Early team news from Jose: Bristol City v United

The Reds will travel to Ashton Gate Stadium to face high-flying Bristol City, who currently sit third in the Championship table and are fresh from a fine 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

Mourinho admits he will not make too many changes, given the high level of Championship football, but reveals Mkhitaryan could feature for the first time since the win over Brighton & Hove Albion.

"He can be back," Mourinho told reporters following United’s 2-1 Premier League win over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday. "I am making a few changes for the match, but not many because Bristol City is one of the best teams in the Championship.

"For me now the Championship is not the Championship of five or 10 years ago. The Championship is now high-quality teams with lots of players that could be playing in the Premier League easily, so we need to take the game really seriously. I am going to make a few changes and it is possible Micki is involved."

In that same press conference, Mourinho also reiterated why the Armenian forward has found himself out of the Reds’ matchday squads of late. 

"At the moment we are playing Mata, Rashford, Lingard or Martial and Lukaku so on the bench we have Ibrahimović and one of the other ones, Martial or Rashford. So there is no space for everyone because you need balance on the bench too."

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LAST ROUND?

 Almost two months ago, back on 24 October, United secured a comfortable 2-0 win at Swansea City in the fourth round of the competition.

Jesse Lingard scored two brilliant goals at the Liberty Stadium, firstly by latching on to Marcus Rashford's pass to execute a cool finish.

The Academy graduate then headed home in the second half to cap an excellent individual performance.