Written by Ciaran Coyle
Manchester United fail to score for the third match in a row in all competitions as the Red Devils play out an uneventful goalless draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
The best chance of the night came in the 89th minute when Patrick van Aanholt was played through on goal but his close-range effort was smothered by Dean Henderson.
The home side enjoyed the best of the opening ten minutes but it was Nemanja Matic who had the most threatening effort on goal. The ball was rolled back to the edge of the box by Bruno Fernandes which invited the Serb to put his foot through the ball but his effort took a slight deflection which took the pace of the ball and allowed Vicente Guaita to get across and push the effort away from goal.
Five minutes later Marcus Rashford almost broke the deadlock when Luke Shaw played a ball from the left-hand side into the path of the United number ten, but his effort went just wide of Guaita’s near post.
The next meaningful chance for either side came 15 minutes after half time when the rebound from Luka Milivojević’s free kick fell to Andros Townsend who got good connection on the volley but the ball just missed the target.
United’s last chance of the game came through Mason Greenwood who cut inside onto his left foot and unleashed a curling effort which grazed the top of the Palace goal but Guaita will feel he had the effort covered.
This result means that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side remain in second place on 51 points, 7 ahead of Chelsea in fifth, who play Liverpool on Thursday evening. Crystal Palace remain 13th but will be pleased with the way they defended and may come away from this game feeling they could’ve got more from it.
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Sub-edited by Cameron Winstanley
