Nottingham Forest v Manchester United: Premier League – live

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29 min For different reasons, Antony and Sancho have been disappointing in the first half hour. Martial has been quiet, too, though he has a bit of credit in the bank at the moment. Forest look comfortable, in truth, certainly when Bruno Fernandes doesn’t have the ball.

26 min I think the ball hit McKenna’s arm, in fact, as he wrestled with Martial and Maguire, so it would probably have been disallowed anyway. But it was another terrific corner, and Forest will fancy their chances every time they get a set-piece in the final third.

25 min: McKenna hits the post! Gibbs-White coaxes a wicked inswinging corner towards the far post, where McKenna fights with a couple of United defenders and forces the ball against the post! At least I think that’s what happened, though it’s hard to be sure and we haven’t seen a replay yet.

24 min Awoniyi runs the left channel, forcing Maguire to concede a corner. Forest look threatening both on the break and from set pieces, and as I type they have six players in the six-yard box…

22 min “Welsh/Liverpool affiliations notwithstanding, I’m a big fan of Neco Williams,” says Matt Dony. “But he hasn’t quite kicked on as I’d have hoped. He really did look like a star-in-waiting for Wales, and with the spate of retirements recently, we need all the stars we can get! Yes, he’s playing in defence in a poor team who keep losing, but he hasn’t shown the progress I wanted this year. Somewhat balanced out by Brennan Johnson establishing himself as a very good Premier League player, but it really shouldn’t be either/or. He’s still young, and still with bags of potential. I’ll be watching closely next season, wherever he’s playing.”

There are a few Liverpool youth players who I thought would have made more progress in the last few years: Curtis Jones is one, Ben Woodburn as well. The way some young players develop and others don’t is endlessly fascinating (and, in some cases, kind of heartbreaking). I’m still waiting for Jules Maiorana’s breakthrough season; he was the first player that made me do a little teenage hipster knee tremble.

21 min Another devastating cross from Fernandes, this time on the left, beats the diving Navas and flashes across the six-yard box. Antony was on his heels at the far post.

20 min: No penalty! Well, well. A big, inswinging corner from the right hit the outstretched arm of Maguire, who missed an attempted header on the stretch. He was wrestling with a couple of other players, but in the current climate I thought that would be given.

19 min: VAR check for a Forest penalty! Harry Maguire’s day goes from bad to worse – I think he is about to give away a penalty.

19 min “What seems to have been given very little attention is the fact that United have played more minutes this season than any other team across the top five European Leagues,” says Rick Harris. “Very noticeable that this is catching up with them in the last month of the season. The injuries to Rashford, Martinez and Varane are symptomatic of players having insufficient recovery time and pushing themselves to the limit game after game. I think top four will be a major achievement if they can hang on. Brighton massive favourites for next Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final as United have to play midweek in Seville.”

Personally I wouldn’t say it’s been given ‘very little attention’, but I agree that the season is catching up with what was already a fairly limited squad. I think they’ll finish in the top four, and they have a puncher’s chance against Sevilla. I don’t fancy them against Brighton though.

18 min: Good save from Navas! Eriksen and Fernandes combine to find Antony in the area. He faffs around but Fernandes runs onto the loose ball to smash a shot that takes a deflection and is beaten away to his right by the diving Navas. That’s a pretty good save.

Steve Cooper is animated on the touchline. Photograph: Dave Shopland/Shutterstock

17 min Niakhate wafts over from distance. Forest are going okay, though, for a team who have had 27 per cent of the possession. Fernandes has been United’s main threat so far.

16 min Antony’s first edge-of-the-box curler goes high and wide.

15 min Now Maguire is being sarcastically cheered every time he touches the ball.

14 min Poor Maguire is having a bad afternoon. He tries a 10-yard pass to Wan-Bissaka and rolls it straight out of play to prompt lusty, schadenfreudian cheers from the home fans.

12 min Johnson is back on his feet and play has resumed.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka tackles Brennan Johnson. Photograph: Matt West/Shutterstock

11 min Brennan Johnson is down after a clash of knees with Lindelof. It looks like a contact injury so hopefully he’s okay, but he’s in a lot of pain.

8 min Another wicked cross from Fernandes on the right is headed over his own bar by the stooping Felipe. Not that far over, either, but Felipe did well in the end because it was a really awkward ball. Fernandes looks extremely sharp.

8 min Yet another injury problem for United: David de Gea is moving gingerly, and Jack Butland is getting ready to replace him just in case.

7 min An ingenious early cross from Fernandes reaches Sancho on the far side of the area, but he declines the shot from a tight angle and instead turns to play the ball backwards. Eventually Dalot wafts over from distance.

6 min: Chance for Awoniyi! It’s been a cracking start. Niakhate’s long throw from the right leads to a game of head tennis in the United area. Eventually Awoniyi’s snapshot from eight yards is crucially blocked by Wan-Bissaka.

5 min “One more time for the people at the back,” says Simon Frank. “Forest’s promotion squad was comprised of five loanees, none of whom returned. Our keeper left for France and we had to fill not only half a team but also think about replacing 18+ players not considered good enough for the top of the Championship. Marinakis put his money where his mouth is, and while you can certainly criticise some of the transfers, you can’t blame management for not trying.”

So you’re telling me it’s nuanced? Don’t you know what year this is?

4 min The pace and directness of Awoniyi is going to be a problem for Maguire. I was going to suggest switching the centre-backs but Johnson is equally quick.

3 min Oh good lord. Harry Maguire is left one v one with Awoniyi in the Forest half, drags him down and is rightly booked. Harold.

