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Manchester United made a winning start to life under interim boss Ralf Rangnick thanks to Fred’s 77th-minute winner.

It was only Fred’s second goal of the season – and the first time since the middle of September that United have recorded back-to-back league wins.

Until the Brazilian’s effort, Rangnick’s side created numerous decent chances, without really looking as though they were going to score and Guaita would probably have saved an Alex Telles free-kick that skimmed the bar had it been on target.

Indeed Palace, who were looking to win for a third successive season at Old Trafford, came close themselves when Jordan Ayew turned James Tomkins header across the face of goal and narrowly wide of the far post.

The victory meant that Rangnick emulated three of United’s other four new managers since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 by winning his first match at the helm, with Louis van Gaal the only man to fail.

Fred the enigma turns match-winner

Fred was one of the major focuses for criticism during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign as manager, which ended last month.

As Michael Carrick pointed out during his three-match spell as United’s caretaker manager, the midfielder is a mainstay of a Brazil team that dominated World Cup qualification in South America.

Yet he has never given any indication, through either goalscoring or chance creation, that he is worthy of the £47m United paid for him.

He is industrious, though. And, judging by his little dance after the celebrations of his goal broke up, he is not without personality, which may be helpful to Rangnick over the coming months.

The German has not had a full training session with his players yet but there was certainly an intensity about United’s early pressing, with Cristiano Ronaldo among those doing it on a couple of occasions.

It did harry Palace into a couple of mistakes – but then, as happened so many times under Solskjaer, before, the game settled down, the fire went out of the hosts and they started to rely more on crosses and individual moments to cause the visitors problems.

Marc Guehi managed to block a Ronaldo volley at close-range after the Portuguese had beaten the Palace offside trap and Tomkins headed a curling Fred shot away from danger.

Probably the hosts’ best opportunity in the opening period fell to Bruno Fernandes, who didn’t hit his shot cleanly but still forced a low full-length save out of Guaita after Ronaldo had set up the chance with an elaborate header.

United did not reach the same heights after the interval, although the introductions of Greenwood and Anthony Elanga at least kept them pushing forward until the decisive moment came.

Another defeat for Palace

Palace have now lost three Premier League games in a row for the first time under Patrick Vieira’s management.

The Eagles are six points above the bottom three and clearly need to halt the slide before they end up in trouble.

Having achieved their previous victories in this stadium with 29% and 24% possession respectively, Palace actually did far better in this contest, with 39%.

But, other than Ayew’s effort, an early Wilfried Zaha shot easily saved by David de Gea and a flurry of late set-pieces sent into the United box that were all cleared, Palace lacked conviction.

Zaha was a particular disappointment as he hardly got into the game, especially in the second-half when Cheikhou Kouyate and Conor Callagher carried a greater threat.

Manchester United’s next match is against Young Boys in the Champions League on Wednesday, 8 December (20:00 GMT), and their next Premier League game is at Norwich on Saturday, 11 December (17:30 GMT).

Crystal Palace’s next game is against Everton at Selhurst Park on Sunday, 12 December (16:30 GMT).

Player of the match

van de BeekDonny van de Beek

Crystal Palace

1. Squad number23Player nameGallagher

2. Squad number11Player nameZaha

3. Squad number22Player nameÉdouard

4. Squad number20Player nameBenteke

5. Squad number13Player nameGuaita

6. Squad number6Player nameGuéhi

7. Squad number3Player nameMitchell

8. Squad number8Player nameKouyaté

9. Squad number9Player nameJ Ayew

10. Squad number5Player nameTomkins

11. Squad number17Player nameClyne

12. Squad number15Player nameSchlupp

13. Squad number10Player nameEze

14. Squad number7Player nameOlise

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