Manchester United take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium this evening in the fourth round of this season’s FA Cup.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has already confirmed that Marouane Fellaini, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo are all absent through injury, whilst David de Gea wasn’t spotted with the team that travelled down to London on Thursday.
Arsenal have a couple of injuries of their own in Hector Bellerin, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck as both teams are expected to rest a couple of players from their full strength Premier League sides.
Here is the Manchester United starting XI I think we’ll see this evening:
Goalkeeper: Sergio Romero
With David de Gea left back at home the Argentine is set to face Arsenal as our first choice goalkeeper in the FA Cup this season. Sergio Romero had an excellent game versus Reading in keeping a clean sheet in round three.
Defence: Diogo Dalot, Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Luke Shaw
Antonio Valencia is absent so I think Diogo Dalot gets the start at right-back to give Ashley Young a rest. Luke Shaw should come back in at left-back after recovering from the flu, and with Matteo Darmian strongly being linked with a move back to Italy. Eric Bailly could partner Victor Lindelof in the middle of our defence with Phil Jones the only other centre-back available to the boss.
Midfield: Scott McTominay, Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba
I can see Nemanja Matic being rested and Scott McTominay starting in front of the back four just days after signing a new deal at Old Trafford. Ander Herrera’s energy in midfield should be a key for us in trying to win the midfield battle whilst Paul Pogba has been excellent under Ole. Youngster Andreas Pereira is an option in central midfield, as are Fred, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard.
Attack: Jesse Lingard, Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial
The boss has confirmed that Alexis Sanchez will face his former club for the first time. Whether the Chilean starts or not remains to be seen – I think he’ll start on the substitutes bench. We should see Jesse Lingard starting down the right and Anthony Martial keeping his place down the left. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did say he’d make a couple of changes from our last Premier League game and I think one of those will be Romelu Lukaku coming in for Marcus Rashford up front, to keep the Belgian happy. His only previous start under the Norwegian came in the last round in which Lukaku scored against Reading.