Forest, Coventry and Manchester United breathe life back into FA Cup | Sean Ingle

Teams intent on attack and third-round upsets by Coventry and Nottingham Forest, among others, have helped revive the profile of football’s oldest competition

Anfield, Friday. While Virgil van Dijk humbly celebrates scoring Liverpool’s late winner the TV cameras pan out to capture one of the images of the season: Jürgen Klopp shaking his fists with the jittery frenzy of someone suddenly plugged into the national grid while yards away the Everton assistant manager, Sammy Lee, simultaneously twists his body, shuts his eyes and barks a pained expletive.

The Ricoh Arena, Saturday. The Coventry City defender Jack Grimmer meanders unchallenged towards the Stoke City box, swings his right foot and seems stunned as it evades a stuck‑in‑the-mud Jack Butland to put the Sky Blues ahead. Then Grimmer’s tongue comes out and he is clowning around with his team-mates and no wonder: Coventry are on their way to humbling a side 56 places higher in the League pyramid.

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