Elanga: My goal was for the fans

The 19-year-old opened the scoring in the eventual 3-1 United away win, cushioning Fred’s through-ball impressively before heading home.

Speaking to MUTV, he said: “It’s always special to score for this wonderful club. I had the honour to do it last season against Wolves, and it felt amazing”.

Our young forward celebrated his opener with the Reds supporters who made the journey south, and was quick to dedicate both the win and his goal to the travelling support.

“They’ve made the journey here, a long journey as well, so they deserve that,” he said. “That win is for them and that goal was for them as well.”

Ralf Rangnick handed the Academy graduate his second start of the season for the fixture in west London, after his first had come at Villa Park on Saturday. On the back of his recent game time and experience in the senior side, Anthony expressed his gratitude to our interim manager.

Speaking to BT Sport, Elanga said: “I appreciate the boss so much and you can see in training, the intensity, how much we are running.

“If you put the work in, you’ll get rewards in games and that’s what I want to try and do every day; try to work hard and train the way I want to play.”

Off the back of another special few days for him on a personal level, Anthony is continuing to focus on what he can do to gain more opportunities of a similar nature, going forward.

He said: “For me, I love to start for this wonderful club and I want it to continue, but I’ve got to put the work in during training and then when I get the opportunity out on the pitch, [I have to] take it.”

He added: “It is my second start of the season, and hopefully it is the second of many. I just need to keep pushing.”