Crystal Palace face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday evening.
The mood is beginning to lift at Old Trafford but say it quietly because Ruben Amorim’s side still has a lot of backing up to do.
Manchester United avoided getting dragged into a relegation scrap, which seemed frighteningly genuine at the start of the year, but now we could look forward to surging up the table over the coming weeks.
United’s 1-0 win over Fulham meant we overtook Crystal Palace in the Premier League table, with the Eagles losing at home to Brentford after enjoying a five-game unbeaten run in the league.
Oliver Glasner’s side have improved after a woeful start to the campaign and they’re looking for back-to-back wins at Old Trafford after winning 1-0 on this ground at the start of last season.
A win for Palace would see them leapfrog United in the bottom half of the table.
Oliver Glasner has done his homework on Ruben Amorim
The Premier League is now a hub for the best coaches in the beautiful game, coming from several countries and different backgrounds.
Amorim got the biggest managerial job possible when appointed United manager, and he is a renowned force when it comes to coaches already working in the Premier League.
The task for Amorim is to get United back to the top of English football, which includes taking the league title from Man City’s Pep Guardiola. Sadly, it is Liverpool who look set to achieve that this season and not us.
However, Palace manager Oliver Glasner knows all about Amorim after facing his Sporting CP side in the Champions League during his time in charge of Eintracht Frankfurt (losing 3-0 at home and winning 2-1 away).
“I can see them making progress,” Glasner said. “I know Ruben Amorim from his time at Sporting and played them with Frankfurt.
“I have a lot of respect and admiration for how he managed the first weeks at Man United – it wasn’t easy but he went his way and now you can see how he wants to play.”
Glasner confirms Crystal Palace injury blow
Glasner also confirmed that Palace will be without star man Eberechi.
This will come as a major blow to Palace and United will be looking to take advantage of it.
“We will also miss Eberechi on Sunday,” he said. “He’s struggled the last weeks and months. He got a knock in the League Cup game [against Arsenal] at the Emirates and since then he’s always had pain, training and not training, playing and then taking him off…
“Last week, he almost didn’t train the whole week, and this week, it started again. We want to get him pain-free, so he can perform at his best level, so he won’t go with us to Manchester.”
Although Eze has 12 goal contributions this season, the Palace talisman will have to wait for his first goal or assist against United.
Palace are also without Cheick Doucoure and Chadi Riad and sidelined for the rest of the season with knee injuries, while Joel Ward is also unavailable. They will have young star Adam Wharton available for the first time since October.
Former Manchester United academy graduate Dean Henderson will be positioned between the posts for the Eagles.
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