Amorim’s Man United face Arsenal with familiar problems

Manchester United will face Arsenal in the Premier League today without four important players, reports mirror.co.uk.

United travel to north London following an impressive 4-0 thrashing of Everton on Sunday. Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee both netted twice to give Ruben Amorim a hugely positive first Premier League match at Old Trafford. But Amorim now faces a huge test, with United taking on an Arsenal side who have scored 13 goals in their last three matches. The Gunners hammered West Ham 5-2 on Saturday evening and now sit second in the Premier League.

Arsenal have injury problems of their own, with question marks over the fitness of Gabriel Magalhaes, Riccardo Calafiori, Thomas Partey and Mikel Merino, and United don’t have a clean bill of health either. The win over Everton was huge for the morale of the squad, but it did come with a caveat.

Both Lisandro Martinez and Kobbie Mainoo picked up yellow cards against the Toffees and will now have to serve a one-match suspension. They will sit out of the Arsenal match, forcing Amorim into making changes.

Defence is a particular area of concern, especially since the switch to a back three requires an extra central defender. That is because both Johny Evans and Victor Lindelof remain sidelined. Evans did not feature against Bodo/Glimt or Everton due to a knock and is a major doubt for the trip to Arsenal, while Linedelof has a groin injury and hasn’t played for United since the 2-0 win over PAOK on November 7.

“We have one more training session to see,” Amorim told reporters yesterday evening when asked about returning players. He added: “If you see, the last game was really tough. Was 4-0 but you see the game like I see it, so everything now is a test without so many minutes to train.

“Trying to manage the number of minutes for a lot players who cannot manage more than one game. Some players have to be out of the pitch 60 minutes, 70 minutes, it’s really hard in this moment; everything is a test.”

There is good news about captain Bruno Fernandes after he was spotted icing his ankle after he came off against Everton. “Now he’s fit to play,” Amorim said. “I see him already this morning. He’s fit to play, he’s a guy that doesn’t need a lot of rest, you know him, so he is prepared to play.”

Meanwhile, Leny Yoro could make the bench for the first time this season after recovering from a broken toe. Amorim is excited, but will proceed with caution. He said: “Maybe Leny Yoro is going to be in the squad. I feel he is in a good moment now, his fitness is better, so I think he is going to be in the squad.

“The others we have to see, some players are tired and we have to assess tomorrow in training. I think he’s a special talent, you have to be careful in this first moment, because we didn’t have too many trainings together, he is training not alone, but with a small group of players.”