Crystal Palace vs Manchester United: Player ratings as Solskjaer’s side keep pace in top four race

Close calls by VAR went against Palace in either half

Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 2-0 in the Premier League on Thursday night to keep pace with fourth-placed Leicester.

Palace were comfortably the more aggressive and attack-minded side of the first half, but Wilf Zaha spurned the best opening and Jordan Ayew was denied by David de Gea – before Marcus Rashford struck the opener right on half time.

After the break, Palace came out intent on finding an equaliser and thought they had it when Jordan Ayew slide home, only for VAR to rule it out for an extremely marginal offside.

With 10 minutes to go Rashford then set up Anthony Martial to bury the killer second, with Patrick van Aanholt suffering a serious-looking injury in the process.

Here are the player ratings from Selhurst Park.

WIlfried Zaha (right) was one of the hosts’ best performers (Getty Images)

Crystal Palace

Vicente Guaita – 5. Conceded twice from the first three shots on target he faced. Not his best day.

Joel Ward – 4. A pretty poor outing. Couldn’t stop the few attacks that came down his side, never really got close to Rashford on the counter.

Scott Dann – 6. Defended his box well when crosses came in, mostly low ones, but was beaten easily for the goals.

Mamadou Sakho – 6. Solid, uncompromising. Missed Gary Cahill’s organisational play.

Patrick van Aanholt – 7. Shut Greenwood down easily. Good going forward. Unfortunately suffered a bad-looking shoulder or arm injury late on.

Luka Milivojevic – 7. Quick, direct passes into the channels from deep. Overpowered McTominay and nearly scored off a free-kick.

James McCarthy – 6. The usual endeavour and work rate. The usual lack of end product in the final third. One decent shot from range saved, though.

James McArthur – 7. Another industrious performance which set the platform for those in front to play from. Played lots of good balls through into dangerous areas.

Andros Townsend – 7. Led Palace’s counters and work rate from the front. A quiet second half

Wilf Zaha – 6. Tricky and quick to run at the defence, but hugely wasteful. Didn’t shoot when he had a great opening, should have had a penalty though. Missed two really good chances in the second half, too.

Jordan Ayew – 6. Worked hard and held the ball up well. Thought he had scored but he hadn’t cut his toenails, so was offside.

Marcus Rashford opened the scoring at Selhurst Park (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Manchester United

David de Gea – 8. Strong wrists with an early couple of saves. Did the routine things with no fuss. Saved several with his feet. Everything was straight at him, a sign of good positioning.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 5. Got into a lot of good positions but had no delivery. Notable that Palace were happy for him to have possession. Not at his best defensively.

Victor Lindelof – 6. Covered for his partner at the back a couple of times.

Harry Maguire – 4. Missed a header in either box which could have scored, and cost, a goal. Easily beaten on the turn by Zaha and Ayew and left huge spaces behind. Really poor by his standards.

Timothy Fosu-Mensah – 5. First start of the season, not good enough to win a place. Lucky the Palace ‘goal’ was offside as he was caught ball-watching.

Scott McTominay – 6. Lacked passing rhythm. Couldn’t get into the game.

Paul Pogba – 6. Surprisingly slow on the ball early on but grew into the match and increasingly influential after the break.

Mason Greenwood – 4. Spurned possession in two good attacking positions. Missed an easy chance. A run of games catching up with him, perhaps.

Bruno Fernandes – 8. One moment of quality in the first half and it led to a goal. After the break he picked up the pace, looking capable of fashioning openings every time he had the ball at his feet. Hit the post, too.

Marcus Rashford – 7. Wasteful for 44 minutes, then brilliant for one. Good on the counter after the break, nicely set up Martial.

Anthony Martial – 8. Clinical with his second-half chance. Change of pace makes him so dangerous. Looks a lot stronger and more confident.