Luton Town v Manchester United: The big preview

Monday 21 September 2020 14:00

Tuesday night's Carabao Cup tie against Luton Town gives Manchester United an early opportunity to recover from the weekend's opening defeat in the Premier League.

Read on for all the key details about our first knockout tie of 2020/21...

FOLLOW THE GAME
The action at Kenilworth Road will get under way at 20:15 BST, with live TV coverage in the UK available on Sky Sports. Club media will be all over it too of course, with frequent updates on ManUtd.com and in our Official App, while MUTV offers build-up from 19:10 BST followed by radio commentary and post-match analysis.
Our first game at Kenilworth Road since April 1992 will unfortunately be played behind closed doors.
WHAT'S AT STAKE?
Up for grabs is a place among the last 16 teams in the competition, and unusually we already know the Reds or the Hatters will be away in the next phase. That's because the fourth-round draw was made last Thursday night, pitting the winners of our tie against either Preston North End or Brighton & Hove Albion. Those two clubs meet on Wednesday evening at 19:00 BST so if we do go through at Luton's expense, we'll have to wait for almost another 24 hours to discover if we'll head north into Lancashire or south to the Sussex coast next week.

HOW HAVE LUTON STARTED THE SEASON?

Very well. Nathan Jones's side have won all four of their fixtures so far, knocking Norwich City (3-1 at home) and Reading (1-0 away) out of the Carabao Cup to reach this point and collecting maximum points from their league games at Barnsley (1-0) and against Derby County (2-1) at Kenilworth Road. The latter victory this weekend has put the Hatters third in the early Championship table, for their second campaign at that level since they were promoted as League One winners in 2018/19.
EARLY TEAM NEWS
It remains to be seen how many of the men Ole Gunnar Solskjaer fielded against Crystal Palace will keep their places in the team, as the manager may use this match to hand other members of his squad the minutes they need, given he only had that one pre-season friendly against Aston Villa to work with. The likes of Eric Bailly, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Fred, Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic and Andreas Pereira haven't featured in either of our September games so far.

Meanwhile, Luton's line-up against Derby was unchanged from the XI that beat Barnsley in the preceding Championship game, which means United Academy graduate Ryan Tunnicliffe missed out. However, Tunnicliffe did play the full 90 minutes in last week's Carabao Cup win at Reading and he'd be delighted if Jones rewards that selection with a run-out against the Reds, especially if his former team-mates Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba are on the pitch.
Tunnicliffe (left), now a Luton midfielder, won the FA Youth Cup alongside Pogba, Lingard and Ravel Morrison in 2011.
WHO ARE LUTON'S DANGER MEN?
Two players with the same initials - James Collins and Jordan Clark - have dominated the Hatters' scoresheets so far this season. Republic of Ireland international Collins bagged all of his team's goals, including a penalty, in the first-round triumph against Norwich and followed up that hat-trick with the winner at Barnsley in the Championship. Clark, a midfielder who began his career with Barnsley, his local club, registered the solitary strike away to Reading in the last round and then sealed Saturday's victory over Wayne Rooney's Derby County with minutes to spare.

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistant referees: Lee Venamore and Andrew Fox
Fourth official: Andy Woolmer
Video
Watch action from last season's third-round tie against Rochdale.
RIVALS WATCH - ALL 16 TIES

Tuesday 22 September
Leyton Orient v Tottenham Hotspur (18:00 BST)
Newport County v Watford (19:00 BST)
West Bromwich Albion v Brentford (19:00 BST)
West Ham United v Hull City 19:30
Luton Town v United (20:15 BST)

Wednesday 23 September
Fulham v Sheffield Wednesday (19:00 BST)
Millwall v Burnley (19:00 BST)
Preston North End v Brighton & Hove Albion (19:00 BST)
Stoke City v Gillingham (19:00 BST)
Chelsea v Barnsley (19:45 BST)
Fleetwood Town v Everton (19:45 BST)
Leicester City v Arsenal (19:45 BST)
Morecambe v Newcastle United (19:45 BST)
Leicester v Arsenal is the only all-Premier League tie in the Carabao Cup third round.
Thursday 24 September
Bristol City v Aston Villa (19:00 BST)
Lincoln City v Liverpool (19:45 BST)
Manchester City v Bournemouth (19:45 BST)

The new season is here. Our 2020/21 home, away and third kits are available from United Direct.

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