Key events
54 min: Great save by Flekken! Dalot curls a superb long pass down the right to release Fernandes. He cuts inside and squares to Hojlund, whose first-time shot on the stretch brings an outstanding reaction stop from Flekken. I think he saved it with his bicep in the end.
54 min Brentford break two on two, with Wissa on the ball. He uses Toney by not using him but then goes slightly too wide and drags a tame shot wide of the far post.
52 min After a decent spell of United possession, Dalot lifts a fine shot from 25 yards that swerves just wide of the far post. Really good effort.
50 min The second half has started as the first finished, with Brentford on top. Fernandes tries to change the mood/scoreline/narrative/anything with a long-range blooter that is held to his left by Flekken.
49 min And cleared by VAR. It looked just outside the area, though I think the VAR team decided it wasn’t a foul anyway.
48 min Jensen’s corner is headed away to the edge of the area, where Janelt goes over after a clumsy challenge from Garnacho. This will be checked by VAR.
47 min Jensen wins Brentford’s first corner of the half and tenth of the match. The 11th soon follows…
46 min Brentford begin the second half. Man Utd have brought on Harry Maguire for the (presumably) injured Raphael Varane.
Half time: Brentford 0-0 Man Utd
It’s a slight stretch to say Brentford could be 4-0 up, as they were at half-time last season, but they’ve been much the better team and should certainly be ahead. Ivan Toney hit the post, Zanka hit the bar and Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof had to get their knees dirty on a number of occasions.
45 min Wissa is booked for a foul on Fernandes.
44 min Yet another Brentford corner is cleared to the edge of the area. Yarmoliukm’s snapshot is blocked by Varane, but once again United can’t get out. Eventually Lewis-Potter’s flicked header is comfortably saved to his right by Onana.
Man Utd have been wretched.
43 min “Zanka is the kind of cool name that belongs to the bad guy running a tech-heavy nightclub for vampires in Prague,” says Shane O’Leary.
Arf, very good. I think his given name is Mathias Jorgensen.
42 min Rashford’s long-range shot takes a deflection and spins through to Flekken. I think that counts as the first shot on target at either end.
41 min The impact of that block tackle hurt Varane, who gets a low-five from Toney when he eventually gets to his feet. Toney and Wissa have given him a very good workout.
40 min The resulting free-kick, on the halfway line, is driven into the United area by the keeper Flekken. Zanka heads the ball down and Toney’s half-volley on the turn is blocked crucially by Varane.
40 min Wan-Bissaka is booked for a foul on Roerslev.
38 min Now Wissa’s acrobatic volley goes wide after a short-range cross from Roerslev. It was an awkward chance, but it’s another shot at goal – Brentford’s 11th of the half. Yet none of them have been on target.
36 min Rashford blasts a shot wide after the whistle has gone for offside. Brentford enquire about a yellow card but Simon Hooper is satisfied Rashford didn’t hear the whistle.
Moments later, Yarmoliuk shoots wide from 20 yards.
34 min: Chance for Toney! Mainoo is well challenged on the edge of the Brentford area, allowing Janelt to launch an early ball into the space for Toney. He runs down the inside-right channel, then cuts inside Lindelof in the area and spanks a left-foot shot over the bar. I think Wissa was in a decent position but Toney only had eyes for the net.
32 min: Zanka hits the bar! Jensen takes the corner short on the right, gets it back and curls another delicious cross into the middle. This time it goes beyond the far post to the unmarked Zanka, whose header back across goal hits the top of the bar. It was a pretty tricky chance.
Brentford have been much the better team, particularly in the last 15 minutes.
31 min Keane Lewis-Potter is having a field day down the left. He cuts inside and coaxes another inviting cross that brushes the head of Varane and goes behind for a corner. Toney was waiting behind him.
30 min Man Utd are having another of their sleepy first halves away from home. Don’t ask me to explain it; I haven’t a clue.
27 min Toney walks away from Mainoo, who sells himself with unusual immaturity, and angles a through pass towards Yarmoliuk in the area. Dalot gets across to make a vital sliding challenge.
It’s all Brentford just now.
25 min A deep corner is headed wide by Wissa, who gives fresh air a Glasgow kiss in frustration. It didn’t look the easiest chance, given how many players were competing for the ball, but he was obviously frustrated.
24 min: Toney hits the post! Lewis-Potter, who has been bright at left wing-back, threads a nice pass infield to Wissa. He opens his body to guide a first-time pass through the legs of Varane and into the space behind the defence. Toney gets a yard on Lindelof and sweeps a shot from the edge of the area that beats Onana and hits the inside of the far post.
23 min At the other end, Dalot’s chipped cross hits the back of Garnacho, under pressure at the far post, and bounces wide.
23 min Wissa turns Mainoo and slips an angled pass to find Yarmoliuk on the right side of the area. His cross is too close to Onana.
22 min Toney changes the angle via a one-two with Janelt and whips a shot that goes behind off Fernandes. Brentford’s fourth corner in as many minutes is cleared by Varane (I think), but United still can’t out. Lewis-Potter curls a cross from the left that is headed over by Zanka, 10 yards out. He was moving away from goal so it wasn’t much of a chance.
20 min This is an excellent spell for Brentford, who now have a free-kick just outside the area. It’s a long way to the left of centre, maybe too wide for a shot. Ivan Toney does not concur.
19 min Jensen robs the dithering Fernandes on the right wing and belabours a cross that is palmed away by Onana. I think it was a cross, anyway – it would have been an absurd angle from which to shoot.
