Olise wonder-strike coupled with Casemiro suspension spoils ten Hag's night 

LESS THAN IDEAL: Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire.

ERIK ten Hag did his best to dispel any suggestion the main focus of Manchester United’s week was the visit to Arsenal. His side’s recent form, though, meant it there was always a risk this game would be viewed as a stepping stone on the way to Sunday’s much-anticipated trip to the Emirates Stadium.

Addressing the possibility of Casemiro being suspended for the meeting with the Gunners in his pre-match interview, the United manager emphasised the possibility would play no part in his thinking. His priority, it was clear, was to claim a 10th successive victory that would ensure his side reached the weekend on a high.

In the end, Ten Hag got neither with Casemiro collecting a late yellow card, 10 minutes before Michael Olise’s added time free-kick denied United three points.

Prior to that, it had looked to all so routine.

It’s a measure of Ten Hag’s impact this season that United faced Palace in such a buoyant mood compared to their last visit to Selhurst Park which proved to be a fitting end to a season to forget. Wilf Zaha’s goal secured Crystal Palace’s first home league win against United since 1991 as Ralf Rangnick forgettable stint at Old Trafford came to an end.

Ten Hag watched from the stands and could have been forgiven for wondering what he had let himself in for. After all, Rangnick had declared a few weeks earlier that the club needed “open heart surgery’.

Eight months and it was a very different United that returned to this corner of South London. Some of the names on the team sheet have changed, some have been revived and restored, but collectively Ten Hag’s side is a very different animal to the team that saw out the end of last season so meekly.

This is a group of players that has gelled behind a common purpose in recent weeks. The disruption and distraction associated with Cristiano Ronaldo has gone and, for the first time in a while, the dressing room appears to be largely drama-free. There may be question marks over the futures of a number of players, notably Harry Maguire who took up his now familiar position on the bench, but for the most part, the background noise has been reduced to little more than a hum.

There’s no doubt that confidence is surging through this team right now. Ten Hag responded to the weekend derby defeat of Manchester City by insisting it would only strengthen the belief among the players that they can return the club to its trophy-winning recent past.

It helped of course that they were playing a Crystal Palace struggling to get out of a rut after five defeats in the past six games and for long periods in the first half United were guilty of translating their superiority into clear chances.

While the visitors were able to progress smoothly towards the final third, they failed to find a finishing touch for 44 minutes. Aaron Wan-Bissaka maintained his return to form at right-back by pressing forward whenever he could and delivering a number of telling crosses while Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford combined effectively on the left.

The opening didn’t come though and, half an hour in, a spat between Bruno Fernandes and Antony betrayed signs of growing frustration. Fernandes’ goal a minute before the break confirmed unity was restored however when all 10 outfield players gathered in a huddle in a telling sign of togetherness.

The return of Lisandro Martinez to the heart of the defence for his first Premier League start since returning from Argentina’s World Cup triumph could also hardly have been better timed. Martinez’s centre-back partnership with Raphael Varane is clearly Ten Hag’s first choice pairing and the benefits of freeing up Luke Shaw to press forward from left-back were also clear.

The decision to bring Wout Weghorst in on loan from Burnley may have raise eyebrows but the manager wasted no time in handing the Netherlands forward his debut. Weghorst scored just two goals in 20 league games for the Clarets but nine goals in 18 games for Besiktas this season, and two goals in his country’s World Cup defeat to Argentina provided a reminder of his scoring ability.

Ten Hag insisted the arrival of the towering centre-forward would not mean a shift in tactics and while Weghorst directed a looping header onto the roof of the net, there were no evidence of a more direct approach. And tellingly, the striker helped create the space for Fernandes’s goal by drawing both Palace centre-backs towards him.

In the end, though, United paid the price for their failure to build on their early lead.

They head to the Emirates Stadium on the back of a painful reality check and, crucially, without Casemiro.