Palace humiliates Man United 4-0 in RefCam debut

For the first time in an English Premier League match, a referee wore a camera during the game where Crystal Palace handed Manchester United a 4-0 defeat on Monday. The footage captured by referee Jarred Gillett’s camera, known as the RefCam, was not broadcast live. Instead, it will be included in a documentary produced by the league, intended to provide an insight into the challenges and dynamics of refereeing at the top level of football.

The video will also highlight Manchester United’s poor defensive performance during the match. Michael Olise opened the scoring 13 minutes in, taking advantage of lax defending to march forward and strike the ball past United’s goalkeeper. Jean-Philippe Mateta doubled Palace’s lead shortly before the break, breezing past Jonny Evans to score. A mishandled ball in United’s defensive area then allowed Tyrick Mitchell to slide in and add a third goal around the hour mark. Daniel Muñoz then stole the ball from Casemiro and set up Olise for his second goal of the match.

It was a particularly difficult outing for Casemiro, who was serving as captain for the day and had two goals disallowed.

Manchester United, missing key players including captain Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire, and Marcus Rashford, was significantly outplayed despite Palace entering the match six spots behind them in the league standings.

This loss marked United’s 13th of the league season, leaving them in eighth place and outside of the automatic qualifications for European competition.

United’s coach, Erik ten Hag, expressed his disappointment in a post-match interview with Sky Sports, citing underperformance and defensive issues as critical problems. “It’s clear this is underperforming,” he said. “We didn’t act how we wanted to, and it’s not good enough.”

With three more league games remaining before facing Manchester City in the FA Cup final on May 25—a match that also holds a ticket to the Europa League—Ten Hag emphasized the need for improvement.

Meanwhile, despite the victory, Crystal Palace remained in 14th place in the league standings.