WILFRIED ZAHA RETURNED to haunt former club Manchester United in their season opener, with Crystal Palace’s deserved 3-1 victory underlining the need for improvements at Old Trafford.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer led the Red Devils to three cup semi-finals and third in the Premier League during a promising first full season in the hotseat, but a lack of transfer activity has since led to growing fan discontent.
Saturday’s season opener offered precious little relief from that pressure as United fell to a shock loss to Palace at an empty Old Trafford, where their former winger Zaha netted twice amid VAR drama.
Solskjaer’s side struggled throughout an evening that started with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward saying the club had to be responsible with their resources given the challenges posed by Covid-19.
But the performance that followed only highlighted the need to improve, with Palace winning at Old Trafford for the second successive season – and few could argue with the result.
Andros Townsend capitalised on poor defending to give the Eagles an early lead that Zaha added to after a farcical period of video assistant referee intervention.
De Gea saved Jordan Ayew’s spot-kick after referee Martin Atkinson had checked the pitchside monitor and adjudged Victor Lindelof to have handled, only for Palace to be granted another attempt for the United goalkeeper marginally straying off his line.
Zaha slammed home the retaken spot-kick and, having seen United debutant Donny van de Beek pull one back, fired home another as his first match in the captain’s armband ended with a dream win at the place he used to call home.
Shock win? Any premier league team beating UTD at Old Trafford these days is no longer a shock
@Ollie Ryan: only two losses at home in the league last season
@Ollie Ryan: Whatever about being, heaven forbid champions, being in the top 6 you don’t lose at home up Crystal Palace.
@Alan Kenny: you need to look at results at Old Trafford since Fergus left, not just last season
@Cathal Carr: Palace have the best record bar city against the top 6 away over last few years
@Ollie Ryan: Uniteds Home record has been actually steady enough since Ferguson retired. It’s away form that’s been the biggest issue
@Alan Kenny: So you agree. Losing at home = bad.
Gary Neville raging during commentary, glorious!
@Seàn Mc: everything he says is true though. None this united team would hack it under Ferguson with that dressing room
Man u are the liverpool of old, next year is our year
@Looney Tunes: can’t even say it with the confidence the liverpool fans had
@eoin carroll: good day at the office Eoin
Zaha went from screwing Moysies daughter to screwing the whole United team. What a guy!
@James Quinn: Can’t believe Evra said that live on air. They won’t be inviting him back.
@Fergus O’Connor: dont think they are too fussy on sky anymore if they kept carragher on
@Brian Dunne: Well sure if they keep up their policy of apologising for everything every few minutes they’ll be grand.
@Brian Dunne: He spat at a child and the world forgot about it a week or two later.
Maguire Maguire. I leave it at that.
@Brian: Well the 3 goals had far more to do with Lindelof than Maguire.
First one, lindelof should have stopped the cross, second was his handball even if it was very harsh and the third was worst of all, zaha holding him off and getting the shot away far too easily.
Maguire and Lindelof got ripped to shreds at home to palace
Brilliant stuff :) you love to see it
There’s nothing shocking about it United are bang average
What is the handball rule now? It seem very harsh,as for penalty retake ,do both feet have to be on line?
Greek salad
This VAR is a joke , the ref on the pitch should have the last word , not the refs in a room . Sick of watching and waiting decisions that are given in one game and not in another . Palace deserved the win though ,united all over the place and lacking ideas and penetration .
@Tricksy: well the ref on the pitch somehow made the decision to award the penalty. Despite that Utd very poor again tonight. Palace deserved the win. Both centre half’s, pogba and James not up to it.
@Tricksy: Do you know what? I didn’t see the game but when I read your comment about the referee I said to myself “I bet the ref was Martin Atkinson” I went on to LiveScore app and checked. Scarily true. He is such a total waste of space,absolute awful referee.
@Larry Betts: I think by the letter of the law Larry he was correct , the old rule was hand to ball , but now the player hasn’t a hope if the ball smacks his arm . This rule is a disaster . The same thing happened in the Arsenal game and no one bothered to even check it . The people making the rules are destroying football , and it’s all in the name of drama .
@Tricksy: To be honest,as a Liverpool supporter, I felt the penalty awarded us in Champions League Final vs Spurs was unfair as it hit the defenders arm and again last week vs Leeds same thing happened. I really do believe intentional movement to deflect the ball rather than accidental contact to be the only criteria.
@Larry Betts: I totally agree .
@Tricksy: dodgy penalty yes however they were soundly beaten on the night…nevermind Sancho, utd need to sort that defence out
Ref got mixed up with who to give penalties to
T