Alan Pardew knows already that he is going to need some notable reinforcements just to stay in the Premier League.
The facts are that if Liverpool lose to champions Chelsea today, United's exile from Europe's top table will be as good as over. But to be honest they hardly looked the part yesterday.
United's £25million new boy Memphis Depay, brought in to help United's Euro charge, was no doubt watching all this with interest. But then again, so was Wilfried Zaha.
Palace's wing wizard looked in the mood to burst his old club's bubble after claiming he was "not given a chance" during his 12 months nightmare at Old Trafford where he went with an £18million price tag, but never played a Premier League game for them.
United lost around £12million on the lad when he went back to Palace. You could hardly blame him for having a point to prove yesterday
He said in the match programme: "As soon as I got there they suggested I wasn't ready for the Premier League.
"For me to have earned my place there and then not to be given a chance was frustrating."
Which is precisely how Daley Blind must have felt when he hit the Palace post with little more than five minutes on the clock.
TV replays suggested the Dutchman would have been celebrating a cracking goal if Julian Speroni hadn't got the tip of a finger to it.
United didn't have to wait much longer, though.
Scott Dann was judged to have leaned into an Ashley Young cross with the top of his arm sufficiently to convince referee Michael Oliver to use his arm to point to the penalty spot.
Palace protested that the ball hit Dann's shoulder. But Juan Mata duly stepped up to end a club goal drought that had lasted for five hours and seven minutes.
Luke Shaw's involvement didn't last much longer, however, when he was carried off on a stretcher after what looked like an innocuous clash with James McArthur. Whatever did happen - and telly evidence didn't really explain - it left the young England defender looking decidedly dazed.
His departure necessitated a reshuffle at the back, but United were barely bothered. They bossed what was a pretty tame first half, no doubt about that.
Rooney didn't come out for the second half - presumably feeling the worse for wear after a knock he took earlier - but with Radamel Falcao to call on the gulf in class between these two sides was not immediately less apparent.
Until the 57th minute, that is.
Jason Puncheon, a second half substitute for the ineffective Joe Ledley, had already had a reasonable penalty appeal turned down before he bagged Palace's equaliser with a superb free kick over United's day dreaming wall.
What a difference that - and the energetic Puncheon - made.
Palace's partisan fans, understandably subdued up until then, found their voices and for pretty well the first time in the match United came under some serious pressure.
And but for a desperate save by David de Gea that denied Glenn Murray United would have been staring another embarrassing defeat in the face when they really ought to have been out of sight.
All of which left you wondering what might have been if Palace had performed in the first half anything like they did after the interval.
But it mattered not a jot 12 minutes from time when Marouane Fellaini headed United back in front, courtesy of an uncharacteristic blunder by Speroni.
The usually so reliable Argentinian came out flapping to a cross from Ashley Young, but only succeeded in missing it completely.
Fellaini, who started the move from his own half way line, had the simplest of tasks to head the ball into a gaping net.
Any hope Zaha had of exacting revenge on his old club went six minutes from time when manager Alan Pardew made one last throw of the dice and replaced him with Marouane Chamakh.
In the end it made little difference - and Palace went down to their third consecutive home defeat.
Crystal Palace: Speroni; Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare; McArthur, Jedinak (Yong 84), Zaha (Chamakh 85), Ledley (Puncheon 45), Bolasie; Murray.
Manchester United: de Gea; Valencia, Smalling (McNair 84), Jones, Shaw (Evans 39); Herrara, Blind; Mata, Fellaini, Young; Rooney (Falcao 45).
Man Of The Match: Ashley Young - answered the boo boys in the best way possible by by setting up both United's goals.
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