Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United live updates: FA Cup team ...

Big moments of history often feel small in the story of a club that has been through adversity — and so it was the case for Maidstone United. The National League South side have been this year’s big FA Cup underdogs, pulling off a staggering run to the fifth round.

Heading to Championship side Coventry City for their next instalment of cup heroics, Maidstone were looking to join Tottenham Hotspur (1900-01), Telford United (1984-85) and Lincoln City (2016-17) as only the fourth non-League side to have eliminated four Football League clubs in a single campaign.

But for the 4,800 travelling fans at the CBS Arena on Monday night, Maidstone’s toughest battles and biggest fight against the odds came years ago. In 1992, the old Maidstone United, then of Division 4 (now League Two) went into liquidation.

Reformed as a phoenix club called Maidstone Invicta, they have worked their way back from the 10th tier. The road has been long. Dive deeper below...

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Maidstone’s life-changing FA Cup run is over: ‘How can I not be proud of our players?’

Manchester United progressed to the FA Cup fifth round despite letting a two-goal lead slip at Newport County.

Early goals from Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo had appeared to put Erik ten Hag’s side on course for a straightforward victory, but the League Two hosts fought back with goals either side of the break.

After goals from Bryn Morris and Will Evans, the visitors predictably began to lay siege to Newport’s goal and they restored their lead in the 68th minute as Antony scored his first goal of the season after Luke Shaw’s curling effort rebounded back off the post.

Rasmus Hojlund added a fourth goal in stoppage time to book United’s place in the next round and end an uncomfortable match on a high note.

The last match between the two clubs was actually relatively recently, on December 30.

And it ushered in a happy new year for Forest fans as they beat United 2-1 at the City Ground.

Nico Dominguez opened the scoring, Marcus Rashford equalised but four minutes later Morgan Gibbs-White popped up with the winner.

They'll be desperately hoping to do the same again.

Erik ten Hag has backed Antony to be a success at Manchester United, saying “when he plays how I know from the past, he’s unstoppable”.

Antony, an £85million signing from Ajax in the summer of 2022, has struggled for form at Old Trafford this season, having recorded just one goal and one assist across 26 appearances in all competitions.

The 24-year-old was brought on for just one minute as a second-half substitute in United’s 2-1 Premier defeat against Fulham on Saturday. He has not started a match since the 4-2 FA Cup fourth-round win over Newport County in January.

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Erik ten Hag confident Antony will be a success at Manchester United

Matz Sels made his third appearance for Nottingham Forest on Saturday against West Ham United and helped the team keep their first Premier League clean sheet in 14 outings.

The ‘keeper was a late addition during the January window, signing for £5million ($6.3m) from Strasbourg, whose supporters were sad to see the Belgian depart. For Sels, it represented an opportunity to test himself in the Premier League and to take another step in his career at the age of 31.

So, what are the early impressions of Sels? What qualities will he bring to the Forest squad? And how has his arrival changed the goalkeeping dynamic at the City Ground? Paul Taylor and The Athletic’s goalkeeping expert, Matt Pyzdrowski, take a look.

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Nottingham Forest’s goalkeeping situation analysed

We have already published a story about Sir Dave Brailsford, the man who ran Team Sky from its inception until earlier this year, when he finally stepped away so he could focus on his new mission to make Manchester United serial winners once more.

This story is about the line he set at Team Sky and whether he crossed it or not.

“I’ve been accused of doping through my whole career,” Brailsford told an audience assembled by leadership training firm T2 last year. “We didn’t. I know it’s easy for me to say that but we didn’t. You can push it right to the line but manners and playing fair and doing it the right way are important.”

Where you sit on this is up to you. I had a press pass for most of what I am about to lay out and still cannot decide if he crossed the line or not. What I do know is that this debate was not what Brailsford promised when he announced the idea of a British cycling team in 2009.

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Brailsford’s story, part two: Team Sky, a Jiffy bag and accusations of doping

Jimmy Worrall is the founder of Leaders In Sport, a conferencing and publishing business based in London but with a global outlook. He says Sir Dave Brailsford is “the best high-performance thinker in the world.”

