MANCHESTER UNITED TODAY. THE FA CUP RETURNS: READING COULD YET PROVE CHALLENGING FOR MANCHESTER UNITED

The Emirates Cup has returned once again and as the competition returns, Manchester United's hopes winning the Trophies for a record of 12 moments returns along with the competition.

Manchester United prepare to face off against second division side Reading FC tonight with an opportunity to advance further into the Emirates Cup competition hanging in the balance.

According to the opinions of some of the Manchester United fans, the Emirates cup competition is regarded as one competition which holds less importance in the outcome of Manchester United season. Nevertheless, Manchester United is regarded as a club that loves to win every Trophy available in every competition and the Emirates cup competition will be no exception for caretaker Manager Ole-Gunner Solskier and his men tonight. On his press conference, this past Wednesday caretaker manager Ole Gunner Solskier confirmed that the Red Devils are starting to shorten their injury list with players such as Alexis Sanchez (hamstring), returning to action for Manchester United this past week. Anthony Martial will also be available for inclusion into the starting XI tonight after the player was omitted from the list of players available for the Huddersfield encounter two weeks ago.

The French winger had been battling illness for the past week but care-taker manager Ole Gunner Solskijier reported on Friday 28 November that Anthony Martial has returned to training and Antony Martial took his place in the starting XI this mid-week Wednesday's clash meaning that Anthony Martial will be available for tonights Emirates Cup match against  Reading. Manchester United has been playing some fantastic football under caretaker manager Ole Gunner Solskjaers' supervision and one might expect that with the return of more players from various injuries, Manchester United should have the firepower to clinch victory over Reading meaning Manchester United should qualify for the next stage of Emirates Cup competition come final whistle tonight.

  

With Manchester United finally tunning a positive corner with the clubs level football at the end of the year 2018, the expectation for Manchester United is that a 2^nd division Reading side should pose little threat to Manchester United’s further progress into the Emirates Cup competition. However, Manchester United can not use Readings participation in the second division league as an excuse to neglect Reading FC possible danger against Manchester United tonight. Fair enough, Reading is currently playing their football in a league which really cannot compare to the quality seen in the Premier League.

However, the Emirates Cup is considered one special competition because, in the Emirates Cup competition, big clubs such as Manchester United have proven to be very susceptible to stumbling and crashing out of the competition simply due to share underestimating the usually “smaller” opponent's capabilities. Manchester United cannot forget that coming into tonight's game Reading is sitting second to bottom in the English Championship competition table. Meaning “The Royals” under the guidance of manager Jose Manuel Gomez will be looking at the Emirate Cup Trophy as an opportunity to cap off their less than stellar season by knocking off one the giant clubs and progressing further into the Emirate Cup competition tonight.

The Emirates Cup competition has always been a medium for Manchester United to give their younger players whom are still developing their football in the clubs academy an opportunity to get a run out in a 1^st team competition and put to practice what they learned on the training ground in an actual match and show the manager that they might be ready to be promoted  to the Manchester United 1^st team.

Manager Ole Gunner Solskijier himself even commented during one of his press conferences this past two weeks of his willingness to recognize the hard work and the improvement of the Manchester United youth academy and according to Ole Gunner Solskjaer, Manchester United has always been a club that centers a part of the clubs success with promoting youth players in the clubs academy to join the Manchester United 1^st team. Hopefully, the youth players can, grow their talent, learn first hand from senior players what is needed to succeed in the clubs 1^st team and hopefully earn a permanent promotion into the Manchester United 1^st team roaster.

Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomez, Tahith Chong, Arden Barlow are just some names whom some hardcore Manchester United fans feel have improved enough to start earning gradual inclusion into the Manchester United 1^st team. Jose Mourinho might not have seen enough potential in the clubs youth system to give the kids a chance but new caretaker manager Ole Gunner Solskiejier has enough extensive knowledge of Manchester United football club to know that Manchester United thrives best when the club injects some talent from the academy into the 1st team.

Manchester United are the clear favorites to take victory from tonight’s match but victory in any competition is earned and never given. Reading FC’s current season in the English Championship in comparison to the way Manchester United’s current season in a modest fashion can best be described as polar opposites. While Manchester United has reinvented themselves after parting ways with Jose Mourinho, playing good football and now looking poised to seriously compete for the top 4 positions in the Premier League Table as well as seriously challenging for the UEFA Champions League competition, Reading FC is on the opposite side of positivity at this point with the facing some hardship in terms of performance on the field whilst simultaneously sitting at 23 place in the current English Championship Table automatically puts Reading as the Underdogs heading into this weekends kick off.

Coming into tonights match Jose Manuel Rodriguez side sits second bottom of the table in the League Championship desprately fighting to kick start their season. However, despite Readings appearent struggles so far this season, the League championship side still holds the potential to hurt Manchester United tonight and Reading might look to use Manchester Uniteds past history of crashing out of the Emirates Cup competition in the last two years as an incentive to come out in tonights match and get a result against Manchester United. Reading has players who can hold some level of threats on Manchester United through full-back Andy Yiadom and ex-Manchester United player John O’shea.

Lastly,  with Manchester United's big-name players all scheduled to return from numerous injuries this week, Manchester United appear to have more than enough to secure a victory against Reading tonight. Alexis Sanchez, Anthony Martial, and Romelu Lukaku all made great recoveries from injuries to join their teammates in training last week.

The trio has already returned to action for the team once again and should inject enough firepower in the team to break down the Reading team should the trio be involved in this weekends Emirates Cup match.