Fans can debate until the cows come home over whether a win in the middle rounds of a cup competition, in glorious pursuit of gleaming silverware, is worth more than three juicy, tangible Premier League points.
Supporters of Manchester United and Crystal Palace could not be blamed for disagreeing after the Eagles earned instant revenge for their Carabao Cup defeat four days earlier courtesy of a sensational Joachim Andersen volley in the first half of their league clash at Old Trafford on Saturday.
In keeping with their comfortable victory in midweek, United started on the front foot and dominated possession early on. However, they conceded the first big chance as Marc Guehi flashed a fine Andersen cross wide on 11 minutes.
Moments later, Guehi was caught out by a looping ball towards the Palace box which Rasmus Hojlund poked goalwards, only for Tyrick Mitchell to hack off the goalline.
The superb technique shown off by centre-back Andersen’s role in that earlier chance was proved to be no fluke when he fired the visitors in front after 26 minutes.
Eberechi Eze’s free-kick from the right evaded everybody, including a limp attempt to head clear by Hojlund, until it was met by a scorching volley into the top corner by the Danish defender.
The goal grew Palace’s confidence after a quick flurry of United activity saw Casemiro fire a long-ranger narrowly wide. Erik ten Hag’s continued move to play Sofyan Amrabat as an inverted left-back improved their width but United’s play was too disjointed and attacks too often fell down when the ball reached a lost Casemiro high up the pitch.
The pressure on the Eagles box continued after the break with crosses constantly swung in from deep and dealt with every time. One such ball flicked off Joel Ward’s hand, provoking vociferous penalty appeals, but neither referee Chris Kavanagh nor VAR were moved given his arm was down by his side in a far from deliberate action.
A more straightforward route to parity was spurned by Mount in the 70th minute, as he met a Diogo Dalot cross unmarked at the near post but tried to power his header into oblivion - and only succeeded in landing it in Row F.
Palace escaped via a nervy pair of deflections from Alejandro Garnacho’s low cross before Ten Hag rolled the dice with Marcus Rashford and Mount taken off for the final ten minutes.
Yet the Eagles navigated the further succession of long balls thrown into their box to claim the three points and claim arguably the more important victory from this mini-series in the north.
