Kick-off: 1730, 19/09/2020
Stadium: Old Trafford
TV: Sky Sports
Manchester United ended last season as one of the form teams in the Premier League and will hope to maintain those performance levels as they make a delayed start to the new campaign.
Their progress in the Europa League means they have been given an extra week before getting under way after a summer in which the off-field behaviour of Harry Maguire and Mason Greenwood was the biggest talking point.
United could be forgiven for being rusty and under 2.5 goals at 13/10 is our opening Man Utd vs Crystal Palace prediction.
A Look At Manchester United’s Betting Odds
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could have been forgiven for not wanting last season to end.
The Red Devils put together a nine-game unbeaten run, which included six wins, after lockdown to pip Chelsea to third place, although they finished the campaign 15 points adrift of neighbours Manchester City in second and a full 33 behind champions Liverpool.
One of the keys to improving will be a better start, having made their worst start to a league campaign in 30 years last season.
The improvement came after the January signing of Bruno Fernandes and the midfield has been further bolstered this summer by the arrival of Donny van de Beek from Ajax.
The build-up to this weekend’s opener has not been ideal though, with Paul Pogba missing training due to coronavirus while their only pre-season friendly ended in a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.
United may take a while to go through the gears and a goalless first half at 23/10 catches the eye in the Man Utd vs Crystal Palace odds.
Last Man Utd line-up: De Gea, Lindelof, Maguire, Wan-Bissaka, Williams, Pogba, Fred, Fernandes, Martial, Rashford, Greenwood.
A Look At Crystal Palace’s Betting Odds
Palace made a mockery of being priced up as underdogs at home last weekend as they began the season with a 1-0 win against Southampton thanks to Wilfried Zaha’s early goal.
They were indebted to goalkeeper Vicente Guaita in the second half, who made a superb point-blank stop to deny Che Adams before he parried away Danny Ings’ late header.
It was an impressive result for the Eagles, who had seven players out injured and five of them defenders.
Their defence is likely to face an even tougher test at Old Trafford, where Palace have collected four points from their last two visits.
Due to unavailability, Palace had to start central midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate at centre-back against Southampton, while Mamadou Sakho made his return from injury at Bournemouth on Tuesday.
Keeping United out for 90 minutes looks a tall order for a defence down to the bare bones and we expect the hosts to come good in the end, so a repeat of United’s 2-0 win in July at 25/4 is our final Man Utd vs Crystal Palace prediction.
Last Palace EPL line-up: Guaita, Ward, Dann, Mitchell, Kouyate, Townsend, Schlupp, McArthur, McCarthy, Ayew, Zaha.
Additional stats
Last result:
Sevilla 2-1 MAN UTD – Bruno Fernandes (pen)
CRYSTAL PALACE 1-0 Southampton – Wilfried Zaha
Head-to-head: Palace 0-2 Man Utd, Man Utd 1-2 Palace, Palace 1-3 Man Utd, Man Utd 0-0 Palace, Palace 2-3 Man Utd, Man Utd 4-0 Palace
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