It was far more straightforward for fellow Premier League giants Chelsea and Manchester City. Mark Hughes fielded virtually his best eleven and that was good enough to beat Scunthorpe 5-1 with City never touching any bigger than 1.4 on the exchange. At 6.2 to win the Cup, only Chelsea at 4.1 and Man Utd at 5.8 are shorter. The former had no trouble disposing of  Bolton. They were matched at a high of 1.4 and those who predicted Chelsea would get four by backing the “any unquoted” runner secured a high of 5.6.

Tottenham (7.4), Aston Villa (12.0) Portsmouth (26.0) and Blackburn (27.0) complete the teams who will be in the draw for the quarter-finals.

The central defensive stalwart made his first league appearance of the season only last weekend, when the Reds impressively won 3-1 at Tottenham Hotspur. But Rio then reported a groin problem in training the next day and consequently wasn’t risked in Tuesday night’s Champions League victory over Besiktas.

“The only concern I’ve got is Rio,” said Sir Alex in his pre-match press conference. “He missed the game on Tuesday and he was out before the Spurs match. Only one game back after injury is a concern – he needs a run of games to be at his maximum. He did some running on Monday but he wasn’t right.

“He has to do some positive work in training if he’s going to make the game on Sunday. We hope he’s there because you want all your big players available.” If Ferdinand fails the fitness test then Jonny Evans will deputise once again.