David Hytner was at Selhurst Park. His report is one click away. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night...

Roy Hodgson’s verdict. “The most difficult thing to take is to play so well yet lose the game. We played really well, and could so easily have been leading. It’s very hard to take, especially as there were a couple of issues that could easily have gone our way but didn’t. Referees, you never see them, they’re miles away. I thought the referee on the field could have given the penalty, the people in the office somewhere in Hounslow decided against it too. The other one is one of those hair-fine decisions that is hard to take. One is used to football without VAR, and when a ball is crossed along the six-yard line and someone slides in and scores, I don’t remember those goals ever being ruled out for offside. I’m bitterly disappointed, because that was something we didn’t deserve.”

Peter Walton is currently on BT Sport offering his observations on the two VAR decisions. Here’s a live stream.

That’s six defeats in a row for Palace, though when it all comes down, they’ll take heart from their performance tonight. They could so easily have had a couple of goals themselves. But it wasn’t to be. They stay in 14th on 42 points, one place and five points ahead of their great rivals Brighton. So life’s not too bad.

A word with United’s goal-scoring hero Marcus Rashford. “Every game for us now is a big game. Before the Southampton game we were scoring goals for fun, but that was a bit more difficult and so was this one. These type of victories you get a lot out of as a team, because you have to work double hard to get a result. Our patterns of play are positive, it’s what we’re looking to improve on. With VAR you don’t really know what to expect, but you can only react to the decision that’s made. It can be difficult at times for both teams. We’ve just got to go and win every game, so today was good to refocus.”

90 min +11: Pogba thinks about a shot from 25 yards but ponders too long and is closed down.

90 min +10: “I was an early VAR supporter and defender,” begins Mary Waltz. “I also thought Brexit and Trump would lose. I say bin VAR.”

90 min +9: Martial tears down the inside left and enters the box. Dann toe-pokes away. Martial then goes over, asking for a penalty, but the referee waves play on.

90 min +8: Martial dribbles down the left and reaches the byline. He fires towards Lingard at the near post. There’s some pinball, and Sakho is forced to hack off the line. That would have been a farcical goal.

90 min +7: Fernandes whips the free kick towards the bottom left, but only ripples the side netting.

90 min +6: Rashford and Zaha tangle. Rashford grabs Zaha’s leg and refuses to put it down, but is awarded the free kick. Zaha is furious and it nearly kicks off between him and Pogba. The referee calms everything down quickly enough.

90 min +5: Fernandes is named man-of-the-match by Glenn Hoddle on BT Sport. And this on a comparative off-day. A properly transformative signing.

90 min +4: Maguire wins yet another header from a corner. Yet again he slaps it off target.

90 min +3: The referee acts now, though, as he shows Milivojevic a yellow card for arguing the toss a bit too forcefully. When the game restarts, Rashford tries a curler towards the top right. Guaita tips it over.

90 min +2: Lindelof knocks Ayew to the ground. Ayew screams and demands a free kick, but nothing’s forthcoming.

90 min +1: The first of 11 added minutes passes by without incident.

90 min: So now they go fairly direct, Dann sending a long pass down the inside right. Zaha spins Lindelof and races to the United box. He flashes a shot towards the bottom right. De Gea manages to turn it away for a corner that leads to nothing. Magnificent save.

89 min: Palace are enjoying a lot of possession right now ... but only in their own half. Every time they probe upfield they’re forced to turn tail.

87 min: Fernandes has really come into his own in these late stages. From the left of the D, he curls a shot towards the bottom left. Guaita does well to anticipate and claim.

86 min: Mitchell throws Lingard a dummy with a crisp Cruyff Turn. Not a bad way to introduce yourself to a match.

84 min: Palace send on two subs, replacing the stricken Van Aanholt and McCarthy with Riedewald and Mitchell.

82 min: Van Aanholt was Palace’s last-minute hero at Old Trafford earlier this season. Now he’s wheeled off in severe pain. Here’s to a quick recovery.

80 min: As Martial slotted home, he accidentally came together with Van Aanholt, who flipped over his back and landed awkwardly. Not sure whether he’s damaged his wrist, elbow or shoulder, but it’s a serious one because the stretcher is on and he’s been given oxygen.