But what has he done in cycling that could give him any insight into what it takes to win in the NFL, international cricket or club football?

There is no answer to that question, but Brailsford will turn 60 this week, and while nobody could have predicted even 15 months ago that he would become this powerful at perhaps the biggest football team on the planet, it makes sense when you lay it all out.

That does not mean it will work, of course, but people used to say the same thing about British cyclists winning the top races…

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Brailsford’s story, part one: The rise of Mr Marginal Gains and the road to Manchester United

On Saturday, Forest were beaten 4-2 by Aston Villa at Villa Park.

An Ollie Watkins goal and a Douglas Luiz double saw the hosts three up before half-time, and though Forest made it 3-2 with strikes from Moussa Niakhate and Morgan Gibbs-White, Leon Bailey sealed the win just after the hour mark.

It's just one win in six for Forest in the Premier League.

On Saturday, Erik ten Hag's side came into the match against Fulham at Old Trafford after five wins in a row across all competitions.

They thought they'd rescued a point when Harry Maguire's 89th-minute goal cancelled out Calvin Bassey's opener.

But Alex Iwobi struck in the 97th minute to snatch all three points and deliver another home defeat on Manchester United.

They have to recover from that today.

Bruno Fernandes runs. He runs and runs, and then when it looks like he has exhausted himself, he finds an extra bit of energy to run more. Running data can paint an imprecise picture of a player’s effort, but the eye test is enough to get a grasp of how hard Fernandes works.

The United captain is more than a cardiovascular marvel; he is one of the top creators in the Premier League and the cogs in his brain are always whirring. In a United squad often racked by tactical indecision, Fernandes burns with a strong desire to be a hero.

He cannot do everything but, for the better part of four years, he has tried to do exactly that. He is now the galvanising force who is finding it harder to will his team to victory — but why?

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Is Bruno Fernandes’ influence at Manchester United waning?

It is 25 years since a Premier League manager named a starting line-up made up entirely of English players. On February 27, 1999, Aston Villa boss John Gregory sent out this side to face Coventry City (predictably enough, they lined up in a 4-4-2 formation):

Michael Oakes; Steve Watson, Riccardo Scimeca, Gareth Southgate, Alan Wright; Paul Merson, Ian Taylor, Simon Grayson, Lee Hendrie; Dion Dublin, Julian Joachim.

Little did anyone realise we would not see another all-English XI in the Premier League over the next quarter of a century. We have come close, but the Premier League’s ability to recruit the best players from around the world has meant English players are often in the minority.

To mark the anniversary, we asked our club writers to pick their team’s best all-English XI of the Premier League era (we’ve not included Luton Town, since they have only been a Premier League team for less than a season). The results are below.

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Who makes your team’s best all-English XI of the Premier League era?

The draw for the FA Cup quarter final takes place tonight at 7pm GMT, before all four of tonight's matches kick off.

David Seaman will be pulling out the balls.

Good news and bad news for Manchester City at Luton Town. First, the bad: Jack Grealish’s injury is a genuine blow because City will need him fit and in form to play their best, most stable football.

But the good news is that if Erling Haaland plays like he did last night, they might not need to be at their best.

Haaland scored five goals in the 6-2 win at Kenilworth Road, the first four of them from Kevin De Bruyne assists, but looked reinvigorated elsewhere, too, charging down loose balls and barging defenders out of the way, as he does at his rampaging best.

With Haaland in this kind of form, it gives them a huge chance while they wait for Grealish and that special quality of his to return. Read more below...

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Manchester City will miss Grealish – so the return of peak Haaland is well-timed

This midweek is hosting all FA Cup fifth round (round of 16) fixtures.

On Monday night, Coventry ended the hopes of sixth-tier National League South side Maidstone United, beating George Elokobi's men 5-0 thanks to an Ellis Simms hat-trick and a late Fabio Tavares double.

On Tuesday, Manchester City thrashed Luton 6-2, Leicester edged past Bournemouth 1-0 and Newcastle scraped past Blackburn 4-3 on penalties after drawing 1-1.

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Maidstone United, from bankruptcy to the unthinkable