How Ruben Amorim's Man United ruthlessness is finally taking hold

Selhurst Park was deserted amid the pandemic and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was in the away dugout the last time Manchester United won here in South London.

It looked like being a similar story when a ragged United trailed to Jean-Philippe Mateta's penalty at the end of a first half in which they barely laid a glove on a Palace side who were playing less than three days after being in Europa League action against Strasbourg on Thursday night.

But Ruben Amorim's team rallied after half-time and scored twice in the space of 18 minutes from two free kicks as Bruno Fernandes clipped the ball in for Joshua Zirkzee to volley the equaliser from a tight angle, and then teed up Mason Mount to rifle a shot low inside Dean Henderson's right-hand post.

It was enough to give United their first victory at Selhurst Park since July 2020 as they moved up to seventh in the Premier League table and put Monday's defeat to 10-man Everton behind them.

Set-piece specialists

Amorim admitted afterwards to 'stealing' set-piece ideas from his rivals, and United leaned heavily on them here in the absence of a greater attacking threat from his team.

They moved level with Arsenal on 10 goals from set-pieces in the Premier League this season, which is just as well because United were so toothless in the first half that their xG from open play was an almost non-existent 0.01.

Their two best efforts came from Casemiro off a long throw and a free kick, and it was no surprise that both goals in the second half came from Fernandes set-pieces as well.

They took the United captain to 56 Premier League assists for the club, lifting him ahead of Paul Scholes in the rankings. Only Ryan Giggs (162), Wayne Rooney (93) and David Beckham (80) have more.

Palace run out of gas

At least the United boss was decent enough to acknowledge that Palace tired in the second half after being asked to play for the second time in less than three days.

Palace made a surprisingly lively start and could have been out of sight by half-time with goalscorer Mateta blowing the chance to complete a hat-trick and Daichi Kamada sidefooting weakly at Senne Lammens after Palace sliced through United with a slick move.

Glasner, who started eight of the side that played in the Europa League defeat to Strasbourg on Thursday night, and lost Ismaila Sarr to an ankle injury before half-time, could hardly hide his frustration at Palace's lack of investment after the game.

'I want to protect the players because I know how hard they are working and giving everything. This was our 22nd game,' said the German. 'It's clearly our fault. We missed to strengthen the depth of the squad in the summer and we knew the schedule.'

Zirkzee strikes back

Joshua Zirkzee has had a rollercoaster career at United since arriving from Bologna for £36.5m last year, but this was a rare highlight for the Dutchman, who has been linked with a loan move to Roma in January.

Widely criticised for his performance at centre-forward in Monday's defeat to Everton in the absence of Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha, Zirkzee grew in confidence after half-time here and came up with his first Premier League goal in almost exactly a year to fire United level.

'It wasn't just the goal, even the runs behind,' said Amorim. 'In the first half he struggled on the duels but we improved a lot because of the quality of Josh in the second half. That is important for him to understand.'

Dalot proves a point

Amorim didn't pull any punches in the build-up to this game when he said that Patrick Dorgu looked anxious every time he touched the ball, and the young Dane and Diogo Dalot – the alternative to Dorgu at left wing-back – are 'far from the best'.

Dalot was preferred to Dorgu at Selhurst Park and responded to Amorim's comments with a much-improved performance that included winning the free-kicks that led to both United's goals as he was fouled by Eddie Nketiah and Marc Guehi.

Dorgu didn't show any sign of nerves either when he came on as an injury-time substitute and did his bit by cleverly winning a free kick from Jefferson Lerma, who was also booked, to take the pressure off his team as they held on for victory.

'I know they have a lot of quality,' said Amorim, striking an altogether more positive note. 'They just need to be relaxed sometimes and show that and show the intensity and the pace that they have.'

Spot the difference

There was some confusion when Mateta was ordered to retake his penalty after he was brought down by Leny Yoro and converted from the spot before half-time.

VAR spotted that the Frenchman had accidentally touched the ball twice, but he was allowed to have a second attempt in what was a first for the Premier League following a rule change this season.

After a similar situation ended with Julian Alvarez's effort for Atletico Madrid being ruled out in a Champions League game against Real Madrid in March, players guilty of a 'double touch' can retake as long as they scored the first time.

Mateta has been a thorn in United's side before and he could have had a hat-trick before half-time here as he caused Matthijs de Ligt and Yoro all kinds of problems, but twice fired off target when through on goal.