Match ends, Manchester United 3, Nottingham Forest 0.
Marcus Rashford scored one and created another as Manchester United overcame illness issues to beat Nottingham Forest and move to within a point of the top four.
Rashford converted a superb opener after 19 minutes when he was picked out by Christian Eriksen in a pre-planned corner routine, allowing the striker to exploit Forest's failure to track his run by sweeping a first-time shot past Wayne Hennessey.
The England forward turned provider three minutes later, cutting in from the left wing and rolling a pass to Antony Martial, whose low finish from the edge of the area found the net after Hennessey failed to hold.
Forest's keeper denied Antony, Martial and Rashford before substitute Fred profited from an excellent through ball from fellow Brazilian Casemiro to find the bottom corner three minutes from time.
Forest never recovered from that first-half double blow, although they did have a goal ruled out by VAR just before the break.
Steve Cooper's men have not scored a league goal away from the City Ground since 20 August and remain second bottom.
For United, it completed a fourth successive victory in all competitions and underlined the theory that the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo will not have a negative effect on the remainder of their season.
- Manchester United v Nottingham Forest - reaction
- Go straight to all the best Manchester United content
- Visit our Nottingham Forest page
Can Rashford and Martial solve Man Utd's striker problems?
There has been a lot of talk of strikers at United since Ronaldo's contract was terminated last month.
PSV Eindhoven's Cody Gakpo was certainly on their radar before he agreed a move to Liverpool, even if the likely transfer fee would have priced him out of a move to Old Trafford, given the significant spending last summer that manager Erik ten Hag demanded.
Unless the situation changes, the best Ten Hag can hope for is a loan signing.
However, on nights like this, it is not obvious that he actually needs reinforcements.
Injuries have limited Martial's involvement this season but the Frenchman now has five goals to his name and is effective in the number nine role, even if he prefers to attack from wider positions.
And Ten Hag said before the game 25-year-old Rashford was capable of scoring 20 league goals.
Had substitute Alejandro Garnacho picked out the England man with a cut-back deep into the second half, Rashford would have doubled his tally for the night, which, as it is, takes him into double figures for the season in all competitions.
With Garnacho and Anthony Elanga making decent contributions off the bench, Ten Hag will need to look hard to find someone who is both good enough and within the club's budget.
VAR denies Forest a rare away goal
At the start of the month, former World Cup final referee Howard Webb took over the management of elite officials in England.
He has vowed to speed up the VAR process and try to iron out some of the issues still being experienced with it within the English game.
Yet, speaking to BBC Sport last week, Webb said incidents that involved multiple issues would always cause a problem and Forest were on the wrong end of one just before the break that took three minutes for Andy Madley and his colleagues at Stockley Park to solve.
Ryan Yates appeared to have headed in at the far post. However, there was a potential handball which needed to be checked. Once those replays had been studied, it became apparent Willy Boly had actually diverted the ball home.
As it turned out, Yates didn't handle. But Boly was offside and what would have been Forest's first Premier League away goal since Brennan Johnson scored in a 1-1 draw at Everton was ruled out.
Player of the match
CasemiroCasemiro
Manchester United
Avg
- Squad number18Player nameCasemiroAverage rating
8.30
- Squad number10Player nameRashfordAverage rating
8.18
- Squad number14Player nameEriksenAverage rating
7.36
- Squad number19Player nameVaraneAverage rating
7.32
- Squad number23Player nameShawAverage rating
7.15
- Squad number9Player nameMartialAverage rating
7.08
- Squad number8Player nameBruno FernandesAverage rating
6.99
- Squad number29Player nameWan-BissakaAverage rating
6.84
- Squad number17Player nameFredAverage rating
6.82
- Squad number1Player namede GeaAverage rating
6.76
- Squad number49Player nameGarnachoAverage rating
6.67
- Squad number12Player nameMalaciaAverage rating
6.60
- Squad number34Player namevan de BeekAverage rating
6.30
- Squad number21Player nameAntonyAverage rating
6.03
- Squad number36Player nameElangaAverage rating
