And it’s the old Rom two for Reds
Another record for Solskjaer as Reds stay in hunt for the top four
HOW fitting at an away ground revered by seasoned United away-dayers the club set an away-day record.
Reds supporters ran on to the Selhurst Park pitch to mob Eric Cantona 26 years ago, and they were back on it to celebrate an unprecedented record.
Ashley Young’s 83rd-minute strike clinched United’s eighth successive away win – a new club record.
Five have come in London. From Cardiff to Crystal Palace, it is a remarkable run that, however insignificant in terms of a possible title challenge this campaign, maintains momentum heading into a possible tilt next season - and surely, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ‘at the wheel.’
United have not lost at Selhurst Park since Solskjaer’s first appearance there as a substitute in a 1997 FA Cup fourth round replay.
Their love affair with the Croydon ground is not as vibrant as the day they celebrated their breakthrough championship by taking 25,000 down there in 1993, but the support is still raucous and the backing for the current manager as utterly unconditional.
They seldom have it easy at Palace and this was another south London slog, reaffirmed by Solskjaer’s decision to call upon Eric Bailly with 15 minutes left.
United were deprived of eight firstteam squad members and any win over a team unbeaten in their last five was to be treasured. They ended it by introducing 17-year-old James Garner for his debut to make him the 230th United academy graduate to play for the first-team. What was an at times fraught night ended perfectly. Even accounting for an edgy 15-minute spell, the defence stood out again. Solskjaer used to affect matches off the bench and continues to do so from it, turning defence into attack and defenders into attackers. At Chelsea, Paul Pogba moved to the left and United were soon ahead and the tactic came off again at Selhurst Park. It was made possible by the throwback football from Luke Shaw, tasked with getting chalk on his boots while Alexis Sanchez was beckoned infield. Shaw strayed into that territory, too. He surged past Andros Townsend and then Jeffrey Schlupp dummied Martin Kelly and played the ball into Romelu Lukaku’s spacious path. The ball ended up in the bottom corner of the net. Fresh from pocketing Mohamed Salah at the weekend, his was the adventurous Shaw of the start of that second auspicious season that was cruelly curtailed by a broken leg in Eindhoven. Shaw was congratulated as much as Lukaku by team-mates for his buccaneering wing play. Solskjaer got Lukaku scoring at the start of his reign and, as he put it recently, they are flowing like ketchup again after the drought.
As is often the way with strikers, Lukaku converted the tougher chances having squandered the easier one. It was testament to Lukaku’s resilience he recovered from that eighth-minute disappointment to tally twice.
It was in Turin that United supporters bragged ‘We’ve got Sanchez, Paul Pogba and Fred’ and Palace marked the first time the trio were starting in the same side since the ditty took off. Fred, playing for the first time in 53 days, was accommodated so generously he was positioned in Pogba’s favoured left-sided role of the midfield trident.
Their reunion was in danger of ending within 20 minutes amid a frenetic opening intensified by maybe the loudest home support in the country and the loudest away followers on the continent.
Solskjaer used to affect matches off the bench and continues to do so from it Samuel Luckhurst
Pogba started limping but refused to call for a stoppage or any treatment.
Solskjaer beckoned Sanchez infield while Shaw busied himself with providing width and he did just that from a ninth-minute corner.
The outswinger was met by an unmarked Lukaku, who volleyed well over from eight yards.
Lukaku went into the game without a goal in nine and that profligacy cost United a number of times early in the season.
Palace ought to have punished him, too, only Andros Townsend rushed a near-post side-footer three minutes later.
Instead, it was Lukaku who meted out the punishment on 33 minutes, as he gathered Shaw’s pass and caressed the ball in with his weaker foot.
That cliche about being at your most vulnerable after scoring was patent when nobody tracked the unattended Schlupp into the area, where he nodded Townsend’s inswinger wide.
Too many of the United starters were wandering and Solskjaer had to regularly intervene in the technical area to untangle the webs United were in.
Fred was overhitting Hollywood passes, botching simple balls and berated by David de Gea for not tracking Townsend. Ashley Young similarly despaired at the dithering defending from the midfield.
Pogba should have crowned more good wing play within a minute of the restart but sent Diogo Dalot’s pinpoint cross into the stands.
United did not have to wait much longer and Lukaku pounced on Victor Lindelof’s loose header to steer the ball over Vicente Guaita.
The confidence and authority was so markedly different from the first half Fred’s crossfield passes were finding the intended recipient.
Only it seemed to end with Lukaku’s second and any plans to introduced Tahith Chong were dashed by Palace, backed by their black-shirted ultras in the Holmesdale Road Stand.
They rallied through Joel Ward’s 66th-minute diving header.
Sanchez, uninspiring all night, was accused of theatrics and feigning agony by unimpressed referee Martin Atkinson, who tired of the Chilean and carded him. Solskjaer soon removed Sanchez.
Pogba drew a simple save from Guaita in a rare moment of respite and then displayed composure to draw the opponents in and set up Young to rifle past Guaita.
And send some United fans onto the pitch.