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10th January 2025
04:45pm GMT
Manchester United kick-off their defence of the FA Cup on Sunday but face tough opposition in the 3rd round as they travel to fellow Premier League side Arsenal.
The Red Devils rocky start to the season has not got much better under new manager Ruben Amorim, however, his team did show up in the big games against City (which they won) and Liverpool last time out, when they drew 2-2.
In the league, they remain 13th and they have been knocked out of the Carabao Cup. Having beaten City in the final at Wembley last season they will be desperate to give a good account of themselves in the FA Cup again this season.
Amorim looks set to hand a rare start to second-choice keeper Altay Bayindir despite struggling in the 4-3 loss at Tottenham in the Carabao Cup last month.
Marcus Rashford, who missed Sunday’s draw through illness, is available again but is unlikely to play due to the ongoing situation around his long-term future.
In his press conference he hinted there would be less rotation going forward than what we've seen since he arrived.
He said: "Now we had time to train a little bit more, I expect our team to understand better the game. We try to work on set pieces, we suffered a lot in the last game.
"So we will see. I dion’t rotate because I want to rotate. I'm trying to find the best solutions to win every game. Sometimes I have doubts about which player to put and then I put the guy who is more fresh to cope with the demands of the game."
Arsenal are coming into the game off the back of a defeat to Newcastle in the first leg of the semi-final of the Carabao Cup but they will be boosted by the return of Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard as their injury and illness woes ease.
Raheem Sterling is also back after picking up a knee injury last month and Gabriel Martinelli started on Tuesday after being forced to be on the bench at Brighton last weekend.
Ben White (knee), Bukayo Saka (hamstring) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) remain out of contention through injury.
The game is live on the BBC at 3pm.
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