Manchester United will host Crystal Palace on 24th of November at Old Trafford in hopes to bounce back after a defeat against their rivals, Manchester City.
The home side, Manchester United are currently at a disappointing 8th place with an overall record of 6-2-4. Looking at their last 5 matches, they won 3, drew 1 and lost their most recent match against Manchester City (3:1). In the Champions League, Manchester United are in the 2nd place in Group H, 2 points behind Juventus and 2 points ahead of Valencia. Most recently they defeated Juventus (1:2), which is an excellent result, however in their domestic league, United is still 12 points behind the leading Manchester City. Taking a closer look at their recent match against Manchester City, United was a goal down early into the match after a goal from Silva in 12′. The goal did not come as a surprise, as City was the team who dominated the opening minutes with plenty of opportunities, so a goal was bound to be scored sooner or later. United had only 3 goal attempts on goal in the first half, but no shot went directly towards the goal, so the teams ended the 1st half with City holding a 1 goal lead. The 2nd half, much like the 1st was dominated by Manchester City, who scored their 2nd goal in 48′, which saw them leading with a healthy lead of 2 goals after 48 minutes. In 58 minute a mistake from Manchester City resulted in a penalty shot for United, which was converted into a goal by Martial. With only 1 goal separating the teams, we expected United to push for a goal, but it was City who continued with their domination, which resulted in another goal late in 86′ by Gundogan after a great pass from B. Silva. The match ended with a well-deserved win for City. Final score: 3:1.
Crystal Palace are currently in the bottom part of the league, with only 8 points thus far. Their overall record of 2-2-8 does not look promising, however, their recent results had some bright points. Out of the last 5 games, Crystal Palace lost 4 and drew 1. They managed to drew against Arsenal (2:2) and played well against Tottenham, despite the loss (0:1). The mentioned match against Tottenham was expected to be a tough one, as Tottenham are the best away team in 2018, whereas Crystal Palace has the worst home record in the league. In the match, Tottenham had 65% of the possession, but only managed to create 11 goal attempts, which is the same as Crystal Palace. In addition, Crystal Palace created twice as many shots on goal than Tottenham but still failed to score a goal. The only goal of the match came in 66′ when Foyth got the visiting team the lead. Except for the scoreboard, Tottenham has nothing to show from that match. The loss was unfortunate for Crystal Palace, as I feel like a draw or maybe even a win for them would be a fair result.
From what we have seen of this two teams in the recent matches, I can safely say that Crystal Palace has been improving, whereas United is still not in the form they would want to be in. Nonetheless, this will be another hard match for Crystal Palace, which is almost always the case when you’re going against a team like Manchester United. However, from what I’ve seen in their recent performances, Crystal Palace will put up a tough fight. They know how to create opportunities and score goals, and if they can avoid conceding too many goals, this could end up as an interesting match.
Prediction: Crystal Palace +1.25 Asian Handicap
Odds: 1.91 SBOBET
