On the day Marcus Rashford edged closer to a departure from Old Trafford, Manchester United lacked a cutting edge up front in a 2-0 home loss to Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
There was more bad news Sunday for United with a tearful Lisandro Martinez carried off on a stretcher with a left knee injury – the latest injury to afflict the Argentina defender.
Jean-Philippe Mateta scored both goals in the second half for Palace to end United’s three-match winning run in all competitions – a streak coming after manager Ruben Amorim had called his team “the worst team, maybe, in the history of Manchester United.”
The Amorim era looks set to be without Rashford, at least until the end of the season, with the forward reportedly undergoing a medical examination at Aston Villa ahead of sealing a loan move with a view to a permanent transfer.
Even with striker Rashford absent, Amorim fielded a team with no out-and-out striker and failed to create many good chances against Palace, which picked off United on the counterattack. Mateta’s goals came in the 64th and 89th minutes.
United has lost seven of its first 13 home games in the Premier League this season and that hasn't happened since the 1893-94 season, according to the competition's statistic supplier, Opta. Five of those defeats have come in the last six home matches under Amorim.
“It is difficult to play here because we want to please our fans,” Amorim said. "This season is going to be like that, I said it since the first day.”
United was overtaken by Palace and dropped to 13th in the standings – one place and two points ahead of Tottenham, which won 2-0 at Brentford to end a four-match losing run in the league and ease some pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou.
Vitaly Janelt scored an own-goal at a corner to put Tottenham ahead at halftime and Pape Sarr added the second goal in the 87th.
“We needed a big effort again today, a physical effort. We put that in,” said Postecoglou, who rested defender Micky van de Ven after the defender returned from injury in the midweek win over Elfsborg in the Europa League. “Outstanding effort by the players.”
The result was a huge boost for Tottenham ahead of arguably the team's biggest match of the season, the second leg of the English League Cup semifinals against Liverpool on Thursday. Tottenham leads 1-0 from the first leg.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
