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Manchester United began their 2020-21 Premier League campaign in the worst imaginable manner when they suffered a 3-1 home defeat against Crystal Palace in their first game. Andros Townsend gave the visitors an early lead before a Wilfried Zaha brace either side of a debut goal from Donny van de Beek gave Palace all three points.
It took just seven minutes for the deadlock to be broken at Old Trafford, but it was the visitors who drew first blood.
Jeffrey Schlupp got the better of Victor Lindelof near the byline and squared the ball across the six-yard box to Townsend that eluded the Manchester United defence. The English winger came in at the back post and fired a precise first-time effort back across goal to give Palace the early lead.
The home side started the second half with greater intent, bringing on Mason Greenwood in place of Dan James at the break.
Despite the attacking change, Manchester United failed to trouble Vicente Guaita in the Palace goal and went further behind on 74 minutes. A lengthy VAR check first awarded Palace a spot-kick and then awarded them a retake after David de Gea was found to have come off his line in stopping Andre Ayew’s first effort. Zaha stepped up to take it this time and made no mistake in doubling Palace's lead.
The next piece of action in the game came in the 80th minute from Manchester United new boy Donny van de Beek who pounced on a loose ball in the box to tuck a shot into the far corner. However, despite the hosts striving to get the equaliser, it was Palace who restored their two-goal cushion when Zaha grabbed his second of the game with a firm shot into the bottom left corner.
The third goal completely knocked the wind out of Manchester United’s sails as the hosts' efforts to claw their way back into the match were negated by Palace’s well-drilled defence.
On that note, here are the five major talking points from a game that leaves Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United with much to ponder while Palace take home three well-deserved points.
5 Talking Points from Crystal Palace's 3-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford
1. David de Gea remains Manchester United’s number one for now
Manchester United’s Spanish shot-stopper David de Gea came under intense scrutiny last season after committing a few notable errors. The return of Dean Henderson from his loan at Sheffield United has now put De Gea's place in the starting-eleven even more tenuous.
A couple of assured performances for Spain during the international break preceding the start of the season looked to have won De Gea the confidence of the Manchester United manager, at least for the start of the new campaign.
However, the Spaniard had a mixed outing on the night, making a couple of smart saves including a penalty that was later retaken but still let in three goals. With Henderson breathing down his neck, De Gea will have to eradicate the errors from his performances if he wants to keep his place in the Manchester United starting lineup going forward.
2. Crystal Palace look extremely well-organised
Crystal Palace, who were looking at going into the new season with a whole host of defenders out injured, upset the form books by defeating Southampton 1-0 in their opening fixture. Proving that their opening-day win was no fluke, Palace repeated the trick away at Manchester United by putting in a resolute display.
As was the case against Southampton, Palace allowed their opponents to retain the lion’s share of possession while they focussed on keeping their shape and frustrating their opponents with dogged defensiveness, which they especially did so after taking the lead.
Palace's display looks even more impressive when one considers the fact that they were missing the likes of Gary Cahill, Scott Dann, James Tomkins and Patrick van Aanholt through injuries and were fielding a back-line that had barely played together before.
3. Manchester United appeared sluggish in their season-opener
Manchester United and Manchester City were absent from the first round of fixtures in the new Premier League season after being granted an extended leave of absence following their European exploits last season.
Despite that, the lack of pre-season preparation was clearly evident in the Manchester United ranks as the team were incredibly careless in possession and looked well off the pace right from the start. There were needless losses of possession and mistimed tackles galore from the men in red while their opponents looked in much better rhythm.
Manchester United would hope to find their form pretty quickly as the games come thick and fast this season.
4. Manchester United are in dire need of freshening up their squad
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the incomes of football clubs all over the world, the Premier League in particular has shown that there is a lot in its collective coffers still.
The likes of Chelsea, and more recently Liverpool, have made high-profile additions to their squad, but Manchester United have been conspicuous in their relative inactivity in the transfer market, though.
This summer, Dutchman Donny van de Beek has been the sole addition to the Manchester United squad that seemed physically drained towards the end of last season. The sloppy display against Crystal Palace further heightens the need for greater squad depth at Manchester United who run the risk of fatigue setting in even earlier this season should they fail to make some more new signings.
5. Donny van de Beek made an impressive debut
The sole positive that Manchester United could take from their sorry display at home in their first game of the new Premier League season was the encouraging cameo put in by new signing Donny van de Beek who replaced Paul Pogba in the second half when the Red Devils were chasing the game.
The former Ajax midfielder didn’t take long to settle in and immediately got involved in Manchester United’s passing moves in and around the Palace penalty area.
Van de Beek then capped off his debut with a well-taken goal that briefly gave Manchester United hope of salvaging something from the game, but that was eventually not to be. The Dutchman's promising performance nevertheless gives Solskjaer the problem of figuring out how to deploy him, Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes on the pitch at the same time.
