Anthony Martial continued his positive run of form for Manchester United in the pre-season games with another goal, a third in three consecutive games, when the Red Devils defeated Crystal Palace in Melbourne.

It was Erik Ten Hag’s third game in charge of United, and he was able to oversee it into their third consecutive victory. Manchester United had already defeated Liverpool 4-0 and Melbourne Victory 4-1 in their tour of Australia.

Martial opened the scoring in the 17th minute of the game, but United couldn’t double their lead in the first half until Marcus Rashford scored three minutes after the first half while Jadon Sancho made it 3-0 by the hour mark.

There was consolation for Crystal Palace through Joel Ward before Manchester United were reduced to ten men when substitute William Fish was sent off for a tackle as the last man leaving United to play the remaining six minutes with a man down.

Erik Ten Hag has now seen his side score 11 goals in three pre-season games and conceded just twice, although there are still more pre-season games for United with a game against Aston Villa on Saturday, July 23rd in Perth.

More games will follow against Atletico Madrid in Norway and Rayo Vallecano before their opening Premier League games at home to Brighton on August 7th.

Ten Hag revealed that the team is happy with the improvement during the pre-season but also concluded that there is a lot to do before the Premier League kick-off.

“I think it’s pre-season, and we are happy with the improvement we see, but also, you see a lot of work to do, We scored some wonderful goals, and that is also true.” Ten Hag said.

The Dutch manager has seen three signings this summer with Tyrell Malacia from Feyenoord, Christian Eriksen on a free, and the imminent addition of Lisandro Martinez from Ajax.

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu