Serbian, Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling fire Jose Mourinho's men to victory as they stay second ahead of Liverpool
THE never-say-die attitude, the thrilling comeback and the winner in Fergie time.
If there are any remaining glass-half-full Manchester United fans they might have seen this night as being reminiscent of happier times.
To have such an attitude, you would have had to ignore quite how awful United were for the opening 54 minutes against an injury-riddled and relegation-haunted Crystal Palace side.
With Manchester City home and hosed as champions and a swashbuckling Liverpool due to roll up at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime, those optimists will be in short supply.
But after falling behind to goals from Andros Townsend and Patrick van Aanholt, United somehow seized an unlikely victory thanks to the stunning pot-shot which brought Nemanja Matic his first goal for the club.
Yet for long periods, this was a night on which star turns such as Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez singularly failing to haul Mourinho’s men out of mediocrity.
Gone are the days when a night spent watching United came with a guarantee of showbiz.
Selhurst Park was the venue for the club’s great anti-hero, Eric Cantona, producing his infamous Jackie Chan tribute and for its matinee idol David Beckham announcing himself with a 50-yard Hollywood goal when Wimbledon played here.
These days, though, watching United is often as colourless as the weird away shirts they were wearing — a shade described on the Dulux colour chart as ‘mishap at the launderette’.
It is the fiftieth shade of grey and you would have needed to be a masochist to enjoying watching them in the first half.
When their travelling fans used to sing ‘you’re only here to see United’ it worked because it might possibly have been true of some supporters in the home end. Yet those days went with Sir Alex Ferguson.
On the basis of their previous two Premier League away trips, to Tottenham and Newcastle, few neutrals would open their curtains to watch them in the back yard.
And whereas opposing teams have taken to running up the white flag when facing Manchester City, everyone in this league seems to fancy their chances against Mourinho’s team.
Palace appeared to have extricated themselves from the relegation swamp until a run of five matches without a win.
But despite being without nine first-teamers, they were ahead within 11 minutes.
Luka Milivojevic sent out a searching pass for Christian Benteke, who squared for Townsend to shoot, his effort deflecting horribly off Victor Lindelof, the Swedish defender whom unfortunate things seem to happen to.
After that, the first half shaped up into a contest between Pogba, United’s record signing, and Sanchez, the League’s most lavishly-paid player, as to who could give the ball away more often.
Sanchez, perhaps imagining himself back at Barcelona, picked out the red and blue stripes of Palace on a few occasions, but Pogba took the honours by sending a succession of passes into touch.
Scott McTominay, having thrown in his lot with Scotland, typified his first half by felling Van Aanholt with a challenge which would have curdled the blood of Graeme Souness or Billy Bremner.
Poor old Van Aanholt had already been floored by an Antonio Valencia elbow in the opening minute. They are more likely to bruise you than out-play you, this United side.
McTominay made way for Marcus Rashford at half-time with Mourinho opting for a 4-3-2-1 — but within three minutes, Palace were two-up, as they displayed a speed of thought sadly lacking in the visitors.
Matic fouled Benteke and an alert Jeff Schlupp took the free-kick instantly, releasing Van Aanholt who pelted his way through and shot past a frozen David De Gea.
As a snapshot of this leaden-footed, slow-witted United team it was perfect.
Yet Palace are not in the bottom three for no reason and it did not take long for them to gift United a way back in with some negligent defending.
Valencia crossed and Palace left two men onside and unmarked at the far post, the first of whom, Chris Smalling, headed home for 2-1.
Palace’s hugely promising full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka almost restored the two-goal lead with a cross-shot which was tipped over by a back-pedalling De Gea.
But United came to life late on — Pogba forcing a save from Wayne Hennessey, Matic having a shot cleared off the line by Benteke. Then with 14 minutes left, the Palace defence froze again as a deflected Sanchez shot looped back off the bar and Romelu Lukaku was allowed too much time to net the equaliser.
Almost immediately, De Gea produced an outstanding save to thwart Benteke’s header.
But when a Pogba shot was charged down Matic swung a boot and snatched three points United had scarcely deserved.