5.68
- Squad number5Player nameMaguireAverage rating
5.43
Nottingham Forest
Avg
- Squad number7Player nameN WilliamsAverage rating
5.45
- Squad number11Player nameLingardAverage rating
5.37
- Squad number20Player nameJohnsonAverage rating
5.27
- Squad number13Player nameHennesseyAverage rating
5.23
- Squad number22Player nameYatesAverage rating
5.17
- Squad number9Player nameAwoniyiAverage rating
4.94
- Squad number30Player nameBolyAverage rating
4.92
- Squad number5Player nameMangalaAverage rating
4.89
- Squad number15Player nameToffoloAverage rating
4.85
- Squad number23Player nameFreulerAverage rating
4.85
- Squad number14Player nameO'BrienAverage rating
4.82
- Squad number32Player nameRenan LodiAverage rating
4.80
- Squad number24Player nameAurierAverage rating
4.74
- Squad number4Player nameWorrallAverage rating
4.73
- Squad number25Player nameDennisAverage rating
4.72
- Squad number16Player nameSurridgeAverage rating
4.71
Line-ups
Man Utd
Formation 4-2-3-1
- 1de Gea
- 29Wan-Bissaka
- 19VaraneSubstituted forMaguireat 77'minutes
- 23Shaw
- 12MalaciaBooked at 27mins
- 18Casemiro
- 14EriksenBooked at 74minsSubstituted forFredat 77'minutes
- 21AntonySubstituted forGarnachoat 65'minutesBooked at 83mins
- 8Bruno Fernandes
- 10RashfordSubstituted forElangaat 86'minutes
- 9MartialSubstituted forvan de Beekat 65'minutes
Substitutes
- 5Maguire
- 17Fred
- 22Heaton
- 33Williams
- 34van de Beek
- 36Elanga
- 49Garnacho
- 55Iqbal
- 66Bennett
Nottm Forest
Formation 4-3-3
- 13Hennessey
- 24AurierSubstituted forN Williamsat 74'minutes
- 4Worrall
- 30Boly
- 32LodiSubstituted forToffoloat 62'minutes
- 22Yates
- 23Freuler
- 5MangalaBooked at 29minsSubstituted forDennisat 62'minutes
- 20Johnson
- 11LingardSubstituted forO'Brienat 53'minutes
- 9AwoniyiSubstituted forSurridgeat 62'minutes
Substitutes
- 3S Cook
- 7N Williams
- 8Colback
- 12Smith
- 14O'Brien
- 15Toffolo
- 16Surridge
- 25Dennis
- 26McKenna
- Referee:
- Anthony Taylor
- Attendance:
- 73,608
Match Stats
- Possession
- Home66%
- Away34%
- Shots
- Home17
- Away8
- Shots on Target
- Home8
- Away3
- Corners
- Home9
- Away9
- Fouls
- Home13
- Away4
Live Text
Post update
Full Time
Second Half ends, Manchester United 3, Nottingham Forest 0.
Post update
Foul by Fred (Manchester United).
Post update
Emmanuel Dennis (Nottingham Forest) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Post update
Corner, Manchester United. Conceded by Willy Boly.
Post update
Attempt blocked. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is blocked. Assisted by Fred.
Post update
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Post update
Delay in match because of an injury Brennan Johnson (Nottingham Forest).
Post update
Attempt blocked. Tyrell Malacia (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Fred.
Post update
Attempt blocked. Emmanuel Dennis (Nottingham Forest) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Neco Williams with a cross.
Post update
Corner, Nottingham Forest. Conceded by Anthony Elanga.
Post update
Attempt missed. Joe Worrall (Nottingham Forest) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right following a corner.
Post update
Corner, Nottingham Forest. Conceded by Casemiro.
Goal!
Goal! Manchester United 3, Nottingham Forest 0. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Casemiro with a through ball.
Substitution
Substitution, Manchester United. Anthony Elanga replaces Marcus Rashford.
Post update
Offside, Nottingham Forest. Brennan Johnson tries a through ball, but Neco Williams is caught offside.
Post update
Attempt blocked. Harry Toffolo (Nottingham Forest) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Remo Freuler.
Booking
Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card.
Post update
Corner, Nottingham Forest. Conceded by Casemiro.
Post update
Foul by Tyrell Malacia (Manchester United).
- Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment
Comments
Join the conversation
Take a bow Casemiro, absolutely world class.
What an incredible addition Casemiro is which allows the release of the rest of the team, along with Martinez they have been two perfect signings for United, garnacho again looked threatening when he came, with a top class goalscorer this United team could be dangerous
No coincidence.
Nottingham Forest were poor though
Casimiro was class! Feel like united won the lottery when they got him! Oozes class!
How good is Casemiro btw..
I see utd are 4 points ahead of Livarpool
Fred scoring wow i love football ♥️
Hope rashford pushes on and gets to 20 goals.
Totally gutless. The sooner they're gone the better.
Awful, awful side.