19 min That second corner leads to a third. It’s taken short and returned to Jensen, whose excellent cross is headed away well by Varane.
18 min Wissa’s cutback from the byline looks set to reach Toney until the sliding Lindelof puts it behind for a corner. That was vital defending. The corner bounces across the area to Lewis-Potter, whose close-range shot hits Varane and goes over for another…
15 min Fernandes’s corner is headed away at the near post. The match is a bit flat.
14 min Fernandes is able to collect his own loose touch on the edge of the area and square the ball to Dalot, whose shot hits Collins and goes behind for a corner.
11 min Wan-Bissaka loses the ball in midfield and Brentford break. The move slows down but they keep the ball for 30 seconds or so before Yarmoliuk’s pass goes astray.
10 min Rashford has started quite brightly at the other end, where United are having the majority of possession. That suits both teams.
7 min Jensen’s outswinging corner is met by Toney, who loses Rashford far too easily near the penalty spot. His downward header bounces a few yards wide of the far post. That wasn’t great from Rashford, who at times this season has looked allergic to defending.
6 min Lewis-Potter cuts inside from the left and clips a deep cross towards Toney, forcing Wan-Bissaka to head behind for a corner. Toney hurt his ankle while getting into position but seems to be okay.
3 min A United counter-attack ends with Fernandes driving wide from 25 yards. He started the move too – first with an important interception in his own area, then with a long pass to released Rashford on the left.
1 min Peep peep! Man Utd kick off from right to left as we watch. Both formations are as expected.
“Your ‘chapter and verse’ update reminded me of the memoir of the same title by Bernard Sumner of Joy Division, New Order and Electronic fame,” says Peter Oh. “One of its many entertaining moments was when he – a Salford-born Man United diehard – showed up for taping of the video for ‘World in Motion’ in Liverpool dressed in an Elvis outfit, driving a convertible.
“I’m a big fan of Sumner’s work but not so much United’s so it goes without saying that I hope the Red Devils ‘Feel Every Bee’ tonight!”
Match report: Aston Villa 2-0 Wolves
Aston Villa have beaten Wolves 2-0 in the (early) evening game. Should you so desire, Barry Glendenning will give you chapter and verse.
Team news: Yarmoluk starts
That preamble went well: Bryan Mbeumo is only on the bench for Brentford. Thomas Frank makes two changes from the defeat at Brentford. Keane Lewis-Potter replaces the suspended Sergio Reguilon at left wing-back; the young Ukraine midfielder Yegor Yarmoliuk starts ahead of Frank Onyeka.
Manchester United are unchanged from the win over Liverpool. Or rather, they have the same starting XI – the team that finished the match will be the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question in years to come. The influential Lisandro Martinez, who last played against West Ham two months ago, returns from injury and is on the bench. So is Casemiro – but not Amad Diallo, who is suspended.
Brentford (possible 5-3-2) Flekken; Roerslev, Zanka, Ajer, Collins, Lewis-Potter; Yarmoliuk, Jensen, Janelt; Wissa, Toney.
Substitutes: Trevitt, Maupay, Ghoddos, Onyeka, Mbeumo, Strakosha, Damsgaard, Baptiste, Kim.
Man Utd (possible 4-2-3-1) Onana; Dalot, Lindelof, Varane, Wan-Bissaka; McTominay, Mainoo; Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford; Hojlund.
Substitutes: Amrabat, Maguire, Martinez, Mount, Eriksen, Casemiro,
Antony, Heaton, Kambwala.
Referee Simon Hooper.
Preamble
A week is a long time in football, never mind 19 months. Results are forgotten, the news cycle moves on, simplistic narratives congeal and we all forget how inappropriately we reacted to that VAR decision. But a handful of things stay fresh and vivid in the memory. When Manchester United last visited Brentford, for their first away game under Erik ten Hag, they were 4-0 down after 35 minutes. It was an astonishing humiliation, one from which they have arguably never recovered.
While Ten Hag did brilliantly to win a trophy and finish third in his first season, it was a hand-to-mouth triumph. The Brentford defeat meant he was under pressure from the start and had no space to develop the style of play everyone expected from an Ajax alumnus.
Only three or four of the United XI from that game will start tonight, so it’s not really about revenge, but there’s an undeniable symbolism about United’s return to Brentford – especially as Ten Hag’s job was being advertised on the back pages during the international break.
That international break came at a bad time for United, who would have loved to go again and again and again after their amazing FA Cup victory over Liverpool. Plenty compared Amad Diallo’s winner to Mark Robins’ goal against Nottingham Forest in 1990, the sliding door of Sir Alex Ferguson’s time at the club. And while United wouldn’t mind winning 13 Premier League titles under Ten Hag, they would appreciate one deviation from the Fergie template: the next game.
In 1990, United followed their win at Forest with a league game at home to Derby County in the league. Steve Bruce was sent off for trying to boot Dean Saunders out of the ground, Derby won 2-1 and United – on a run of nine league games without a win – stayed only two points above the relegation places. Even when you can see the gate to the shining uplands, and you dance towards it whistling Happy Go Lucky Me, you should watch where you’re walking.
United probably need to win tonight to maintain their outside chance of Champions League qualification. It’s arguably an even bigger game for Brentford, who will move seven points clear of the bottom three with a victory.
For a side on a run of five defeats in the last six leagues games and 12 in the last 15, Brentford may approach this game with incommensurate confidence. There’s one main reason for that. It’s likely that, for the first time this season, Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo will start together up front together. Just like they did when United were last here.
Kick off 8pm.