For the first time in almost 21 months, Manchester United lined up for a competitive fixture with Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo in the same starting XI.
The two academy graduates had threatened to be the long-term future of the club they both grew up supporting as boys. The pair were both fixtures of Erik ten Hag’s side after Mainoo’s breakthrough in 2023–24, with each named in the first XI which defeated Manchester City so convincingly in that summer’s FA Cup final.
