Crystal Palace v Man United: Eagles lack the threat to trouble visitors

Crystal Palace v Manchester United: Eagles lack the threat to trouble visitors

Dan Fitch thinks Manchester United's defence will handle Crystal Palace with ease, delivering a low scoring victory for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team.

Will Palace continue to play it safe?

Crystal Palace have a big decision to make this summer concerning their manager Roy Hodgson.

With Palace in 13th place on 33 points, it looks as if Hodgson has secured the club's Premier League position once more. He's delivered safe, lower mid-table finishes in each of his previous three seasons and now seems set to do so again.

It's an achievement that should not be overlooked for a club of Palace's size, but Hodgson's style of football is not the most entertaining and the 73-year old's contract expires in the summer. There will be a temptation to replace Hodgson with a younger coach with more ambitious tactics.

Yet the Palace chairman Steve Parish will remember what happened the last time they tried such an approach and appointed Frank de Boer, whose abject failure saw the club turn to Hodgson's pragmatism in the first place.

As always seems to be the case, Palace have a lengthy injury list. Nathaniel Clyne, Nathan Ferguson, Mamadou Sakho, James Tomkins, Jeffrey Schlupp, James McArthur, Wilfried Zaha and Connor Wickham, are all likely to be out.

Crucial month ahead for Manchester United

Manchester United face a testing month of their ambitions, in a season that has the potential to be hailed as a great success.

Winning the Premier League title seems to now be out of United's reach, but a second placed finish would represent more progress under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. His team will face the leaders Manchester City and fourth placed West Ham in March, while they also have a tricky Europa League tie against AC Milan over two-legs and will travel to Leicester in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Manchester United reached the semi-finals of all three cup competitions they were involved in last season and are under pressure to at least make a final, in this campaign. There have been definite step forwards under Solskjaer, but there are still doubts over their ability to handle to pressure in big matches against other top teams, which were hardly alleviated by the tepid 0-0 draw at Chelsea on Sunday.

Solskjaer will be without long-term casualties such as Phil Jones, Paul Pogba and Juan Mata for the trip to London. Edinson Cavani is also a doubt.

United will deal with unthreatening Eagles

Manchester United are the 1.46 favourites to win this one, with the draw at 5.0 and Crystal Palace out at 8.4.

Selhurst Park has hardly been a fortress for Palace this season. They've only won four of their 13 home games in the Premier League this season (D4 L5), while Manchester United remain undefeated on the road (P13 W8 D5).

United have kept clean sheets in six of their last nine away games across all competitions and with Palace failing to score in three of their last four matches, the visitors could keep it tight again. Manchester United are 2.4 to win to nil. A Manchester United win and under 3.5 goals looks a safe alternative at 2.16.

Fernandes could break 30-goal barrier

Bruno Fernandes has scored 22 goals in 39 appearances this season and he's not slowing down, netting four goals in his last five games. He could easily become the first Manchester United player to score 30 goals across all competitions, since Robin van Persie did so in the 2012-13 season.

Despite such scoring feats, Fernandes remains available at bigger prices than if a striker were delivering at such a rate. Back him to add to his tally at 2.32.