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Manchester United travel to the centre of England tonight to take on Nottingham Forest in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
The winners of the tie will advance to the quarter finals and can start dreaming of a potential couple of trips to Wembley.
United played the Tricky Trees four times last season, winning all four, including two victories in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
However, the Red Devils have not had it all their own way this season as they narrowly defeated Forest 3-2 at Old Trafford in August after finding themselves 0-2 down early on in the match. The Mancunian side were then beaten 2-1 on their last trip to the City Ground in the final game of 2023.
Here are some stories that the huge Red Army of travelling United fans will be talking about in the build up to this evening’s tie.
The Anthony Elanga threat
It is always a danger when a former player takes on their old side, as they often feel a little bit more motivated to prove their worth. The problem United have is that particular player is in fine form.
The young Swede, who left Old Trafford this summer, has recently spoken about how he is out to show United what he can do on Wednesday night.
The 21 year old has an impressive 12 goal contributions this season and will surely be licking his lips at the prospect of taking on United’s injury-ravaged defence, that looked so vulnerable against Fulham at the weekend.
The attacking prowess of Elanga has only been exacerbated by the poor levels of United’s own wing play, where only Alejandro Garnacho has had a good season, and even then at 19 years old, he is far from the finished product.
Is it finally Amad Diallo’s time to shine?
With the injury to Rasmus Hojlund, United’s front three needed some rejigging. Erik ten Hag elected to give Omari Forson a full league debut on the right against Fulham, but the player made little impact on the game.
The manager did speak about the qualities of Antony in his pre-match press conference but he may be tempted to give Amad Diallo a rare chance to impress.
Diallo made an impressive cameo against Forest at the very end of December, where he contributed a lot more than Antony did during that particular game.
Moreover, after the game on Saturday, the manager praised the influence of the Ivory Coast international on the match and claimed that both he and Forson will be critical for the next few games as United wait for injured players to return.
Can Bruno Fernandes beat the odds and overcome injury to make it four in a row?
It was relayed here yesterday that United’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, is a major doubt for the game tonight due to an injury picked up on Saturday.
However, the Portugal international rarely misses games, so it is hard to imagine he won’t be lining up come kick off.
According to transfermarkt.com, Fernandes has only ever missed four games due to injury in his career and only one for United, when he was ill in March 2022.
It is an absolutely outstanding record, especially in the context of a team as injury prone as the Red Devils are.
Furthermore, if he does play, United’s number eight will be hoping to be the first Red Devil to score in four consecutive FA Cup ties since Romelu Lukaku in 2018.
The Portuguese player scored in last season’s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City and netted in both rounds this year against Wigan Athletic and Newport County.
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