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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Samuel Luckhurst

Antony might have had his breakthrough moment at Manchester United

When Herschelle Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh at Headingley in 1999, Waugh ostensibly quipped, "You've just dropped the World Cup."

Waugh never said those words but the apocryphal tale endures. Bukayo Saka might have dropped the Premier League trophy with his spooned penalty at the London Stadium on Sunday.

The peaks and troughs of sport never cease to amaze. One-hundred-and-twenty-three miles away in Nottingham, another left-footed right winger scythed through the trees to deforest Forest.

Also read: Ten Hag likens Antony to Robben

Antony has been unfavourably compared with Saka, a shoo-in for the Premier League's team of the season, but his performance at the City ground was a possible breakthrough in his Manchester United career.

On a day Forest celebrated 50 years of their Tricky Tree crest, Antony mastered his one trick. This correspondent wrote, coincidentally after United won at the City Ground in the League Cup in January, that Antony mimicked Arjen Robben that night.

That was a comparison Erik ten Hag endorsed on Sunday. "He is so good on the inside. So I've seen, for instance, Arjen Robben a lot. They say he had only one trick but that one trick was so brilliant no one can stop it.

"We have to emphasise, of course, if you can go both ways you have more variations, you are more difficult to stop. But to improve the trick you are really good at, his first yards with the ball as he dribbles are so outstanding I think they're so difficult to defend. So he has to keep doing that."

A first Premier League goal in 15 games and a first Premier League assist is ample proof of a progressive step for Antony. More pleasing for Ten Hag will be the manner of those contributions.

Antony sprinted past Renan Lodi as soon as Bruno Fernandes serviced Anthony Martial and did not hesitate, as Lodi did, when Keylor Navas palmed Martial's shot and prodded in.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer savoured "scruffy" goals more than polished strikes in his mentoring of Martial and Marcus Rashford. As the Sevilla left-back Marcos Acuna discovered, Antony is a truculent character not averse to a scrap, ball or no ball.

Antony's creativity for Diogo Dalot's clincher trumped his goal. Antony cut through Forest's defence, using Wout Weghorst as a decoy, Moussa Niakhaté halted, knowing Weghorst had stayed onside, but was caught square and impetuously engaged Antony. That freed up space for Dalot to dash into.

The timing of the pass and its speed were near-perfect, evidence Antony's technical prowess has a higher ceiling than his fitful first six months suggested. That consistency is a work in progress.

In the first half, Antony ignored an unattended Christian Eriksen for a pull-back and it was on Ten Hag's mind during his post-match appraisal. "In the start, he had one or two moments where he should have passed to Christian Eriksen.

"It's so important in top football, the timing, the right moment to bring the pass is huge, it makes every impact, it makes the difference between a goal and no goal.

"The goal he made, he was in the right spot, in the right moment to get the rebound. The second goal was a great team goal, how we built that up, the way Antony did it to bring the pass and in the right moment to bring the pass, and the movement from Diogo was fantastic. It was good to see."

Antony's form since the March internationals has been on an upward curve. He was unfortunate to be removed at Newcastle, a decision he was so piqued by he concealed his mouth as he aired a grievance to an understanding Ten Hag. Three days later, his perceptive pass for Marcel Sabitzer led to Rashford's winner against Brentford and Ten Hag cuttingly claimed Antony "killed" Everton's auxiliary left-back Ben Godfrey, spared another 45 minutes of torture.

Antony smacked the same Stretford End post against Everton and Sevilla, his fourth consecutive substitution and the most contentious. A goal was coming.

The challenge for Antony now is to maintain a high-performance level against better teams. He attempted an 'Anturny' with United 2-0 up against Sevilla, only the ball rolled under his boot and out for a throw. United have to eliminate such hubris and Antony is a more effective winger on the half-turn in the final third rather than freestyling with the ball on the halfway line.

Robben is a worthy benchmark. He received a tour of United's Carrington training complex in January 2004 from Sir Alex Ferguson, so apoplectic at the presence of photographers he emerged from his car to switch on the hairdryer.

Ferguson was on his feet in the Amsterdam Arena to applaud Robben's winning goal for the Netherlands against the USA in February. Exactly one month later, Chelsea announced the £12million signing of Robben.

Ferguson presented Robben with his man of the match award after his matchwinning performance in the Champions League final at Wembley in 2013. "It's my first job since I retired," Ferguson half-joked.

United dropped the ball with Robben but now have a potential clone in Antony, another winger nurtured in the Netherlands.

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