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Football

05th Jan 2019

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was not having Alexis Sanchez sitting in his seat

That's him told

Darragh Murphy

Even when he’s booting someone out of his chair, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a shining example of politeness.

Solskjaer had little sympathy for Alexis Sanchez when he came off injured an hour into Manchester United’s 2-0 FA Cup victory over Reading on Saturday afternoon.

Sanchez had set up Romelu Lukaku for United’s second goal but the Chilean forward failed to see out the ninety minutes, coming off for Marcus Rashford with thirty minutes remaining.

Sanchez plonked himself down in the first seat he saw but he was quickly reminded that he shouldn’t sit in his manager’s chair as a Solskjaer politely moved the 30-year-old to a different position.

The severity of Sanchez’s injury remains to be seen but Solskjaer sounded confident that it would not keep him out of action for long.

“I think he will be okay, he was tired. Hopefully it is not a bad reaction. We shall see,” United’s caretaker manager said after the game.

United are now five games unbeaten under their former striker and will return to action next Sunday when they travel to Spurs for a Premier League clash.

And after progressing through to the fourth round of the FA Cup, a competition won twice by Solskjaer as a player, the Norwegian expressed his delight with the result.

“We are delighted we are through,” Solskjaer said. “I made it tough for us, when you make nine changes it is never easy, but I am delighted we are into the next round. We learned a lot, but we know we need some fitness work, we need to work on relations. I put a team together which had never played together and we are through.”