Key events
Teams!
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Heaven, Shaw; Casemiro, Mainoo; Amad, Fernandes, Mbeumo; Sesko. Subs: Bayindir, Dorgu, Malacia, Mazraoui, Yoro, Mount, Ugarte, Lacey, Zirkzee.
Brentford (4-2-3-1): Kelleher; Kayode, Collins, Van Den Berg, Lewis-Potter- Jensen, Yarmoliuk; Schade, Damsgaard, Ouattara; Thiago. Subs: Valdimarsson, Hickey, Pinnock, Dasilva, Nelson, Ajer, Donovan, Furo, Shield.
Referee: Chris Kavangh (Ashton-under-Lyne)
Preamble
One of the most joyous things about football is how miserable it makes almost everyone – Arsenal, for example, are top of the table and in the semi-finals of the Champions League, yet there’s no sense anyone connected with them is enjoying any of it.
Unusually, though, both tonight’s clubs are pretty happy with life. United have near enough secured Champions League football for next season and, since Michael Carrick took over from Ruben Amorim, no side has won more points nor scored more goals. For the first time in a long time, talk of a title challenge doesn’t sound ridiculous.
Brentford, meanwhile, looked relegation favourites in August, losing some of their best players and their manager too. But Keith Andrews has guided them superbly such that they now sit eighth in the table, and have every chance of securing European football for the first time in their history.
And make no mistake, they’ll come to Old Trafford to win. It won’t have escaped Andrews’ attention how much United struggled with Leeds’ physicality this time last week and, though tonight’s probable centre-back partnership will be better able to cope with pressure of that sort, Brentford are better at applying it.
Which is to say that, with both teams committed to attack and needing points but not under pressure, this should be a lot of fun – unless one of football’s overarching truths decides to the contrary.
Kick-off: 8pm BST
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