Ex-Manchester United forward Michael Owen is predicting a comfortable victory for the Red Devils when they take on Crystal Palace at Old Trafford tomorrow evening.

The Eagles have already played their opening fixture, scraping a 1-0 home win against Southampton, but despite Roy Hodgson’s side likely to be the sharper out of the two teams, Owen believes United will secure the three points:

“I think this is going to be a long and difficult season for Roy Hodgson and his team and I see this ending in a comfortable 2-0 home win for Manchester United.”

Palace will certainly be tough to break down, and Ole Solskjaer’s side will need to be wary of the likes of Wilfried Zaha on the counter-attack. Fans won’t need reminding that United lost the corresponding fixture at home last campaign.

Even so, during that match, the Red Devils had 22 shots to the Eagles’ 5, and with a greater cutting edge, following the signings of Donny van de Beek and Bruno Fernandes since then, you would expect the home side to come out on top this time, as long as they take their chances.