Crystal Palace 1, Manchester United 1
Manchester United missed out on the chance of second place when Michael Olise’s stunning injury time free kick earned Crystal Palace a draw.
Embed from Getty ImagesBruno Fernandes’ first half strike looked set to carry the Reds into second place but the Eagles struck back after the visitors failed to build on their great start.
United will have to settle for reclaiming third place from Newcastle United – going level with City rather than above them – as Marcus Rashford’s hot scoring streak came to an end.
David De Gea played his part with superb saves from Odson Eduard and Marc Guehi but United suffered a big blow when Casemiro was booked late on for the fifth time this season.
This means a one match ban which rules him out of the big game at the Emirates against league leaders Arsenal on Sunday.
United had claims for a penalty turned down with VAR choosing not to intervene and they paid for not finishing off their hosts Olise’s late equaliser left them no time to respond.
Wilfried Zaha claimed that Crystal Palace had a ‘Never Say Die’ attitude after they recovered from a poor run of one five defeats in six games.
He said: “The gaffer told us to contest the games, and we managed to get a point tonight.
“We all worked so hard today for the point and it gives us confidence for the next games.”
And he had a chance to win it late but former team mate Aaron Wan-Bissaka skilfully dispossessed him when he was going clean through in the box in injury time.
“Aaron was the only player who could have caught me tonight.”
Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira was delighted that Crystal Palace avoided defeat today but was pleased with the effort that the team put in against an in-form team.
“It was important not to lose today, to get the result and stop the bleeding. I’m really pleased for the players.
“I saw desire, organisation, team spirit, and good communication on the field.
“We kept our discipline and that helped us stay in the game and in the end we scored the goal.
“And we had that Wilfried run at the end and if were anyone else but Aaron we might have won it.”
United manager Erik Ten Hag urged his players to look beyond the end of their nine game winning run.
He said: “We controlled the game and scored a good goal, it was an ok performance – great save by [David] De Gea – and we had control of the second half but we had to invest more to score the second.
“But we conceded the goal in injury time and it was too late to react.
“We have to take the lesson to invest more in the second goal to avoid these situations.
Although Wout Weghorst had a quiet debut, Ten Hag said he backed him to improve once he had more training sessions with United.
“Weghorst did quite well. He has to make adjustments to fit into our game, he only had a short briefing but he did quite well.
And for the forthcoming return to London to face Arsenal at the Emirates, Ten Hag defended the booking that Casemiro collected which will rule him out of the Emirates showdown with the Gunners on Sunday.
Ten Hag added: “It was instinctive, he missed the ball but it could have been a dangerous situation and Casemiro wanted to stop it.
“Last time we beat Arsenal without Casemiro – this time we have to do the same.
“I said in the dressing room that we would need to look forward to Arsenal – a top game – and I must convince the players we can win there.”
Bruno Fernandes scores first but Manchester United fail to take chances to go second
Erik Ten Hag handed Wout Weghorst a first start for United as one of three changes to the side that beat City in the last game.
He was joined in the side by Lisandro Martinez and Antony as Anthony Martial, Tyrell Malacia, and Fred dropped down to the bench with Luke Shaw returning to his favoured left back role and Bruno Fernandes returning to his advanced central midfield berth.
Marcus Rashford was in red hot form and found himself clean through but his 11th minute tame shot was easily saved – with the England striker glad the offside flag was raised.
Shaw shot wide of the back post as the Reds besieged the Palace defence in the first half.
Martinez needed running repairs to his head after colliding with Jean Philippe Mateta.
And while Wout Weghorst headed over the bar, Odson Eduard floated a superb ball towards the United goal only to see David De Gea tip the dipping ball onto his bar and out of play after 40 minutes.
But United reacted well to the danger and Bruno Fernandes broke the deadlock with a well placed shot from 15 yards out after space opened up for Christian Eriksen whose turn of pace into the box found him cutting the ball back through a sleeping Palace defence.
It was his fifth goal of the season and second in consecutive games for the Portuguese midfielder.
Scott McTominay replaced Weghorst and Alejandro Garnacho replaced Antony for the last 20 minutes as United looked to protect their lead, with Bruno Fernandes moving to the right where he sent in a cross which was cleared.
He also fed McTominay who went down in the area after being tripped by American defender Chris Richards but a VAR check concluded there was not enough evidence to make the referee go to the monitor.
De Gea came up with another save to keep United in the lead after diving to parry Marc Guehi’s header with 15 minutes to go.
But with 10 minutes to go Casemiro lunged in on Wilfried Zaha after Fernandes failed to win the ball and earned himself a booking for a reckless challenge – which might have been a straight red – and will now be suspended for the game at Arsenal on Sunday.
With manager Erik ten Hag shaking his head Ebereze Eze’s free kick was saved by De Gea.
Fred replaced Christian Eriksen with 7 minutes to go but Palace smashed in an injury time equaliser with a fantastic free kick by Michael Olise which went in off the cross bar from 25 yards out.
Casemiro went close to meeting Fernandes’ late cross into the box while Garnacho’s strike was straight at the keeper.
And after all that Palace had a great chance to win it but Zaha was tackled by Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the box as Palace were well worth a draw after that late late goal halted the Reds’ winning run.