United’s best league clashes with Palace

Four days after our Carabao Cup win, Roy Hodgson's side will again be our visitors, as we face them for the 29th time in the top flight since it was rebranded in 1992.

To mark the occasion and the release of your free digital collectible, designed uniquely for this match, we're recalling five of our favourite Premier League games against the Eagles, beginning with a pivotal fixture in our pursuit of the first-ever Premier League title in the 1992/93 season.

PALACE 0 UNITED 2 (1992/93)

In match 32 of the maiden 1992/93 Premier League season, United travelled to south-east London knowing that a win would edge us closer to being the first champions of the new division. The Reds were made to work hard for the victory, as the hosts - managed by our former winger Steve Coppell - kept us at bay for just over an hour before Mark Hughes opened the scoring with an unstoppable volley at the back post. In the dying stages, Paul Ince added a second to seal the win for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side. This triumph and title challengers Aston Villa’s loss at Oldham Athletic confirmed United as the winners of the Premier League; ending our 26-year wait for a top-flight title.

UNITED 5 PALACE 2 (2004/05)

When the Eagles came to Old Trafford in December 2004, Paul Scholes stole the headlines with a wonderful brace in our emphatic 5-2 win. Twice the Reds took the lead, and twice the visitors fought back, with Scholes’s opener and Alan Smith’s 35th-minute header being cancelled out by Danny Granville and Joonas Kolkka in quick succession. However, after the half-time break, the Reds blew Palace away, with an Emerson Boyce own goal and Scholes’s second giving us a two-goal cushion. John O’Shea added a fifth in added time, getting onto the end of a cross from Ryan Giggs, who was making his 600th United appearance, to cap a high-scoring win.

PALACE 1 UNITED 2 (2016/17)

Another December fixture features in our selection, with this narrow 2-1 win at Selhurst Park being guaranteed by a late strike from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In a match that contained controversy, with handball shouts and contentious offside calls, Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba stood out for the Reds. The Swede chested down a cross for the Frenchman, who gave United a deserved lead at the break. But after half-time, the Eagles fought back, and James McArthur levelled the scoring just after the hour mark, setting up a tense finale. Just when the game looked to have gotten away from the Reds, Ibrahimovic slotted home Pogba’s incisive through ball to seal an important away victory.

PALACE 2 UNITED 3 (2017/18)

United staged an incredible comeback from two goals down to come away with three points from Palace in March 2018. Just two points ahead of Liverpool in second place in the Premier League, the Reds entered this fixture knowing that a win was pivotal. At half-time, the Reds, sporting a grey alternate strip, were two goals down thanks to goals from Andros Townsend and Patrick van Aanholt. Defeat looked likely. But by the 76th minute, the Reds were level again, as Chris Smalling’s header and Romelu Lukaku’s strike wiped out the Eagles’ advantage. Then, in injury time, Nemanja Matic produced a stunning volley from outside the box, his first goal in a United shirt. The goal sent our away supporters into delirium and completed the Reds’ incredible comeback at Selhurst Park.

UNITED 2 PALACE 1 (2022/23)

Tempting as it was to round off our selection with another emphatic triumph at Old Trafford, the resounding 4-0 success exactly six years ago this Saturday, we're instead reminding ourselves of last season's hard-fought 2-1 win. On an emotionally charged afternoon, two days before the Munich Air Disaster anniversary, the Reds took to the field as a giant banner depicting the Busby Babes crowd-surfed across the Stretford End.

United rose to the occasion by taking the lead through Bruno Fernandes's penalty after just seven minutes and doubling the advantage just after the hour mark with a wonderful team goal scored, appropriately, by homegrown Academy graduate Marcus Rashford. Thereafter, and especially following Casemiro's red card, it was character, spirit and incredible support from the stands that drove United over the line with Jeffrey Schlupp's late strike for Palace proving to be just a deficit-reducer.

Post-match, Luke Shaw praised our fans by saying: “Old Trafford was absolutely bouncing and we felt like the fans were with us. We feed off that energy and they helped us a lot in the last 20 minutes. I think it was such an important three points today and they clearly played their part to help us achieve that.”

COLLECT UNITED: CRYSTAL PALACE

As a special celebration for the Collect United Old Trafford takeover this weekend, we're keeping the claim window open through the match.

You can get your free digital collectible by clicking the image below or by heading straight to collectibles.manutd.com and following these three simple steps:

1. SIGN IN TO THE COLLECTIBLES SITE
Let's start with a visit to collectibles.manutd.com, where you click Sign In, Use Social and finally your choice of Google, Facebook or Twitter account.

2. CREATE YOUR FREE DIGITAL WALLET
Signing in with your chosen social account will create an online wallet where you can store all the matchday tokens you claim throughout 2023/24. How many will you have by the end of the season? Why not challenge your friends and see who can build the biggest collection.

3. COLLECT NOW
Click this button on the collectibles.manutd.com homepage to find the latest token, and again on the next page to unlock and add it to your digital wallet. Then you're done!

The Crystal Palace collectible will be available from 48 hours before kick-off - so from 15:00 BST today (Thursday) - until full-time at around 17:00 BST on Saturday.