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Patrick Vieira felt Crystal Palace deserved a draw from their match against Manchester United, picking out a key moment that proved to be costly.

Palace were on course to frustrate Man Utd at Old Trafford during Ralf Rangnick’s first game on the touchline as the hosts’ interim manager. It took until the 77th minute for United to break the deadlock, when Fred finished from the edge of the box. It was the only goal of a 1-0 game.

Other than that, it had been a game of few clear-cut chances, despite United putting Palace under pressure.

Eagles boss Vieira believed his side should have come away from Manchester with a point. However, a failure to take chances – such as a huge one that fell to Jordan Ayew minutes before United scored at the other end – was to blame.

Vieira told Sky Sports: “I thought the game would finish with a draw. Neither side created too many chances.

“When we had that chance with Jordan we didn’t take it. Against the big teams you get punished. In these games you have to score those.

“He’s a team player; he does fantastic work outside possession. But the forwards are judged by their number of chances and those goals they score. I’m really disappointed because he deserved to score today.

“I think we weren’t brave enough to play out the back. We were missing players today. There was a lack of confidence in possession. We didn’t allow ourselves to play.

“With their new manager we didn’t know how they would play. But we prepared with our shape. When you look at their chances, I think a draw would have been a fair result.

“It’s important to win football matches but at the same time you have to look at performances. We are really close. We have to take it on the chin and keep working.”

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Meanwhile, Man Utd interim boss Rangnick saw his expectations exceeded in the game. He noticed the first signs of his pressing style translating to United’s play.

United have now won back-to-back games for the first time in almost three months. They also kept their first home clean sheet of the season against Palace.

Although it could have been more comfortable, the game actually went better than Rangnick was expecting.

In particular, he pointed to their pressing and defensive effort as pleasing aspects – and even Cristiano Ronaldo came in for some of that praise…

READ MORE: Rangnick includes Ronaldo as he explains ‘exceptional’ signs he noticed from Man Utd

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