Manchester United will be bidding to make it three victories from their opening three pre-season matches when they take on fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace on Tuesday.
The Red Devils have beaten Liverpool and Melbourne Victory in their two friendlies this summer, while Palace will enter this contest off the back of a 2-0 loss to Liverpool in Singapore on Friday.
Match preview
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Man United opened their preparations for the 2022-23 campaign with a 4-0 victory over Liverpool last Tuesday before recording a 4-1 win over Melbourne Victory three days later, and they now have two more games in Australia against fellow Premier League sides Palace and Aston Villa.
Head coach Erik ten Hag will not be getting too carried away with the two pre-season successes, but there have been plenty of positive signs, and the fact that the team have managed to score eight goals in Cristiano Ronaldo's absence will have pleased with the new management team.
Anthony Martial has now scored in back-to-back matches, while new signing Tyrell Malacia has impressed at left-back, and the Red Devils will now round off their tour against Palace and Villa before heading back to Europe for friendlies against Atletico Madrid and Rayo Vallecano.
Man United will then open their 2022-23 Premier League campaign at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on August 7, and Ten Hag will hope to have a couple more new players on board by that point.
Christian Eriksen was confirmed as the team's second signing of the summer on Friday, while a deal for Ajax's Lisandro Martinez is said to be on the verge of going through, but neither player will join up with the squad in Australia, with their debuts instead potentially coming against either Atletico or Rayo.
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Palace, meanwhile, have played four friendlies this summer, drawing with Accrington Stanley and beating Millwall before suffering a 2-0 loss to Liverpool in their opening game of their pre-season tour on Friday.
Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah were on the scoresheet for the Reds, but it is difficult to read too much into the defeat, as the Eagles have made the trip to Australia without a number of important players.
Marc Guehi, Wilfried Zaha, Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise, Christian Benteke, Will Hughes and Cheikhou Kouyate are among the individuals not to make the trip due to fitness and visa issues, meaning that the Premier League outfit only have 10 senior players available on the tour.
The majority of those to stay behind were actually in action against Ipswich Town on Saturday, with Benteke on the scoresheet in what proved to be a 4-2 victory, so it is a difficult pre-season for head coach Patrick Vieira, as his full squad will not be back together until the latter stages of the month.
Palace, who have signed three new players during the current window, bringing in Cheick Doucoure, Sam Johnstone and Malcolm Ebiowei, are building towards their Premier League opener against Arsenal on August 5, and the capital side will be bidding to improve on last season's 12th-place finish in England's top flight.
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Team News
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Man United were without David de Gea and Raphael Varane for the clash with Melbourne Victory, but both players are expected to be available for the contest with Palace.
Ten Hag has made wholesale changes at the interval of both of the team's pre-season games thus far and that is again expected to be the case here, with a familiar XI set to take to the field for the first whistle.
Marcus Rashford could come back in for Anthony Elanga, while Jadon Sancho and Martial are also expected to feature in the final third of the field on Tuesday.
Donny van de Beek and Malacia are perhaps the two players pushing hardest to break into the starting side, but Luke Shaw should retain his spot at left-back, while Bruno Fernandes is expected to continue as the number 10.
There has not yet been a tour appearance for either Hannibal Mejbri or Alejandro Garnacho, while James Garner, who impressed on loan at Nottingham Forest last season, has been unavailable for selection through injury.
As for Palace, midfielders Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Killian Phillips were both in the starting side against Liverpool, and the pair could again be handed opportunities to impress here.
Vicente Guaita, Joachim Andersen, Nathaniel Clyne, Tyrick Mitchell, Joel Ward and Luka Milivojevic should all start once again, though, with Vieira set to use his senior players from the first whistle.
Jean-Philippe Mateta, Odsonne Edouard and Jordan Ayew started as the front three against Liverpool, meanwhile, and that is again expected to be the case in this match.
There will again be chances for a number of youngsters to impress, including Ebiowei, with the recent arrival from Derby featuring off the bench against Jurgen Klopp's side.
Manchester United possible starting lineup:
De Gea; Dalot, Maguire, Varane, Shaw; McTominay, Fred; Rashford, Fernandes, Sancho; Martial
Crystal Palace possible starting lineup:
Guaita; Clyne, Andersen, Ward, Mitchell; Rak-Sakyi, Milivojevic, Phillips; J Ayew, Mateta, Edouard
We say: Manchester United 3-1 Crystal Palace
Man United have been impressive in their opening two friendlies of the summer, and the Red Devils will fancy their chances of beating an understrength Palace on Tuesday. Palace's second-half XI is likely to be a team of youngsters, and we are expecting Ten Hag's side to be too strong here.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Manchester United win with a probability of 56.99%. A draw had a probability of 22.3% and a win for Crystal Palace had a probability of 20.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Manchester United win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.02%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.91%) and 2-0 (9.46%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.5%), while for a Crystal Palace win it was 0-1 (5.57%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 6.2% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 3-1 win for Manchester United in this match and our data analysis correctly predicted the win for Manchester United.