It’s been a good week for Harry. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

1 min: Great chance for Sancho! United almost take the lead inside 50 seconds. Antony played a clever reverse pass to the underlapping Fernandes, who hammered a cross into the six-yard box. The diving Navas pushed it only as far as Sancho, whose slightly unconvincing low shot was kicked away by Felipe in the six-yard box. I’m not entirely sure it was going in anyway.

1 min Peep peep! The match is under way. United have started with Bruno Fernandes as the No10 and Eriksen alongside Casemiro.

Forty years ago today… Grimes was onside, and so was Whiteside.

Eriksen replaces injured Sabitzer

Yep, another one bites the dust: Marcel Sabitzer has a groin injury and has been replaced by Christian Eriksen in the United line-up. These are the revised teams.

Nottm Forest (5-2-1-2) Navas; Williams, Felipe, Niakhate, McKenna, Lodi; Danilo, Freuler; Gibbs-White; Johnson, Awoniyi.
Substitutes: Hennessey, Worrall, Toffolo, Mangala, Shelvey, Lingard, Surridge, Dennis, Ayew.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1ish) de Gea; Wan-Bisaaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Dalot; Casemiro, Fernandes; Antony, Eriksen, Sancho; Martial.
Substitutes: Butland, Williams, Jurado, Fred, Pellistri, Iqbal, Weghorst, Elanga.

Referee Simon Hooper.

Marcel Sabitzer has hurt himself in the warm-up. Christian Eriksen will replace him if necessary. If that happens it’ll be interesting to see whether Bruno Fernandes stays in his new position, with Eriksen further forward, or whether Erik ten Hag goes back to his autumn midfield of Casemiro and Eriksen behind Fernandes.

David Hytner on Antony

You’d expect United to dominate the ball today. But Forest’s front two of Taiwo Awoniyi and Brennan Johnson are extremely dynamic, and they will trouble United’s makeshift, slowish defence on the break. Casemiro’s battle with the excellent Morgan Gibbs-White will also be fascinating.

Bruno Fernandes on Bruno Fernandes

“Good morning from Pittsburgh!” says Eric Peterson. “I’m probably in a small majority, considering the equity built up in the Nottingham Forest brand over the decades, but given how their football-operations folks handled their return to the Premier League, I will not miss them a bit and in fact will be enjoying their descent into the Championship that is all but guaranteed to occur, no matter what the current table says.

“Forest took a squad good enough to escape the Championship and utterly decimated it in the name of bringing in hordes of players supposedly of Premier League ability, assuming that Steve Cooper would be able to form that into a team of Premier League ability. Not the same thing. I hope the lasting lesson of how abysmally poorly Forest handled their long-awaited Premier League opportunity will serve as a lasting lesson to future Championship promotees.”

I understand the sentiment, but you’ve made the tragic mistake of focussing on the present rather than the past.

Erik ten Hag on the eternally confounding Anthony Martial

The last Premier League game between Forest and United at the City Ground was on 6 February 1999. It was 4-1 after 80 minutes, and then the greatest substitute in English football history* had some fun.

* Probably, with a very respectful nod to David Fairclough, Edin Dzeko, Olivier Giroud and somebody else I’ve forgotten and therefore haven’t really respected at all

It’s all over at the London Stadium. I won’t tell you the score, as I don’t want tO SPOIL IT LIKE EVERYONE SPOILED BLOODY SUCCESSION THIS WEEK. But it was a very good game, I can say that. Click here if you want to know who shot JR.

Whether Forest stay up or not, they should stick with Steve Cooper (in my sporadically humble opinion)

West Ham v Arsenal is the early game, and it’s a belter. Follow the last 10 minutes with Daniel Gallan.

Team news

Steve Cooper, the Nottingham Forest manager, makes four changes from last weekend’s defeat at Villa Park. Scott McKenna, Renan Lodi, Remo Freuler and Taiwo Awoniyi come in for Joe Worrall, Harry Toffolo, Cheikhou Kouyate and Jonjo Shelvey. Their bench include Jesse Lingard, whose last appearance at the City Ground was against United in the Carabao Cup semi-final in January.

Erik ten Hag makes three changes from the Europa League draw with Sevilla – all enforced, all in defence. Diogo Dalot, Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire replace the injured Tyrell Malacia, Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez. With Luke Shaw also absent, either Dalot or Aaron Wan-Bissaka will play at left-back. The United bench includes Brandon Williams and the Spanish teenager Marc Jurado.

Nottm Forest (5-2-1-2) Navas; Williams, Felipe, Niakhate, McKenna, Lodi; Danilo, Freuler; Gibbs-White; Johnson, Awoniyi.
Substitutes: Hennessey, Worrall, Toffolo, Mangala, Shelvey, Lingard, Surridge, Dennis, Ayew.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1ish) de Gea; Wan-Bisaaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Dalot; Casemiro, Fernandes; Antony, Sabitzer, Sancho; Martial.
Substitutes: Butland, Williams, Jurado, Eriksen, Fred, Pellistri, Iqbal, Weghorst, Elanga.

Referee Simon Hooper.

Preamble

People are rarely implored to summon up one first push. In the field of human endeavour, the push that matters – the one designed to get us over the line – is the last one. That’s what Nottingham Forest and Manchester United need to summon if they are to achieve their pre-season target: 17th for Forest, 4th for United.

It’s well within reach – United are already in position, and Forest will be if they draw today – but both teams are seriously flagging. Forest’s form has gone to seed, with no wins in nine, and both teams have severe injury problems.

Forest will never be short of bodies but they have been without some key players like Ryan Yates and Serge Aurier, and United are on their last legs after competing on four fronts with a smallish squad. Just as Casemiro and Christian Eriksen return, so Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane and Marcus Rashford disappear.

There was good news for both these sides yesterday, though, with the teams around them losing. A win today would make it a dead, dead good weekend.

Kick off 4.30pm.