Manchester United vs Crystal Palace: Jose Mourinho's side drop yet more points after insipid stalemate

Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace: Against a side that is now winless in their last eight matches, United never looked likely to earn three points themselves

The faint signs of recovery in Manchester United’s form of a few weeks ago? Consider them well and truly forgotten after Jose Mourinho’s side laboured to a goalless draw with Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Against a side that is now winless in their last eight matches, United never looked likely to earn three points themselves. If anything, though both sides had goals disallowed, it was the visitors who came closest to breaking the deadlock, with both Patrick van Aanholt and Andros Townsend guilty of spurning clear-cut chances.

United had opportunities themselves, as you would expect, this was far from the worst performance of their difficult season to date. But then, that particular bar has already been set terribly low.

The worry will be that a familiar lack of imagination, intensity and attacking structure was there for all to see once again and Mourinho appears no closer to stumbling upon a solution. His only positive? After 13 games, United finally registered their second clean sheet of the league season.

In the past, an insipid stalemate against one of the Premier League’s lower order would be remembered as a low point of the campaign. In what is Mourinho’s third season in charge, it is not an anomaly. It is the more the rule than the exception, not at all a surprise, and the sense is there will be more of these underwhelming results to come.

It was a game which saw neither side make the other pay for their errors. United began brightly, with Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial fashioning early efforts on Wayne Hennessey’s goal, but the hosts still struggled to find in-roads behind the visiting defence.

Wilfried Zaha was, unsurprisingly, Palace’s greatest threat. The former United winger found himself up against Matteo Darmian, a surprise selection at right-back having not played since the opening weekend, and he quickly began to enjoy himself. One strike, after cutting in from the left flank, fizzed wide of De Gea’s right-hand post.

It was a scrappy affair at Old Trafford (Action Images via Reuters)

The half’s best opportunity, however, fell to Van Aanholt, who raced from his own half to join a mounting Palace counter-attack, only to then contribute a poor, limp finish. The left-back was put through one-on-one with De Gea but lost the battle of nerves, tamely placing his shot wide.

An edgy Old Trafford demanded more from United but, aside from one inaccurate, far-post Chris Smalling header, they did not receive it. Palace would come closest to breaking the first-half deadlock but, on the cusp of the interval, Chiekhou Kouyate’s header was disallowed for a marginal offside call.

It was some time before Kouyate, running in the direction of assistant referee Marc Perry, noticed Perry’s flag was raised. United’s supporters mocked the celebrating Palace end, but the travelling fans would get their own back at the start of the second half.

Romelu Lukaku, now without a goal in 11 United appearances, briefly believed he had ended his drought by turning in Ashley Young’s shot on the rebound, only to see Perry’s flag raised once more. It was marginal, again, yet once again correct.

United have made their worst start to a season for 28 years (REUTERS) (Reuters)

Palace did not post the same threat on the counter-attack after the break, though picked up a knack for cutting through a deep-set United defence. Andros Townsend brushed off all-comers at one stage to wriggle through one-on-one, though bent his attempt around De Gea’s far post.

By that point, Mourinho had already called for the cavalry, with Marouane Fellaini, Marcus Rashford and Alexis Sanchez all introduced, though it was his choice of players to come off which most intrigued. Lingard looked particularly unhappy to be sacrificed. Though Paul Pogba was not best pleased either, he could have no complaint. His 68 minutes of perfunctory running, imprecise passing and general indifference resulted in his worst United performance of the campaign to date.

Their reinforcements made little difference, though. The only late chance of note fell to Lukaku, who stretched Hennessey with a close-range header, yet did not stretch him quite enough. The goalkeeper dealt with United’s last meaningful effort, just as Palace had comfortably dealt with the meagre fare United could muster all afternoon.