Rashford shoots wide from Eriksen’s corner

Sir Jim Ratcliffe met with the media at Old Trafford ahead of today’s match, saying he is hopeful his deal to purchase a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United will be official by mid-February.

The British billionaire is currently awaiting league approval after his petrochemical company, INEOS, completed their deal to take a minority stake of the club last month.

That process is expected to take as long as eight weeks but Ratcliffe has already started work and visited the club’s stadium and training base at Carrington at the start of January.

“Early to mid-Feb, we hope,” Ratcliffe said. “We hope they don’t find anything dodgy in our CV!”

Ratcliffe’s minority stake will give the billionaire sporting control of the club, but he was unable to comment on whether he would have any influence on United’s January transfer window activity.