Man Utd vs Crystal Palace Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Manchester United will be looking to close in on the top four when they take on Crystal Palace at Old Trafford this evening.

United would be forgiven for having one eye on Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Everton but Louis van Gaal insists that his focus is on tonight’s Premier League clash.

The Red Devils head in to the game off the back of a 1-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon with Marcus Rashford’s strike confirming the Villains relegation to the Championship.

The victory also saw United move to within just four points of fourth-placed Arsenal so van Gaal will be demanding a win tonight in order to put some pressure on the Gunners ahead of their clash with West Brom tomorrow.

Palace arrive at Old Trafford having done United a huge favour at the weekend after holding Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at the Emirates but Alan Pardew has made no secret that with the Eagles top flight status all-but confirmed for another year, his priority is now on their FA Cup semi-final with Watford.

Team news

United have been handed a boost with Ander Herrera fit to return to the squad after recovering from a minor foot injury that kept him out of Saturday’s win over Villa.

Luke Shaw has stepped up his recovery from a broken leg but this game will come too soon so he remains on the sidelines along with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Adnan Januzaj.

Despite Saturday’s huge cup clash, van Gaal has suggested he’ll play his strongest side tonight as he looks to keep United’s Champions League dream alive.

The same cannot be said for Palace as Alan Pardew is expected to make wholesale changes from the side that drew at the Emirates with midfielder James McArthur set to return after recovering from an ankle ligament injury.

Yannick Bolasie, Joe Ledley, Joel Ward and Scott Dann will all miss the game due to knocks while Dwight Gayle is out with a leg injury.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Man Utd 2-0 Crystal Palace: The visitors will field a weakened side and have very little left to play for while United should be fired-up to close the gap on Arsenal. Therefore, I can’t see past anything other than a comfortable home win.

Betting Tips

Man Utd are the 2/5 favourites but Football-Talk can get you enhanced odds of 4/1 on a home win – use this promo code to take advantage of these odds. My prediction of 2-0 is available at odds of 5/1 while I also like the look of Anthony Martial to open the scoring at 5/1. If you combined those two bets in a score-cast then we get very tempting odds of 16/1.

What do you think? What line-up would you like to see start?