Manchester United v Palace

Old Trafford, Wednesday 8.00pm

James McArthur

Team news

Palace midfielder James McArthur makes a welcome return to the squad after being sidelined since February with an ankle ligament problem.

Yannick Bolasie, Joel Ward, Joe Ledley and Scott Dann suffered knocks in the 1-1 draw at Arsenal on Sunday so won't feature, while Dwight Gayle is still out with a leg injury.

United midfielder Ander Herrera is available after he picked up a knock last week. However, striker Adnan Januzaj (hamstring), midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger (knee) and defender Luke Shaw (leg) are still injured.

United (from): De Gea, Romero, Blind, Smalling, Jones, McNair, Fosu-Mensah, Darmian, Rojo, Varela, Valencia, Borthwick-Jackson, Schneiderlin, Carrick, Fellaini, Mata, Young, Lingard, Depay, Herrera, Martial, Rashford, Rooney.

Palace (from): Hennessey, McCarthy, Speroni, Kelly, Delaney, Mariappa, Souare, Lee, Jedinak, Zaha, Puncheon, Cabaye, Mutch, Campbell, Adebayor, Sako, Wickham.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"Like all teams, you need your best players and we've got our best players back. And I've got even more good news because McArthur is going to return for this Man United game.

"He's been a real miss for us; his energy, his experience and his quality, so really good news for us for these remaining four games.

"I don't think anyone will look at our side and worry about us putting an under-strength team out when they see the team sheet.

"One or two changes I will definitely do just to increase the energy. We are effectively playing four games in 12 days of Premier League standard. We need to be strong and keep focused. I am not going to change my team completely. I don't believe in that."

Wilfried Zaha

"My time at United has gone and I don't mind if I get booed. "I still have Man United followers on Twitter. They might wait until I make a mistake in a game or something, and they'll come out with something like 'that's why you got sold'.

"I just think you're either following me or you don't. That stage when I was at Man United has gone now and I'm a Crystal Palace player.

"I am just trying to progress in my career, so going back to Old Trafford will be like playing at any other stadium. I am just going to do my best as usual."

Louis van Gaal

"I have always an eye on the schedule of my team and I have to look if the load is not an overload for players. But this game against Crystal Palace is very important. We have to win, we need to win, otherwise we cannot close the gap. You can only give pressure by winning, so we can only look at ourselves.

"For us it is too important to rotate because of freshness for the semi-final. For me, now, the most important thing is to beat Crystal Palace. To speak about the semi-final against Everton isn't appropriate."

Manchester United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
5th	33	16	8	9	56

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
31/10/2015	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 0	Manchester United
09/05/2015	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Manchester United
08/11/2014	League	Manchester United	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
22/02/2014	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 2	Manchester United
14/09/2013	League	Manchester United	2 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 0-0 Manchester United

Saturday October 31 2015

Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Kelly, Cabaye (Jedinak, 80), Bolasie, Zaha, McArthur, Puncheon, Gayle

Subs not used: Speroni, Hangeland, Bamford, Lee, Sako, Ledley

Bookings: Cabaye, Kelly, Gayle

Manchester United: de Gea, Darmian (Young, 66), Smalling, Blind, Rojo, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger (Fellaini, 69), Mata (Lingard, 79), Herrera, Martial, Rooney

Subs not used: Carrick, Romero, Tuanzebe, Pereira

Bookings: Darmian, Smalling, Rojo