Manchester United will face Everton at Old Trafford in the Premier League this afternoon. United returned to winning ways against Brentford on Wednesday evening with Marcus Rashford scoring his 28th goal of the season – the only goal of the game. United sit in fourth place in the Premier League ahead of the match – level on points with Newcastle United in third with goal difference separating them. United sit three points clear of fifth placed Tottenham Hotspur.
A victory over Everton will see United rise back to third in the league but Newcastle will need to beat Brentford to get back into third. Both United and Newcastle will still have a game in hand over Spurs at this stage of the season so the pressure will be on them to keep winning or face missing out on the UEFA Champions League next season. Erik ten Hag will be seeking United to go out with a winning mentality and aiding their finish to the season.
United will have played nine matches by the end of April which could still see them being involved in the UEFA Europa League, providing they beat six-time winners Sevilla, and the Emirates FA Cup, providing they beat Brighton and Hove Albion which could see the winner face either Manchester City or Sheffield United in the final at Wembley later this season. It has been a positive season for United and with Casemiro and Christian Eriksen back it will be better.
Manchester United
De Gea;
Wan-Bissaka, Maguire, Martinez, Malacia;
McTominay, Fernandes;
Antony, Sabitzer, Sancho; Rashford
Substitutes
Butland; Lindelof, Varane, Dalot; Eriksen, Fred, Pellistri; Martial, Weghorst
Everton
Pickford;
Coleman, Keane, Tarkowski, Godfrey;
Gueye;
Gray, Iwobi, Onana, McNeil;
Simms
Substitutes
Begovic; Patterson, Holgate, Mina, Mykolenko, Coady; Davies, Garner; Maupay
United and Everton have met 61 times in the Premier League. United have won 38, drawn 13 times and lost to Everton ten times. United have scored 111 goals, winning five penalties, scoring four of them. Everton have scored 60 goals, winning four penalties, scoring three of them. United have kept 24 clean sheets and Everton have kept 10 clean sheets. United players have been shown 80 yellow cards and two red cards with Everton players shown 113 yellow cards and three red cards.
Earlier this season, United beat Everton 2-1 at Goodison Park in the Premier League with Antony and Cristiano Ronaldo both scoring. United also met Everton in the third round of the Emirates FA Cup this season at Old Trafford, beating them 3-1 with Antony, a Conor Coady own goal and a Marcus Rashford penalty saw United reach the fourth round of the competition. Ten Hag will be seeking to get maximum points from Everton in the Premier League this season.
Mark Hughes, Andrei Kanchelskis, John O’Kane, Phil Neville, Jesper Blomqvist, Wayne Rooney, Tim Howard, Louis Saha, Darron Gibson, Marouane Fellaini, Michael Keane, Tom Cleverley, Romelu Lukaku, Morgan Schneiderlin and Donny van de Beek have played for both United and Everton. Rooney will be the stand-out player here because of what he achieved at United – all time top scorer also achieving that for England – which has been matched by Harry Kane now.
Written by John Walker
