Man Utd v C Palace: Expect tentative victory for United young guns

Carling Cup / Jaymes Monte / 29 November 2011 /

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Ferguson's trophy haul began against Palace, it certainly won't be ending against them.

"Ferguson won his first United trophy by beating Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup final replay."

We're expecting a Manchester United team unrecognisable from the one that took on Newcastle at the weekend, but Jaymes Monte still thinks they'll have enough for the win, just.

Manchester United v Crystal Palace, KO: Wednesday 19:45 live on Sky Sports 1, Match Odds: Man Utd [1.3], C Palace [13.5], The Draw [6.2]

In the thick of the Championship promotion battle every point matters and a couple of bad results can send you plummeting down the table. That is exactly what has happened to Crystal Palace in recent weeks. Having briefly flirted with the automatic promotion spots, three draws and two defeats have sent them tumbling down to 10th in the league table.

They are now without a win or a goal in their last five matches; no matter who you are Old Trafford isn't the ideal place to go in attempting to address either of those statistics.

Manchester United are, also, unquestionably below-par at present. Although the majority of supporters in the country would be delighted to say there team were second in the Premier League and still on course for four pieces of silverware, the champions a far from fluent at the moment. Sir Alex Ferguson knows, more than most, that winning is a habit and he'll be keen for his side to rediscover that habit here.

Match Odds
Ferguson has confirmed that he will make wholesale changes to his Manchester United starting XI for this game. That means the likes of Zeki Fryers, Paul Pogba, Mame Diouf, Ravel Morrison and Ben Amos could all be given starting berths. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones could also return.

You may think that would offer Palace some encouragement. But the facile manner in which a similarly 'weakened' United side brushed past Leeds and Aldershot earlier in the competition suggests that they still face a huge task.

Ferguson won his first United trophy by beating Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup final replay. He can take a big step towards his 38th by beating the Eagles at odds of [1.3] this Wednesday evening.

Over/Under 2.5 goals
Given Dougie Freedman's side's poor recent strike rate - no goals scored in five games - we have to assume that United will be required to do the bulk of the scoring if this to go Over 2.5.

United have also tightened up at the back recently, but that resilience has coincided with the presence of Nemanja Vidic, who isn't expected to feature here, so we can't read too much into that.

Two 3-0 wins against Leeds and Aldershot show that this United side are capable of breaking the 2.5 barrier on their own. However, the value has to be in siding with the [2.6] available on Under 2.5 goals.

For many of the United team this will be a rare Old Trafford outing and that could bring a bit of apprehension to proceedings.

Correct Score
In light of the aforementioned results in the earlier rounds of this competition it would be foolish not to accompany a bet on Under 2.5 goals with a back of 3-0 in the correct score market at odds of [10.0]. If you fancy United to run away with the game then the [4.0] on Any Unquoted here wouldn't be the worst bet in the world.

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