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Manchester United striker Anthony Martial vows to learn from Tottenham Hotspur red card

Manchester United striker Anthony Martial (Getty Images)
Manchester United striker Anthony Martial (Getty Images)

Anthony Martial has vowed to learn from the first sending off of his career and rediscover his form for Manchester United upon his return from suspension.

Martial saw red in the 6-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month for an altercation with Erik Lamela and has since served two games of a three-match domestic ban.

The 24-year-old is still able to take part in United's Champions League campaign but was unfortunate to score an own goal in the 2-1 win at Paris Saint-Germain last week.

Martial is expected to return to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's starting line-up for the visit of RB Leipzig on Wednesday night and will be looking to score at the right end for the first time this season.

"That red card [against Tottenham] was my first ever and it’s something that I will learn from," Martial told United's official website. "But it will at least allow me to work even harder in training to come back even better.

“I still haven’t scored yet this season, but I know that as and when I get off the mark with one, everything will be fine. So it’s down to me to keep putting in a big effort in training and to then show everybody the real Anthony Martial.”

On his own goal against Paris, Martial said: "These things happen. But since it was my hometown club, I just wanted to give them a bit of a helping hand!

"No seriously, that kind of thing can happen to anybody, but the main thing was that we managed to score the winning goal right at the death, and that was more important to me.

“I was really happy because my brothers and a lot of my family are United fans but my mates all support Paris. They’d all told me that we were going to lose, and I’d told them that we wouldn’t. So when we went on to win I was overjoyed.”

Martial has not scored since United's 2-1 win over LASK in early August and now faces new competition for a starting place in the form of Edinson Cavani, the veteran striker who joined United on a free transfer on deadline day.

“He’s a really great player," Martial said. "He’s proved exactly that all the way through his career, and I hope that he’ll manage to help us out.

“It’s always a positive to have even more quality within the group and as there are always a lot of fixtures to play, when one player is rested, it will allow us to ensure that there is no drop-off in quality whatsoever. That’s especially important for the team.”

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