Manchester United 3-0 Charlton Athletic: Marcus Rashford scored two late goals after coming off the bench as Erik ten Hag’s side booked their place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
The Reds are approaching six years since they last won a trophy. It would be a great feat for Ten Hag to achieve in his first season, but the ultimate aim is to finish in the top four which looks manageable too.
Ten Hag made several changes to the team tonight, handing a debut to Robbie Mainoo, as well as Facundo Pellistri later on as a substitute.
United have now recorded six straight wins and five clean sheets in the World Cup.
Here are our three observations from the game:
Antony form improving
After two questionable performances, Antony fired back with a goal in the 3-1 win over Everton in the FA Cup third-round on Friday before finding the back of the net again tonight against Charlton.
The goal was typical of Antony – cutting in from the left flank, only to curl the ball into from distance. It was like something you would see from prime Arjen Robben.
It was his fifth goal for the club and he should be setting a target to hit double figures this season.
Someone like Weghorst would make a big impact in this team
Anthony Elanga was handed an opportunity tonight and he had little to no impact on the game. I’d even go as far to say Facundo Pellistri did more in 7 minutes than the Swede has managed all season.
Of course, it would be harsh to pin this on Elanga. He doesn’t usually play centrally like he did against Charlton and it’s Anthony Martial who is the real cause for concern.
A 6ft 6in striker like Wout Weghorst would at least be a constant presence up front for United. I find, at times, Martial is guilty of isolating himself up front.
The French forward was rested tonight ahead of the Manchester derby.
Injury scare for Dalot
Diogo Dalot had to be replaced by Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the first-half.
It was clear that the Portuguese full-back struggled as he came off the pitch and walked straight down the tunnel, however, we are hoping that Ten Hag took him off for precautionary reasons.
Only time will tell if he will be fit to face City in the derby… Dare I say Wan-Bissaka has performed well recently, albeit against teams we should be beating.
Yes Anthony scored a fine goal, but what else did he do .Apart from scoring the goal i thought he was very poor considering the level of opposition he was up against .He will not use his right foot at all so that makes him very easy to mark for top class defenders .Young Pellistri showed more creativity in the short time he was on the pitch than Antony