Manchester United’s Antony attributes his dip in form due to ‘personal issue’
Manchester United forward Antony revealed in an interview after United’s victory over Everton in a FA Cup tie on Friday that he had been dealing with some personal issue, which lead to him being absent from the matchday squad against Bournemouth during the midweek.
The Brazilian, who had scored his side’s opening goal in the 3-1 win over Everton, said to TNT Sports, “”First of all, it’s a feeling of joy. I’m happy to score again, especially at home. I’ve set some goals for me this season and it’s good to score as soon as I’ve started to think of personal goals. But, of course, the most important is United’s qualification to the next stage.”
“I also feel relieved as in the last days I had a shock, but I prefer not to comment on what happened. It was a personal matter, really hard, but I’m very grateful to God to put that behind me now, grateful to the club, to the players and to the manager. Everyone stayed my side,” the 22-year-old added.
Antony had a good start for United after transferring from Ajax in the summer, scoring against Arsenal in his very first match. Since then, his impact had dwindled with a lot of fans criticising his offensive contributions.
In the match, Marcus Rashford scored his fifth goal in as many games after creating two others to help Manchester United beat Everton 3-1 and reach the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Rashford set up Antony’s early opener and saw a second-half cross turned into his own net Conor Coady, scorer of Everton’s equalizer.
Then, in stoppage time, Rashford kept his scoring run going sending Jordan Pickford the wrong way from the penalty spot after Ben Godfrey fouled Alejandro Garnacho.
United was hardly ruthless, grateful to see a potential Dominic Calvert-Lewin equalizer ruled out for a tight offside call. But United did enough to make it seven straight wins in all competitions for the first time since 2019 when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was in caretaker charge.