76 min: United have steadied the ship now. Palace aren’t carrying the same threat now. Here’s Mark Childs: “After that VAR decision, I was curious and found this EPL page that explained the lines are drawn from one of five cameras. So, Ayew’s offside was obviously not a ‘clear and obvious’ error and the line was drawn from a camera placed about 8 yards away from the actual offside line. Absurd. Also, I think VAR should have given Palace a penalty for that Lindelof challenge in the first half. I’m a United fan.”

74 min: Rashford skedaddles down the left and pulls back for ... Fernandes. And you can’t keep a good man down. He takes a first-time smack towards the bottom left, totally foxing Guaita with a fine strike ... but the ball caroms off the base of the post and away. So unlucky!

73 min: Schlupp comes on for McArthur, and is quickly in the thick of it, dragging a shot wide right from distance.

72 min: Fernandes attempts a curler towards the bottom left. It’s always sailing wide. He’s been quiet tonight, Fernandes, verging on poor by his own stellar standards ... and yet he’s still got an assist to his name. He’s some player. What a signing.

70 min: We go again. “I completely agree about VAR, pretty much a disaster from the start of the season,” begins David Wall. “Given that, and I imagine a large majority of supporters, players, managers, etc agree, why is no one seriously considering just scrapping it from the end of the season? All I’ve heard is that now it’s here we have to just live with it and hope it gets better. But that didn’t apply to things that actually were beneficial (or would have been if they’d been applied for more than about two weeks), like the vanishing spray to mark where the wall should be, moving a free-kick forward if there was dissent, the Zenith Data Systems Cup, or the Anglo-Italian Cup. They went almost as soon as they appeared. Well, perhaps not the last one.”

69 min: As the players imbibe, Roy Hodgson takes a good old pop at the referee. Whatever could be on his mind?

67 min: Palace haven’t let their heads drop, to their great credit. They ping it this way and that, then Ayew tries to spin Maguire just inside the box. He tries to curl a pass around the corner to release Zaha, but the ball flies out for a goal kick. And that’s drinks.

65 min: Maguire is booked for a cynical tug at Ayew. “As a United fan, I can today speak against VAR without suffering accusations of bias,” writes Matt Richman from atop the high ground. “I hate it. That was scarcely an inch offside, to all human observers level, and was deserved.”

64 min: Zaha comes in from the right and curls a pass towards McArthur, in plenty of space to the left of the United D. He enters the box and should have a dig, but tries to thread a pass across to Ayew at the far post, and gets it all wrong.

63 min: United finally get Matic and Lingard on. They replace McTominay and Greenwood.

62 min: Martial breezes down the inside-left channel and feeds Rashford on the overlap. Rashford slams a low diagonal shot towards the bottom right, but Guaita is behind it all the way.

60 min: But play goes on before they can make their swap, and McCarthy takes a shot from the edge of the United D. He really catches it sweetly, but it’s straight at De Gea, who handles well.

59 min: United prepare to make a double change. Matic and Lingard - who scored the winner against Palace in the 2016 FA Cup final - wait on the touchline.

57 min: That’s a huge let-off for United, who haven’t really got going in this second half. Will that close shave wake them from their slumber?

53 min: Van Aanholt makes good down the inside left and tries to instigate a one-two with Zaha. Had he been given a return ball, he’d have been clear on goal. But Zaha decides to take over himself, and looks to curl into the top right. Maguire blocks.

52 min: Van Aanholt glides in from the left and takes a shot. It ping-pongs off a few bodies before nearly dropping at the feet of Zaha. Not quite, though. Lindelof and Maguire are in position to sort it all out.

50 min: Ward clumsily clanks McTominay to the ground out on the left. Fernandes flicks the free kick into the mixer. It skims off Milivojevic’s head, but doesn’t fall to anyone in gold, and Sakho is able to clear.

49 min: Martial burns past Sakho on the left and wins a corner. Fernandes gets two goes, but neither delivery beats the first man. Palace clear the second corner.

