The team in red in the top three of the Premier League and off to Wembley for a semi-final. That was Manchester United only two years ago.
Ruben Amorim was regularly vexed at the City Ground. With Nottingham Forest’s time-wasting, with the referee and with his own players. United are 13th in the table and have 13 Premier League defeats now, one fewer than the 14 they suffered last season.
Nottingham Forest remain ten places better off than United in this remarkable season of theirs. They have also done the domestic double against United for the first time since 1991-92, Brian Clough’s penultimate season in management. It took Forest fans less than a minute to air the first rendition of ‘You’re not famous anymore’.
Forest have the most clean sheets in the Premier League and United have a -4 goal difference. A fifth-minute goal was enough. Including the added time at the end of each half, Forest clung on for more than 90 minutes.
United resorted to sending Harry Maguire on up front and he had better chances than the two strikers they spent £108.5million on. Maguire was denied an equaliser with one of the last kicks by Murillo on the line. Diogo Dalot, another defender, hit the crossbar.
And so United remain incapable of winning successive league games this season. Only Fulham and Newcastle United have left the City Ground with three points yet United headed to the Trent confident of making waves.
The progressive performances and results against Real Sociedad, Arsenal and Leicester City will feel distant now. United can hardly lament the inordinate international break for halting their momentum in one of their worst seasons since they were relegated.
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