TWO sides at the opposite ends of the table meet in Monday Night Football's live match on Sky Sports and the three points will mean as much to both of them.
Crystal Palace are desperate for a win that will see them climb out the relegation zone and in to 16th place. For Manchester United the league title is a forlorn hope but the battle for second place is well and truly on and a win tonight will see them jump back into second ahead of great rivals Liverpool.
Result
After a disastrous start to the season Palace now have a fighting chance of avoiding relegation. They were pointless before the arrival of Roy Hodgson but have picked up 27 points since and although they've lost eight during his time in charge, six of those have come at the hands of teams in the top six. United won 4-0 when the two sides met in September but this points to be a much tighter match.
That record against the top six sides doesn't bode well for a Palace win and it's now 19 games unbeaten for United in this fixture. We have to get on a Man United win at 1/2.
Goals
Goals aren't exactly flowing in Man Utd matches at the moment. Just one in the last 10 have seen both teams score and only three of those ten have gone Over 2.5 goals. Palace are the joint second lowest scorers in the league with just 25 in 28 matches so all the signs point to this being a low scoring affair. Let's go under 2.5 goals to take the BetBuilder to 12/5.
Corners
Both sides rank in the top 10 for number of corners per match in the league. Man Utd win 6.04 versus Palace's 5.79 but United concede considerably fewer at just 4.46 per match. The corners line is set at at least 9 but I'd be loath to go above that, instead I prefer looking at the under market with Under 11 match corners boosting the odds to a healthy looking 5/1.
Correct Score
So we've already nailed our colours to the mast that United will win a low scoring affair. By committing to a 1-0 win for the Red Devils we can take the odds from 5-1 to 12/1 so if you're feeling brave have a small wager on that one.
Bet Builder Tips
- Man Utd win
- Under 2.5 goals
- Under 11 corners
- Pays 5/1 at Bet365
- As above PLUS Man Utd win 1-0 pays 12/1 at Bet365
