Yahoo Finance Manchester United vs Crystal Palace: What time is kick-off today, what TV channel is it on and what is our prediction?
What is it?
Manchester United's first game of the season. They take on Crystal Palace in the Premier League at Old Trafford.
When is it?
Saturday, September 19, 2020
What time is kick-off?
The game kicks off at 5:30pm with television coverage starting earlier.
What TV channel is it on?
Sky Sports Premier League / Main Event.
What is the team news?
The only real doubt for Manchester United is Paul Pogba, who will have to find his way to full match fitness after isolating following a positive coronavirus test. Mason Greenwood could feature if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has forgiven him for his Iceland escapade, and Harry Maguire is available after a short spell in a Greek jail. Pre-season hasn't been without its distractions.
Crystal Palace have a less-than-ideal injury list. Christian Benteke, Gary Cahill, Patrick Van Aanholt, James Tomkins, Connor Wickham, and Nathan Ferguson are all injured so get them out of your Fantasy Football teams before the weekend. Eberechi Eze could be given his full league debut.
What are they saying?
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer:
"I think we can go into the new season with confidence with the way we finished last season, that showed what we’re capable of and we developed throughout the season and need to keep on and show potential. We need more consistency but with a year more experience we should be getting that consistency. It’s a group I don’t really want to say what they cannot do, they can go as far as they want themselves."Fans will always want the best possible team to watch, the best possible Man United team and that’s the passion we want and the history we have. We can look back 10 or 20 years and you look back at the great players we have and, for me, going forward, since Sir Alex left we’ve been averaging fifth, last season we got third which was a big step forward, everyone saw development, Bruno coming in, Harry being captain and showing leadership skills, Aaron did well, we want to take a step forward and we can go into the new season with confidence but we’re looking to give the group a boot and we’re working on it."
"I speak to Mason and I’ve spoken to Mason, what we speak about and discuss will be between the two of us. The kid had a fantastic season, he’s just come through, and the club have worked really hard when we gave Mason enough time on the pitch, exposure in the media, then you come to the end of the season and we’ve had less than two weeks off and he’s called up, I tried my best to give him a rest over the summer, we asked specifically he should have had a rest, he needs it mentally and physically and first thing that happens he’s called up and right there in the press, we’ve done what we can to protect him, I’ve done what I can to help him, when he comes back into the daily routine he’ll be fine.”
Roy Hodgson (also on Mason Greenwood, since he used to be England manager):
“I’m afraid when you make mistakes that are as big a mistake as Mason Greenwood made, you should be expected to pay some sort of price for that.“I’m not certain sympathy is the right word. It is important he learns from the mistake, I’m sure he will, but errors of that magnitude unfortunately are going to be criticised, scrutinised and are going to be punished I guess.“I’m just fortunate it didn’t happen on my watch, it was someone else’s problem!“I’m not prepared to stand here and say sympathy. I’m not even really prepared to talk about age as well.“The fact is if you are old enough to come in and hold down a regular spot at Manchester United – and you are old enough to get called up and play for England – then I’m afraid you’ve got to produce that level of behaviour that is required in those instances.”
What are the odds?
Manchester United to win: 3/10
Draw: 9/2
Crystal Palace to win: 17/2
What's our prediction?
Crystal Palace should keep things tight but United have the better players. A close 1-0 or 2-0 win for Manchester United feels right.
