Manchester United were dour in an opening-game loss that ended a 14-match unbeaten Premier League run. Crystal Palace’s second goal was a controversial penalty from Wilfried Zaha, a retake because David de Gea was ruled to have left his line when saving Jordan Ayew’s initial effort. But really there can be no excuses for the way United’s frontline was starved throughout due to a concerning lack of energy and creativity.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær offered an honest analysis. “You can see we are short and they deserved the points,” said the manager. “They were sharper than us in challenges, tackles. We started slowly and that had a knock on effect for the rest of the game when they scored the first goal.”
