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Brace of victories sets up tantalising Manchester cup tie

Manchester United’s players were put through their paces in a hotel auto park ahead of Wednesday’s EFL Cup game at Northampton.

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Daley Blind brought down Sam Hoskins in the area, allowing Alex Revell to step up to the spot, sending Sergio Romero the wrong way.

It was a less straightforward evening forUnited, who were given a testing workout by third tier Northampton Town before goals from Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford wrapped up a 3-1 win. Rooney missed a good early chance and finished the game on the right wing after Ibrahimovic and Rashford were thrown on by Mourinho, with United drawing 1-1 at that stage. At half-time, if we were winning two or 3-0 like we should and could have been, the game would be over.

Mourinho and United will be out to avoid the ignominy of a fourth straight loss – and at the hands of lower-league opposition to boot – after successive defeats to Manchester City, Feyenoord and Watford.

Guardiola gave a first start of the season to captain Vincent Kompany, who underwent thigh surgery in May, but the Belgium centre-back had to go off late on after appearing to injure himself.

Aleix Garcia made the most of a rare start by netting the second from Jesus Navas’s cut-back in the 67th minute before Gylfi Sigurdsson stabbed in a stoppage-time consolation for Swansea.

“To lose was a tough moment, but we must be ready to go again on Wednesday”. It puts others under pressure, but this kid is special and he’s scoring goals.

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Tottenham Hotspur made light work of third tier Gillingham, as Christian Eriksen scored twice in a 5-0 thrashing, while West Ham United needed a 96th-minute free kick from Dimitri Payet to beat Accrington Stanley 1-0. Chris Smalling’s first goal for the Reds, away to Scunthorpe United, is also featured and our compilation ends with the pick of the bunch – Antonio Valencia’s long-range stunner against Aldershot.

Northampton faced liquidation 10 months ago