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Manchester United drew 0-0 against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday evening, as a dominant performance failed to ease the pressure on Erik ten Hag.
The away side dominated the first half, taking the lion’s share of possession but only managing to hit the woodwork twice after a great effort from Alejandro Garnacho and a rebound from Bruno Fernandes.
The second half began in much the same manner, with United keeping control but not managing to capitalise on it.
Palace grew into the game after making substitutions, while United’s changes took away their momentum, and the home side begun to create chances, with Eberechi Eze firing wide and Eddie Nketiah and Ismaila Sarr forcing a brilliant double save from Andre Onana.
The game petered out in the final stages as Palace looked to settle for a point and United struggled to regain any attacking rhythm, and in the end it was a familiar sight for Erik ten Hag as his side earned just one point in a fixture they probably should’ve won.
Relive the Premier League action with our live blog below:
Manchester United’s frustrating draw with Crystal Palace reveals positive step forward
A game at Selhurst Park that both teams could feel they should have won, but will know could have been a defeat. That says a little bit about the push-pull nature of both Manchester United and Crystal Palace so far – and the fact we’re even discussing this says a lot about a 0-0 that “won’t go down as a classic”. The “highlights” were a reckless tackle by Lisandro Martinez and some fine stops, especially a double save from Andre Onana.
There was at least an inversion of some criticisms of United throughout Ten Hag’s time, as well as his predecessors. They generally had a really good shape but were let down by individual inaccuracy. Had any of their attackers been at one of their better levels, United could have been out of sight by half-time.
Man City vs Arsenal will be defined by tactical trend and a strange twist
The manager of course knows exactly the cost of losing such a player but part of his long-term preparation with this Arsenal squad is to never dwell on anything that could be perceived as a negative. Arteta has spoken extensively to psychologists about this and the idea is that if you can’t change a problem like this, there’s no point speaking about it in a way that could play on his team’s mind.
The idea may be all the more important if Odegaard is indeed out until November, as some recent chatter suggests, but also given the exact nature of this game.
The onus is very much on Arsenal, rather than City. They are the challengers, they are the team that have twice finished second to Pep Guardiola’s side, and they’re the team now second again. Arsenal haven’t won at the Etihad since 2014-15.
Dominic Solanke sparks much-needed change as Tottenham down Brentford
Dominic Solanke opened his account for Tottenham to earn a much-needed 3-1 home win over Brentford.
After Ange Postecoglou’s team had narrowly avoided an early Carabao Cup exit at Coventry on Wednesday, they conceded after 22 seconds to Brentford through Bryan Mbeumo.
However, Solanke levelled in the eighth minute before Brennan Johnson made it goals in back-to-back matches after his recent social-media abuse and James Maddison wrapped up a deserved three points with a third late on.
Aston Villa triumph in midlands derby with superb comeback win against Wolves
Jhon Duran continued his super-sub role as he came off the bench to complete a rousing Aston Villa comeback in a 3-1 victory against Wolves.
It looked like Villa were going to suffer a Champions League hangover after their midlands rivals took a first-half lead through Matheus Cunha.
Unai Emery’s men were distinctly off-colour for the opening 60 minutes but came to life and levelled through Ollie Watkins in the 73rd minute before taking the lead in the 88th through Ezri Konsa.
Duran climbed off the bench to find the net for the fourth time in five Premier League games this season, sweeping home in the third minute of time added on.
Victory continued Villa’s excellent start to the season as they won a fourth match and the early signs of a repeat top-four challenge are looking promising.
Nicolas Jackson brace helps Chelsea ease to victory as West Ham fans turn on Julen Lopetegui
The Spaniard looked furious as his expensively-assembled side crashed to a humiliating 3-0 defeat at home to their London rivals.
Jackson scored twice, the first within three minutes of kick-off, and Palmer added a third just moments into the second half.
With five goals in five games, Luis Diaz is reaping the rewards of Arne Slot’s quiet evolution
Liverpool are top of the league. But while that may only be for a day, more significantly, Liverpool are back on track. The tame home defeat to Nottingham Forest looks more of a one-game anomaly. After three goals in the San Siro came three at Anfield. As Bournemouth were beaten, like AC Milan before them, a week that began badly for Arne Slot has featured an impressive response.
And a success story of his fine start again illustrated Slot’s early impact. When the final whistle blew, Erling Haaland remained the Premier League’s runaway top scorer. So far, so predictable. What rather fewer would have expected when the season started was that Luis Diaz is his closest challenger. At times in his Liverpool career, the Colombian has provided everything but the goals. Now he has five in as many league matches for Slot: that average of one per game comes after a return of worse than one every four for the club before then.
A win made in South America also included Darwin Nunez’s first for Slot, as he made his maiden start under the Dutchman. But it was determined by Diaz’s two-minute double. Cody Gakpo was terrific against AC Milan but, four days later, Diaz was restored to the team. The destroyer of Manchester United was similarly dynamic. There is a thrilling directness to Diaz, an explosiveness that stems from a willingness to run beyond defenders, to let fly from both long distances and acute angles. What there has not always previously been was an end product.
Premier League results
So with that result, the Premier League matches have wrapped up for today. Here’s a reminder of the results.
West Ham 0-3 Chelsea
Fulham 3-1 Newcastle
Aston Villa 3-1 Wolves
Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth
Tottenham 3-1 Brentford
Southampton 1-1 Ipswich
Leicester 1-1 Everton
Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester United
Next up
Crystal Palace travel to Premier League strugglers Everton next weekend, with that game kicking off at 3pm on Saturday, 28 September.
Manchester United host FC Twente in the Europa League in midweek, before facing Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford in the final game of the weekend on 29 September.
Tomorrow’s games
A potentially huge day in the Premier League title race tomorrow, as Arsenal travel to the Etihad to face Manchester City at 4.30pm.
Before that though, Brighton host Nottingham Forest in the earlier kick-off.
More reaction from Oliver Glasner:
“In the same way Dean Henderson made some good saves in the first half, Onana made a great double save in the second and then Eberechi missed a chance.
“We have to be honest, maybe three points would have been too much but we would have taken them.
”Yes a lot to build on. This week we had three games and not a lot of training time, but now we have two whole weeks for us. The international players of course need a few days to rest but I think we now we start to build on that second half.”
Source: independent.co.uk
