Man Utd youngster Chido Obi delivered an excellent performance in the U18s’ win against Manchester City on Saturday.
Manchester United are happy with Chido Obi’s development in the academy this season. Obi scored his ninth goal of the campaign for the Under-18s in a 3-1 win against Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.
Obi impressed during the game with his out-of-possession work. It’s understood that staff were delighted with Obi’s display and believed his off-the-ball work was some of his finest of the season.
The 18-year-old’s pressure helped to force City into a mistake for the opening goal of the match, and Obi extended the advantage with seven minutes remaining with an excellent strike.
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Obi has exclusively played in academy fixtures this term. United fast-tracked Obi after his arrival from Arsenal, and he made seven first-team appearances in the second half of last season, but the decision was made before 2025/26 to allow Obi to develop in youth games away from the spotlight.
United staff have been keen to allow Obi to continue learning in academy games. There have been fewer first-team matches due to early cup exits, and Obi has benefited from that decision.
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The Dane dropped down to U18 level for the first time in 11 months when he started against Derby County in the FA Youth Cup last month. The Youth Cup is for players who are under the age of 18 on August 31 of the current campaign. Obi celebrated his 18th birthday in November, making him eligible.
The U18s take on Oxford in the fifth round of the Youth Cup on Wednesday and Obi is set to be involved. Obi fired the U18s to the last four of the Youth Cup last season, scoring seven goals in just four matches, but he was marked out of the semi-finals by eventual winners Aston Villa.
In September, Travis Binnion told the Manchester Evening News: “It’s not easy for him because people look at him like he’s a big kid. The key thing there is he’s still very young, he’s still learning his game.
“Because he’s had exposure with the first-team, I think people expect performance levels that are really consistent and really high. You’ve got first-team players across the country who don’t do that.
“The expectation on him is high, but he has to deliver the basics, and what he did from minute 30 to 80 when he came off is he pressed, he ran and he occupied two centre halves to give other players space on the pitch to exploit, which is why we dominated the ball.
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“I’m really pleased with him and we haven’t even scraped the top of the iceberg with him. He’s got loads to come. That will come from how he sees the game, keeps working hard and recognises he has stuff to develop because that’s always a challenge when you have that first-team exposure and then you go away and have to start working on things.”
Binnion continued: “When you score as many goals as he has throughout his relatively short life, you can define yourself by goals. And we all know there’s probably only two or three strikers in the world who get two goals in every three games.
“If you’re used to scoring two goals in every game, then recognising what the role is, how you have to go around it takes a little bit of time. He is dying to be a footballer.
“He is hungry. And he’s still learning the game, learning how to project himself and learning how to play within a team, the club’s shape and system, so there’s still lots for him to do. The key is he wants to play, he wants to do well and wants to train. He could train every day if he could.”
![Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels. This week ministers said passengers arriving in the UK would have to take a pre-departure Covid test, as well as a post-flight test, because of fears about the spread of the new variant. “[The] high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing shows the potential harm to the economy of travel restrictions,” the airport said in an update. Heathrow said the drop in traveller confidence owing to the new travel restrictions had negated the benefit of reopening the all-important corridor to North America for business and holiday travel last month. Eleven African countries have been added to the government’s red list, requiring travellers to quarantine before reuniting with families. “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.” Heathrow said that if the government could safely signal that restrictions would be lifted soon, then employers at Heathrow would have the confidence to hire thousands of staff in anticipation of a boost in business next summer. The airport is expecting a slow start to 2022, finishing next year with about 45 million passengers – just over half of pre-pandemic levels. This week Tui, Europe’s largest package holiday operator, said it expected bookings for next summer to bounce back to 2019 levels. However, Heathrow said on Friday not to expect the aviation industry to recover for several years. “We do not expect that international travel will recover to 2019 levels until at least all travel restrictions (including testing) are removed from all the markets that we serve, at both ends of the route, and there is no risk of new restrictions, such as quarantine, being imposed,” the airport said.](https://wordupnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1100012546-scaled-400x240.jpg)
![Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels. This week ministers said passengers arriving in the UK would have to take a pre-departure Covid test, as well as a post-flight test, because of fears about the spread of the new variant. “[The] high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing shows the potential harm to the economy of travel restrictions,” the airport said in an update. Heathrow said the drop in traveller confidence owing to the new travel restrictions had negated the benefit of reopening the all-important corridor to North America for business and holiday travel last month. Eleven African countries have been added to the government’s red list, requiring travellers to quarantine before reuniting with families. “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.” Heathrow said that if the government could safely signal that restrictions would be lifted soon, then employers at Heathrow would have the confidence to hire thousands of staff in anticipation of a boost in business next summer. The airport is expecting a slow start to 2022, finishing next year with about 45 million passengers – just over half of pre-pandemic levels. This week Tui, Europe’s largest package holiday operator, said it expected bookings for next summer to bounce back to 2019 levels. However, Heathrow said on Friday not to expect the aviation industry to recover for several years. “We do not expect that international travel will recover to 2019 levels until at least all travel restrictions (including testing) are removed from all the markets that we serve, at both ends of the route, and there is no risk of new restrictions, such as quarantine, being imposed,” the airport said.](https://wordupnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1100012546-scaled-80x80.jpg)
