Manchester United’s Rashford and Martial sink luckless Crystal Palace

Whatever Marcus Rashford does in a Manchester United shirt it will struggle to surpass his work to combat child poverty but the striker could enjoy his best on-field performance since the Premier League restarted as he drove his club to a victory that maintained their push for a Champions League finish.

This was not the comfortable match for United that the scoreline suggested. Crystal Palace were game opposition who found the finest details were against them. Wilfried Zaha felt he should have had a 44th-minute penalty – the video assistant referee said no; it was a tough one to call – while the technology would rule out what would have been an equaliser from Jordan Ayew for the tightest offside decision.

The teams had lined up for the restart when the notification VAR was checking came through and it was one of those decisions that took an age to resolve. Ayew was shown to have been beyond Aaron Wan-Bissaka by the length of a toenail. It was the seventh goal scored against United this season that VAR has chalked off – which is a joint league high. The visitors also had cause to be grateful to David de Gea, who made a clutch of good saves.

Rashford dragged United to the result that extended their unbeaten sequence in all competitions to 19 games. He changed the complexion of the game with a composed finish in first-half stoppage time and it was his pace, directness and vision that lay behind the Anthony Martial goal that clinched victory.

Rashford burst past two Palace players on halfway before finding Bruno Fernandes and, when he got the ball back, he fizzed a pass into Martial for him to curl home. What happened next provided the sour note. Patrick van Aanholt had flung himself into an attempted saving challenge on Martial and he landed awkwardly on his shoulder. His screams were only too audible and, after some lengthy treatment, he was taken away on a stretcher.

United had watched Leicester win earlier in the evening and knew they had to follow suit but until Rashford’s goal they were second best. Zaha fired an early warning shot at De Gea and, after Ayew had worked the United goalkeeper, Palace felt they had won a penalty. Zaha ran at Victor Lindelof and the defender did not seem to have his feet set properly; Zaha’s trickery does that to opponents. Lindelof swiped for the ball and both he and Zaha went to ground.

How to unpick it? The replays appeared to show Lindelof touched the ball and Zaha’s calf at almost the same time. Palace were unimpressed when the decision went against them. “Is the VAR broken – serious question?” tweeted the Palace chairman, Steve Parish.

United were ahead moments later and it added up to a sucker punch for Palace. Fernandes swapped passes with Martial and then played a nice ball into Rashford and, when he slammed on the brakes and jinked the other way, he threw Van Aanholt off balance. The shooting chance was opened up and Rashford never really looked like missing.

It was a moment of isolated quality from United during a first half that ended up with De Gea pushing away a Luka Milivojevic free-kick. Harry Maguire had fluffed one header from a corner and flicked another wide, while Mason Greenwood scuffed following a Martial cut-back.

Crystal Palace’s Jordan Ayew slides the ball in at the far post early in the second half only for VAR to rule that he was fractionally offside. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

Zaha was a thorn in the side of his former club and he thought he had set up the equaliser early in the second half, having beaten Wan-Bissaka and flashed across goal for Ayew to turn home. Enter VAR.

With Luke Shaw and Brandon Williams out injured, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had started Timothy Fosu-Mensah at left-back – it was the Dutchman’s first appearance of the season and his first in a United shirt for 1,152 days. He did nothing wrong, although the United defence was stretched, with James McCarthy working De Gea from distance on the hour.

United craved the comfort of a second goal but it took some time in coming. Rashford shot too close to Vicente Guaita, while Fernandes hit the post from a Rashford cross. Then Martial’s finish killed the contest and Rashford would be denied late on by Guaita.

Zaha knew it was not his or Palace’s night when he ran through only for De Gea to save with his feet.

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