Football news - Manchester United cannot disappoint against Crystal Palace

The Premier League season is just two games old, and the mood of United fans is mainly positive. There are caveats to that, but supporters generally believe that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's summer changes have left the club better off. The visit of Palace is only one game but it is a chance to avoid a depressing stutter, if nothing else. Confidence is both easily developed - you just need to win - but by the same token it can evaporate in a second.

Last season, United struggled to clear away the dross in front of them. Despite the billions thrown at English teams to spend on players, there are few brilliant players who will join Burnley ahead of AC Milan, even if they might earn more money over the course of the contract. Teams from seventh and below are eminently beatable, and any team wanting to finish in the top four should win the vast majority of their games home and away. United did not do that, not helped by the apparent reluctance of the side to run at full pelt in any game from March 6 onwards.

There are a number of possible reasons for this. One, the players who were gutless under Jose Mourinho were happy to turn off the taps for the next manager too. Two, they were simply not fit enough to perform in the top flight, something they can blame previous managers for only partially. Third, they don’t have the talent. All three arguments have merit, but this potentially reinvigorated side should believe they can beat any mid-table side.

Daniel James has pace but showed indiscipline against Wolves, Paul Pogba showed the downside of his unerring self-belief after a season debut that promised the opposite, and Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka impressed. Only Jesse Lingard was strikingly poor. There is a dearth of quality to play alongside Pogba, but they were far more solid than they were against the same opponents last season.

Clearly, Palace are a far worse side than Wolves. They are there to be beaten and treated with measured contempt, just as Roy Hodgson’s England side were. Nevertheless, there is a second test that United must pass in order to secure three points.

As well as playing to the best of their ability for a full 90 minutes, this is a chance for Wifried Zaha to prove that he deserves to be in the Champions League. On a long, well-paid contract, Zaha may be stuck at Palace until his contract runs out and after that, there will be nobody willing to shell out on a 30-year-old winger. He must consistently deliver his best performances this season if he wishes to attract a committed buyer. Visiting Old Trafford, where he failed to embrace a limited opportunity to impress, is a chance to show what he is capable of.

Wan-Bissaka, his former teammate, must be able to repel him. The two will have come up against one another in training and both will be hoping their experience gives them the upper hand. Regardless, the seemingly unflappable full-back is just two games into his United career and will be supported by a defence still learning its lines. Should Zaha switch sides and focus on Luke Shaw, it could be carnage if he is again given insufficient support by Marcus Rashford. Last season a clean sheet was intolerably rare, this season it has to be a near-certainty against relegation fodder.

The season has barely begun, and there are far more reasons to be cheerful than massively depressed, which makes a change at Old Trafford. But this is a club that has specialised in false starts since Alex Ferguson’s departure. There are fundamental changes that need to be made in defence, effort and ruthlessness, that need to be repeatedly proven before anyone can really be sure that this game isn’t just another chance to disappoint.