have been scored since Glasner’s arrival at the backend of February, and extended his scoring streak at Selhurst to six successive games.
United’s players emerged from their dressing room for the second half long before Palace’s did and yet nothing changed. If anything they got even worse.
Eberechi Eze fired a warning shot with an effort that whistled past the post after a sublime one-two with Olise on the edge of United’s box, but the visitors failed to heed it. Mitchell tapped in after pinball in the box to settle the contest. Another player reborn since the change in the dugout.
Man of the match: Michael Olise
Scored two magnificent goals and tormented United’s ramshackle defence all evening. A superb performance from a super footballer.
The best was still to come. Casemiro, whose £70m transfer less than two years ago looks worse with each passing week, was tackled by Daniel Munoz who passed to Olise inside the box. The winger took one touch to settle himself before bending an absurdly good strike into the top corner to double his tally in style.
Sofyan Amrabat took it upon himself to try and stop Olise inflicting more pain with a wild lunge by the touchline that had Glasner seething on the touchline. The Palace manager was booked for his protestations, giving referee Jarred Gillet some memorable Go-Pro footage to commemorate his evening.
Monday marked 23 years to the day that Dougie Freedman, Palace’s sporting director who has been tipped to replace United-bound Dan Ashworth at St James’ Park, scored the winner against Stockport County to keep the team in the old First Division and the club safe from oblivion.
The club now has another famous match to remember their favourite date by.
It was a miserable night for United’s travelling supporters who must have rued their decision to waste their Bank Holiday. Fernandes, missing his first Premier League match through injury since joining United from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020, will have watched on through his fingers back home.
The numbers back up what your eyes already tell you: they are desperately reliant on him. Fernandes is both United’s top goal scorer and top goal maker this season.
He has created over 100 chances while none of his teammates have reached the half-century mark, and ranks top of the charts for shots and passes too. Only Diogo Dalot has made more tackles. How United need more players of his ilk.
No club is as reliant on their star man as United’s and yet he would have made a minimal difference. Palace were just too good, United were just too bad.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/YivVxMK
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