Key events
21 min: That was such a simple goal. But such a sweet one as well. Work on the training ground paying off. Rashford is a player on a hot streak of form. Who needs Ronaldo? MR10 is your man.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 Nottingham Forest (Rashford 19)
A brilliantly worked corner! Eriksen pulls the corner low towards the penalty spot. Rashford emerges from the pack ahead of everyone else, timing his run to perfection. He meets the pullback and sidefoots across Hennessey and into the top left!
18 min: United are enjoying more of the possession, though. Antony’s insistent work out on the right wins another corner. Eriksen to take. And …
17 min: … nothing much occurs. Forest will be reasonably happy with their start. Apart from the Malacia shot, United haven’t threatened much.
16 min: Rashford dribbles down the left and earns a corner off Aurier. From which …
14 min: The corner’s no good. United attempt to counter but Fernandes’ attempt to find Rashford is inaccurate and all momentum is lost. United come again, though, Rashford working his way down the right and releasing Wan-Bissaka into a bit of space. The full back – who is much improved in attack these days under Ten Hag – fires a a low cross into the box that’s hacked clear at the near post. Good move that.
13 min: Yeats skitters down the right and earns Forest the first corner of the evening.
10 min: Antony’s poor pass towards Malacia on the left is telegraphed and easily intercepted by Aurier. The ball’s shuttled forward to Lingard, who tries to release Awoniyi down the inside-left channel with a scooped pass. Had he got more air on the pass, United would have been in trouble. But Varane is able to intercept.
10 min: Antony’s poor pass towards Malacia on the left is telegraphed and easily intercepted by Aurier. The ball’s shuttled forward to Lingard, who tries to release Awoniyi down the inside-left channel with a scooped pass. Had he got more air on the pass, United would have been in trouble. But Varane is able to intercept.
8 min: Man back up. Johnson’s good to continue after a few deep breaths and a quick inventory check.
7 min: Johnson takes a full Shaw clearance in the fruit-bowl from close range. Ooyah, oof, that’s gotta hurt. And indeed it does. Man down!
6 min: Wan-Bissaka dinks a ball in from the right. Rashford takes it down at the far post, cuts back, then fires into a thicket of players. The ball breaks left to Malacia, who creams a drive goalwards. Hennessey parries a little clumsily onto the left-hand post. But it’s enough to get the job done. Forest clear.
5 min: Shaw is playing as emergency centre back tonight, incidentally, alongside World Cup finalist Varane. Not ideal for United, but do Forest have enough to test the bespoke partnership?
3 min: A little bit of possession for Forest now. Aurier loops the ball into the United box from the right. Shaw heads it clear. United counter, Fernandes nearly getting the better of Worrall down the left. The Forest defender stands firm and doesn’t let him past. Neat play all round.
2 min: United spend the first minute pinging it around the back to get a feel of the ball. Casemiro earns the first gasp of the evening with a cute flick in the centre circle.
United and Forest take the knee – there’s no room for racism – and then the hosts get the ball rolling. It’s raining. Have we mentioned it’s raining?
The teams are out! Manchester United in their famous red, white and black, Nottingham Forest in second-choice yellow. This will be the last time Forest wear a shirt without a sponsor this season: they’ll carry the logo of UK for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in the New Year. The club explain how it will be “a sign of solidarity for families who have been forced to flee their homes and communities.” There’s a moment of warm applause in memory of 1966 World Cup legend George Cohen, who recently passed. We’ll be off in a minute.
Ten Hag talks to Amazon! Inside! Where it’s dry and warm! Man’s no fool. “We have had illnesses during the week. Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Scott McTominay. Harry recovered but is not fit to start, so we have to be a little bit creative. We had to choose and we prefer this line-up. Raphael Varane takes responsibility, that’s why he’s so successful, he’s so important. He directly told me: ‘I’m ready, play me.’ The World Cup was quite intense for him, so we have to take care of him, but this is an emergency case and that’s why he is playing.”
No word yet from Erik ten Hag. Perhaps he’s got wind of Amazon’s ungracious rain-canopy distribution policy. In lieu of hot-off-the-press pre-match platitudes, here’s the latest coming out of the club courtesy of our man Jamie Jackson.
Forest boss Steve Cooper is interviewed by Amazon Prime under a pouring Mancunian sky. Host Simon Thomas and pundits Michael Owen, Patrice Evra and Stuart Pearce all have brollies. Steve does not. It’s like the trophy presentation at the 2018 World Cup final all over again, the Amazon collective in the role of that bauchle Putin. “We were doing a little bit better just before the break. We’ve tried to maximise the time [of the break] as best we can. The more time these guys spend together, the more they can grow into what we want to be. We have to make sure we pick up where we left off. It’s going to be difficult here, but we have to believe in what we do. We know this is a big game and a big stage, but we have to back ourselves. If we don’t, we don’t give ourselves the best opportunity. Thanks for the umbrella, by the way. I know where I stand!”
Manchester United make four changes to their starting XI from last week’s League Cup victory over Burnley. David de Gea, Raphael Varane, Luke Shaw and Antony replace Martin Dubravka, Victor Lindelof, Scott McTominay and Alejandro Garnacho. Club captain Harry Maguire is back, but only on the bench. Lisandro Martinez and Jadon Sancho are both missing, the former presumably still en fête.
Nottingham Forest make three changes to the XI named for their League Cup win at Blackburn last week. Wayne Hennessey takes the gloves from the on-loan Dean Henderson, who can’t play for his parent club, while Serge Aurier and Renan Lodi replace Neco Williams and Harry Toffolo in the wing-back positions. Jesse Lingard returns to his long-time stamping ground.
The teams
Manchester United: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Shaw, Malacia, Eriksen, Casemiro, Fernandes, Antony, Rashford, Martial.
Subs: Heaton, Bennett, Maguire, Williams, Fred, Van de Beek, Iqbal, Elanga, Garnacho.
Nottingham Forest: Hennessey, Aurier, Worrall, Boly, Lodi, Yates, Mangala, Freuler, Johnson, Awoniyi, Lingard.
Subs: Smith, Cook, Williams, Colback, O’Brien, Toffolo, Surridge, Dennis, McKenna.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire).
The team news in social-media form.
Preamble
It’s good to get back on the horse quickly after a big loss. Pity poor Nottingham Forest, then, who will have been brooding on that 8-1 defeat at the City Ground for the best part of 23 years. Yep, the day Ole Gunnar Solskjaer came to town in February 1999 and scored four times in 14 minutes for treble-chasing Manchester United against Ron Atkinson’s relegation-bound rabble was the last time these two famous clubs met. Nearly a quarter of a century’s worth of stew, bubbling in the pot.
United were top that day, Forest bottom. The dynamic isn’t drastically different now …
… and so you’d back the hosts to make it seven wins in a row against the Tricky Trees this evening. (For the record, that dim-and-distant run of consecutive United wins reads 5-0, 4-1, 4-0, 2-1, 3-0 and 8-1, giving a cumulative total of 26-3.) But history hands back a little something to everyone, and Forest have fond memories of a rout of their own, Brian Clough’s greatest team eviscerating Dave Sexton’s nearly men 4-0 just before Christmas at a suddenly not-so-festive Old Trafford in 1977, arguably the signature win of their title season. So there’s a little context, for what matches from 22 and 45 years ago are worth. Kick off tonight is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!