Manchester United 2-0 Crystal Palace: Red Devils close gap on Arsenal

By Lewis Jones

Thursday 21 April 2016 08:23, UK

Man Utd increased the pressure on Arsenal in the race for the top four with a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

An early Damien Delaney own goal and a cracking effort from Matteo Darmian means United close the gap on Arsenal in fourth to just one point, although the Gunners have a game in hand.

Louis van Gaal's men were rarely troubled by a lacklustre Palace side, who looked to have one eye on Sunday's FA Cup semi-final against Watford and didn't register a single shot on target.

Attention now turns to The Emirates on Thursday evening where Arsenal take on West Bromwich Albion, live on Sky Sports 1.

Julian Speroni was making his first start of the season for Palace as Alan Pardew made seven changes. The goalkeeper's first task of the night was to pick the ball out of his net.

Darmian latched onto a nice flick from Marcus Rashford down the left and fizzed a cross into the middle. It was a hopeful cross, but Delaney turned it into a good one as he clumsily turned the ball into his own net with his right foot.

From that moment Palace were never in the game as United controlled proceedings through Wayne Rooney, who excelled in a deeper role. He was feeding the front three of Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard fruitful service and all that was lacking was a killer instinct in front of goal, otherwise the scoreline could have become very one-sided.

Martial was denied on 23 minutes by a save from Speroni and the Palace stopper had to be even more alert seven minutes later to brilliantly tip away a fearsome shot from the right edge of the box by the lively French attacker.

Delaney nearly doubled his tally of own goals for the night on 32 minutes as he accidentally turned a Martial cross towards his own net but his blushes were spared as the ball drifted the wrong side of the post.

United had won their previous three Premier League home games by a 1-0 scoreline but always looked capable of finding further breakthroughs and it came on 56 minutes.

A corner could only be cleared out to Darmian and under little pressure from the Palace defence, he controlled the ball and rocketed a thunderous half-volley into the net via the far post, scoring his first United goal in spectacular fashion.

Rooney was searching for his 100th Premier League goal at Old Trafford for Manchester United and the closest he came to getting it was on the hour mark but his side-footed effort from 20 yards was blocked away by Pape Souare two yards from his goal-line.

Speroni saved a Rashford effort just before the striker was substituted to a standing ovation on 63 minutes as United saw the game out very comfortably.

United's sixth successive Premier League win at Old Trafford puts pressure on Arsenal as they prepare to face West Brom, live on Sky Sports 1 HD on Thursday.

Player Ratings

Manchester United: De Gea (6), Valencia (6), Smalling (7), Blind (7), Darmian (8), Lingard (7), Schneiderlin (7), Mata (7), Rooney (8), Martial (7), Rashford (7)

Subs: Fellaini (6), Herrera (6), Memphis (6)

Crystal Palace: Speroni (7), Kelly (5), Mariappa (6), Delaney (4), Souare (6); Jedinak (5), Cabaye (6), Lee (6); Zaha (7), Adebayor (5), Sako (4)

Subs: Mutch (6), McArthur (6), Wickham (6)

Man of the match: Matteo Darmian