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Manchester United kept their slim top four hopes alive with a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Palace defended resolutely, but went behind to a 62nd minute Robin Van Persie penalty before a clinical Wayne Rooney strike sealed the points for United.
Here’s how the players rated:
Crystal Palace:
Julian Speroni (4): Could do little about the goal, but made two punches and one further save.
Joel Ward (13): Put in five crosses and attempted five tackles, winning two.
Scott Dann (7): Contributed four clearances and one tackle.
Damien Delaney (-3): Made more clearances (9) than he did successful passes (8).
Jonathan Parr (-1): Completed 33 passes; more than any other Palace defender.
Tom Ince (-1): Put in as many shots (4) and crosses (6) as he did successful passes (10.)
Mile Jedinak (36): Typically disciplined in the centre of the midfield, Jedinak made three tackles and five interceptions, although he did also give away six free kicks.
Joe Ledley (-2): Finished the game with the highest pass accuracy of any Palace player (89%), although none of those resulted in a created chance.
Jason Puncheon (17): Took two shots and completed two take ons, from five attempts.
Glen Murray (12): Led the line pretty well, winning five of his six headed duels on his return from injury, but was often feeding off of scraps and made just ten passes.
Maroune Chamakh (-17): Took one shots and set up two chances, but blotted his copybook by giving away the penalty for Van Persie’s opener with a clumsy challenge on Evra.
Substitutes:
Cameron Jerome (9): Took two shots on goal, but skewed one horribly wide.
Yannick Bolasie (1): Went past his man once on the way to a late shot on goal, and completed nine passes.
Dwight Gayle (2): Not on long enough to impact.
Manchester United:
David de Gea (60): Reliable when called upon, he also misplaced just one pass.
Chris Smalling (37): Went past an opponent more often than he tackled one, completing three take ons and making two tackles.
Rio Ferdinand (31): A calm presence on the ball, Ferdinand misplaced just two of his 48 attempted passes.
Nemanja Vidic (17): Won three headed duels and made 10 clearances.
Patrice Evra (46): Burst into the box to win the crucial penalty and also made 95% of his attempted passes.
Marouane Fellaini (56): Returned to the side to make three tackles, four interceptions and win four headed duels.
Michael Carrick (57): Attempted a colossal 130 passes, completing 94% of those (122).
Juan Mata (3): Created three chances from his 88 successful passes.
Wayne Rooney (42): Celebrated his new contract in style with a well taken goal; one of four attempts on goal.
Adnan Januzaj (17): Took three shots at goal, completed two take ons and put six crosses into the Palace box.
Robin van Persie (40): Opened the scoring from the spot and was unlucky not to add to his tally with an effort against the bar.
Substitutes:
Ryan Giggs (-21): Did little apart from pick up a yellow card.
Antonio Valencia (-2): Completed ten of his 11 attempted passes.
Darren Fletcher (8): Was successful in all 11 of his attempted passes.