47 min: United will be looking to improve on their first-half performance, scoreline notwithstanding. They impose themselves with some calm possession in their own half.

It’s the second half! Palace get the ball rolling again. No half-time changes.

BT Sport have shown another angle of the Zaha-Lindelof incident. Lindelof did indeed touch the ball, but only after connecting with Zaha’s heel. Pundits Robbie Savage and Rio Ferdinand agree that it should have been a penalty. Palace will feel fairly aggrieved at that, then, especially as United went on to score the opener a couple of minutes later. The old sliding doors opening and closing like billy-o there. But whatever the rights and wrongs are of that particular decision, we can surely all agree on one thing: VAR has been a risible fiasco from the get-go, hasn’t it.

Half-time entertainment. For your aural leisure and pleasure.

45 min +4: Milivojevic curls towards the top left. It’s going in, and De Gea does extremely well to claw it out for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece.

45 min +3: Townsend has a smash. Maguire bravely gets in the road. Then Greenwood shoves Zaha over, just to the left of the United box. A free kick in an extremely interesting position.

45 min: But the ball doesn’t go out of play. Wan-Bissaka fires a low cross through the Palace box. It misses everyone. But United come straight back at Palace, and ...

44 min: Milivojevic slips a pass down the inside-left channel for Zaha, who proceeds to turn Lindelof inside and out, like an old sock. Zaha enters the area. There’s contact, and Zaha goes down. But the referee isn’t interested in giving a penalty. VAR may take a second look when the ball goes out of play.

42 min: Fernandes threads a low shot inches wide of the left-hand post. Both goals are living a slightly charmed life at the minute.

40 min: Van Aanholt curls infield from the left. Lindelof clanks a dreadful clearance straight at Ayew, who belts a shot towards the top left. Lindelof is very grateful to see De Gea punch clear.

38 min: Fernandes sashays in from the left and sprays a diagonal ball towards Wan-Bissaka on the other flank. He crosses long and another corner’s won. Fernandes takes it from the left, and Maguire wins his third header from a corner, again leaping high over Sakho. He sends this effort wide right. Palace are asking for trouble here. Maguire’s likely to get one on target at some point.

36 min: Rashford swings a ball in from the right, forcing Dann to slide it out for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, other than a yellow card for Wan-Bissaka, who left one on McCarthy’s foot as the pair challenged for a loose ball.

34 min: Pogba and Greenwood nearly open Palace up down the inside right. Not quite. Pogba flicks the ball round McArthur then goes to ground, but he’s not getting the penalty he’s looking for.

32 min: Maguire has taken a whack upside the head. It requires a good once-over from the physio. After a long check, he’s good to go again.

30 min: This is most uncharacteristic behaviour from Greenwood. Martial comes in from the left and crosses low; Greenwood scuffs a scruffy shot wide right. Very strange; you’d expect the brilliant youngster to dispatch that clinically into the bottom corner.

29 min: Wan-Bissaka has a dig from the right-hand corner of the Palace box. His effort to score his first goal for his new club against his old club is blocked at source.

27 min: Maybe he’s been told to get central. McArthur dinks a cross in from the left. Zaha’s the man in the middle, but the cross is a little bit too high, and behind him, and he can’t get any power on his header.

26 min: During the break, Roy Hodgson gives Zaha a proper pep talk. More accurately, a Pep talk: he’s fully animated in the Guardiola style. He’s obviously seen something the winger can take advantage of. Let’s keep an eye out for that, then.

25 min: And that, my old MBM pals, is drinks. Squirty bottles all round!

23 min: Greenwood comes in from the right and is unceremoniously upended by McCarthy. Then Ayew clatters into Pogba. And finally McTominay climbs all over Ayew. This game is being fiercely contested. File under: hard but fair.

21 min: Rashford attempts a snapshot from the edge of the Palace box. Townsend gets right up in his grille to block, and takes a kick on the foot for his trouble. Both players crumble in pain; both get up soon enough, frowning and hopping awhile before moving on. That was a good old-fashioned blood-and-thunder 50-50 challenge.

