Paul Merson: 'Crystal Palace will beat Manchester United'

Former Arsenal forward Paul Merson has backed Crystal Palace to beat Manchester United in Wednesday's Premier League clash at Selhurst Park.

Palace will enter the match off the back of a 4-1 away win over Leicester City at the weekend, while United drew 0-0 with Liverpool at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils lost Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard during the first half of the clash with Liverpool through injury, while Marcus Rashford also suffered an ankle problem during the same match.

Nemanja Matic is expected to miss the next few weeks, meanwhile, leaving the 20-time English champions with a number of injury concerns ahead of the clash in the English capital.

Merson has said that "too many injuries to too many key players" will see United lose in the Premier League for the first time since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho as head coach.

"United have got a lot of injures, Palace had a great result at Leicester... I'm going for Palace in this one! All of a sudden, I think United will be four points behind the top four," Merson told Sky Sports News.

"I want to go for United, but they've got too many injuries to too many key players. They've come at the wrong time for United."

United are currently fifth in the Premier League table, one point behind fourth-placed Arsenal, who returned to the Champions League positions with a 2-0 victory against Southampton on Sunday.