Preview: United v Crystal Palace
How to follow the match: Wednesday's Barclays Premier League encounter at Old Trafford will kick off at 20:00 BST. It will not be broadcast live in the UK but, as ever, fans can follow the action via ManUtd.com's live match blog and the club's official Twitter account @ManUtd. MUTV's preview show Match Day Live begins at 19:00 BST and is followed by live radio commentary on the channel.
Scene-setter: The race for the Barclays Premier League top four is heading towards its climax and Manchester United are four points away from those UEFA Champions League qualification places, with just five games left to play. Victory against Crystal Palace is required and would also boost Louis van Gaal's men ahead of Saturday's Emirates FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, although the Eagles will be motivated opponents because they are yet to cement their top-flight status.
Form guide: United bounced back from the 3-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur by securing a morale-boosting 2-1 win at West Ham in the FA Cup sixth round, before following that up with a gritty 1-0 win over Aston Villa. The Reds have notably not lost any of the 13 previous Premier League matches against Palace, earning 10 wins and three draws in a run that stretches back to September 1992. Despite being 16th in the table, Alan Pardew’s team are unbeaten in four straight matches in April. However, their recent 1-0 win against Norwich City remains their only top-flight victory in 2016.
Last meeting: Back on 31 October, Crystal Palace held United to a frustrating 0-0 draw and that was the Reds' third consecutive goalless match in all competitions. “We did not keep the ball,” said van Gaal. “That's a very important factor and because of that we didn't create too many chances.”
Latest team news: Van Gaal made changes for the win over Villa by resting Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard, with Wayne Rooney and Memphis coming in, so it will be interesting to see which of those four will start on Wednesday night. The boss may also be tempted to rotate again, with the FA Cup semi-final against Everton just four days away. Luke Shaw, Adnan Januzaj, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Will Keane could be the only absentees as Ander Herrera is in line to return to the squad. Palace are likely to be without Yannick Bolasie, Scott Dann, Joel Ward and Joe Ledley but James McArthur will make his return from injury.
View from the dressing room: “We now have Crystal Palace where hopefully we can win again and then we have the semi-final in the FA Cup. That gives us two very clear aims - to win, if we can, every game in the Premier League to get Champions League football, and then to win the FA Cup, which the club has not won for a few years. We are fully focused on both tasks.” – Juan Mata
Opposition manager: Palace boss Alan Pardew hopes his team's troubles are behind them following a run of positive results, though he would like to pick up more wins in 2016. “We weren't expecting that run [of defeats] to go on as long as it went on,” he explained earlier this month. “The first half of this season we got it right, but the second we haven't. We need to address that. The confidence levels, hopefully, have gone up, and our nervousness has disappeared.”
How to follow the match: Wednesday's Barclays Premier League encounter at Old Trafford will kick off at 20:00 BST. It will not be broadcast live in the UK but, as ever, fans can follow the action via ManUtd.com's live match blog and the club's official Twitter account @ManUtd. MUTV's preview show Match Day Live begins at 19:00 BST and is followed by live radio commentary on the channel.
Scene-setter: The race for the Barclays Premier League top four is heading towards its climax and Manchester United are four points away from those UEFA Champions League qualification places, with just five games left to play. Victory against Crystal Palace is required and would also boost Louis van Gaal's men ahead of Saturday's Emirates FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, although the Eagles will be motivated opponents because they are yet to cement their top-flight status.
Form guide: United bounced back from the 3-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur by securing a morale-boosting 2-1 win at West Ham in the FA Cup sixth round, before following that up with a gritty 1-0 win over Aston Villa. The Reds have notably not lost any of the 13 previous Premier League matches against Palace, earning 10 wins and three draws in a run that stretches back to September 1992. Despite being 16th in the table, Alan Pardew’s team are unbeaten in four straight matches in April. However, their recent 1-0 win against Norwich City remains their only top-flight victory in 2016.
Last meeting: Back on 31 October, Crystal Palace held United to a frustrating 0-0 draw and that was the Reds' third consecutive goalless match in all competitions. “We did not keep the ball,” said van Gaal. “That's a very important factor and because of that we didn't create too many chances.”
Latest team news: Van Gaal made changes for the win over Villa by resting Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard, with Wayne Rooney and Memphis coming in, so it will be interesting to see which of those four will start on Wednesday night. The boss may also be tempted to rotate again, with the FA Cup semi-final against Everton just four days away. Luke Shaw, Adnan Januzaj, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Will Keane could be the only absentees as Ander Herrera is in line to return to the squad. Palace are likely to be without Yannick Bolasie, Scott Dann, Joel Ward and Joe Ledley but James McArthur will make his return from injury.
View from the dressing room: “We now have Crystal Palace where hopefully we can win again and then we have the semi-final in the FA Cup. That gives us two very clear aims - to win, if we can, every game in the Premier League to get Champions League football, and then to win the FA Cup, which the club has not won for a few years. We are fully focused on both tasks.” – Juan Mata
Opposition manager: Palace boss Alan Pardew hopes his team's troubles are behind them following a run of positive results, though he would like to pick up more wins in 2016. “We weren't expecting that run [of defeats] to go on as long as it went on,” he explained earlier this month. “The first half of this season we got it right, but the second we haven't. We need to address that. The confidence levels, hopefully, have gone up, and our nervousness has disappeared.”
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