19 min: Townsend is clumsily barged over by Pogba, out on the right wing. He gets up and takes the set piece himself, launching it long towards Sakho. The big defender can’t get a header goalwards. Palace launch another attack, Milivojevic looping down the middle. Dann tries to cushion a header down to the feet of Zaha, but his team-mate doesn’t read his intention in time, and the ball trundles harmlessly through to De Gea.

17 min: Zaha dribbles down the left and nearly busts his way into the box, but he slips at the crucial moment and the attack peters out. For a team who have lost five matches in a row, Palace are looking pretty confident right now.

15 min: Milivojevic creams a diagonal ball towards Ward, again free in plenty of space on the right. But there’s too much juice behind the pass, and it sails out for a goal kick. Fosu-Mensah, making his first start for United since 2017, has been caught sleeping a couple of times.

13 min: Ayew is nearly released by a long pass down the left, but the ball drifts out of play just before he reaches it. Had he got there in time, United were light at the back.

12 min: Martial wins a corner down the left, and Maguire certainly meets this one. He gets the leap on Sakho, but flashes it powerfully over the bar from close range. After a slow, uncertain start, United are beginning to make their presence felt.

10 min: But this is better from Wan-Bissaka, who makes himself available down the right. Rashford finds him. Wan-Bissaka wins a corner. Fernandes curls it in, towards Maguire, who doesn’t react when Sakho misses his header. The ball twangs off Maguire’s startled coupon, and Palace clear.

8 min: McArthur and Zaha busy themselves down the left. Wan-Bissaka hasn’t made the most confident start. He’s fortunate that Lindelof is on point, and that Palace over-elaborate when a no-nonsense attack looked on.

6 min: Fernandes dithers on the ball in midfield and is stripped of possession by Ayew. Palace flood forward. Dann crosses deep from the right. McCarthy heds down for Zaha, who considers a volley. Instead, the ball’s teed up for Van Aanholt, who has a smash from distance. His effort is blocked. United need to wake up here.

4 min: Zaha might be in the mood against his old club, you know. He glides down the left wing, momentarily threatening to go all the way to the box. But he loses confidence in himself mid-run and turns tail when faced by Lindelof. Still, he’s looking lively.

2 min: Palace are quickly on the front foot. Zaha tries to release Ward, in acres out on the right, but his pass fizzes into the stand. Then another phase, as Zaha sails in from the left, skips past Wan-Bissaka with great ease, and pearls one towards the top left. De Gea gets a strong hand behind it. A fast start by the hosts.

United get the ball rolling ... but not before all the players take a knee. Black lives matter.

The teams are out! Crystal Palace wear their red and blue stripes, while Manchester United sport second-choice gold. Not long now.

A big result just in, with implications for Manchester United. Leicester have bounced back from that farcical defeat at Bournemouth with a 2-0 win over Sheffield United. That’s a fine victory over obdurate opponents, and they’re now three points clear of United in fourth. The race for the Champions League looks like going down to the wire, and a possible final-day winner-takes-all showdown between Leicester and United. One way or another, it’s going to be dramatic.

A chat with Roy Hodgson. “If you analyse runs of results, there are always things you’re not that disappointed with, and others that you are. We’ve not exactly had the best of luck, we’ve made a rod for our own back in a couple of games by giving things away, but these things do happen. It’s important that we put on a good show, a good performance. I’m not sure what playing at home means any more! But our last home game was a good one against Chelsea and hopefully we can reproduce that tonight.”

A word with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. “We know what we have to do, come here on the front foot and start positive. That’s what we want to see in the beginning of the game. Timothy Fosu-Mensah has been waiting for his chance and will be ready. Scott McTominay has done a great job this season so we felt it was time to freshen up [the midfield]. We lost to Palace at home so we know how they can hurt you. Their front three are quick and skilful and can score a goal from nothing.”

Palace make two changes to the team that went down at Aston Villa last weekend. Andros Townsend and James McCarthy take the place of Cheikhou Kouyate, who drops to the bench, and Christian Benteke, who is suspended.

United make two changes to the side that conceded a late equaliser at home to Southampton. In come former Palace loanee Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Scott McTominay. Nemanja Matic drops to the bench, while Luke Shaw is injured.