Joe Cole predicts Crystal Palace star will ‘dominate’ Manchester United clash

Joe Cole has predicted Manchester United will lose at Crystal Palace, with one player tipped to ‘dominate’ the game.

United travel to Selhurst Park on Saturday evening just four months after their humiliating 4-0 defeat in this fixture, but they will have hope of a very different result this time around.

Erik ten Hag’s side performed well in their 3-0 win at Southampton last week and have since thrashed Barnsley 7-0 in the Carabao Cup.

Palace on the other hand are yet to win in the Premier League this season and are without their star man from that 4-0 win Michael Olise, who was sold to Bayern Munich over the summer.

Yet, Cole believes the Eagles will end their winless run against the Red Devils who he thinks are still suffering from the same issues from last season.

‘It looks like this Crystal Palace team is all wrong for Man United at Selhurst Park,’ the Chelsea icon told Paddy Power.

‘Consistency is the key for United, but I don’t know how they will get it together now.

‘I watched them against Brighton when they were beaten 2-1 in injury time, and I saw them in the Southampton game when we covered it on TNT last week. There was a bit of everything we’ve seen from this Manchester United team before.

‘They’ll slip up against Crystal Palace on the weekend. It’s a callous game for the United players.

‘Palace have so much pace on the counter-attack. They are also at home, which is a notoriously tricky place to go.

‘I fancy Eberechi Eze to dominate the game in midfield. Both teams will score, but I see 2-1 Palace as the final score.’

England international Eze, who United are interested in signing, has already bagged three goals and an assist in six appearances this season, and will operate as Palace’s chief creator.

Eagles boss Oliver Glasner meanwhile is very wary of the threat United’s forwards have, saying in his press conference: Even when they lost 3-0 against Liverpool, the xG was almost the same.

‘They have a lot of quality in their offence, with their wingers, brilliant in one v one, with players from the midfield always scoring. Now it was [Joshua] Zirkzee or [Marcus] Rashford who played in the EFL Cup, so a very, very good offence.’

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