It was truly a performance for the ages from the South Londoners, with Palace seeking not only a first-ever double against Manchester United – having won 1-0 at Old Trafford earlier in the season – but also their first sequence of three consecutive home victories since October 2022.
In truth, with a confident Palace in full flow against an out-of-sorts United team, their victory never seemed in doubt from the early stages as – spurred on by another red-hot atmosphere at Selhurst Park – the Eagles were sharper to every loose ball.
Early on, that dominance counted: collecting the ball from Daniel Muñoz on the halfway line, Michael Olise side-stepped the onrushing Christian Eriksen, pushed it past a sliding Casemiro and drove towards the box. With every white shirt backing off, he continued to drive and – from just inside the area, with time to shoot – screwed a low finish across the goalkeeper and into the bottom-right corner.