Manchester United -v- Everton
Premier League
Old Trafford, Manchester
Saturday 8 April 2023, KO 12:30 GMT
Manchester United will face Everton at Old Trafford in the Premier League on Saturday. 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 – Form, Goals Scored & Assists
Brentford 1-0 W, Newcastle United 2-0 L, Fulham 3-1 W, Real Betis 1-0 W, Southampton 0-0 D, Real Betis 4-1 W
Goals: 28 – Marcus Rashford, 10 – Bruno Fernandes, 7 – Antony, 6 – Fred, Anthony Martial, 5 – Casemiro, Own Goal, Jadon Sancho, 4 – Alejandro Garnacho, 3 – Cristiano Ronaldo, 2 – Christian Eriksen, Scott McTominay, Wout Weghorst, 1 – Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez, Marcel Sabitzer, Luke Shaw
Assists: 10 – Bruno Fernandes, 9 – Christian Eriksen, 7 – Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw, 6 – Casemiro, 4 – Fred, Alejandro Garnacho, 3 – Wout Weghorst, 2 – Diogo Dalot, Anthony Elanga, Anthony Martial, Cristiano Ronaldo, 1 – Antony, Scott McTominay, Facundo Pellistri, Marcel Sabitzer, Jadon Sancho, Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Everton – Form, Goals Scored & Assists
Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 D, Chelsea 2-2 D, Brentford 1-0 W, Nottingham Forest 2-2 D, Arsenal 4-0 L, Aston Villa 2-0 L
Goals: 6 – Demarai Gray, 3 – Anthony Gordon, Dwight McNeil, 2 – Conor Coady, Abdoulaye Doucouré, 1 – Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Séamus Coleman, Alex Iwobi, Michael Keane, Neal Maupay, Yerry Mina, Amadou Onana, Ellis Simms, James Tarkowski
Assists: 7 – Alex Iwobi, 2 – Abdoulaye Doucouré, Dwight McNeil, 1 – Conor Coady, Ben Godfrey, Demarai Gray, Idrissa Gueye, Michael Keane, Neal Maupay, Amadou Onana, Jordan Pickford, James Tarkowski
Previous Meetings & Connections
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.
Team News
Donny van de Beek (knee), Tom Heaton (ankle) and Alejandro Garnacho (ankle) have all been ruled out of the visit of Everton due to injury. Casemiro is also suspended for this match – it being the last of four matches he was suspended for. Luke Shaw came off early against Brentford and it is expected that he will miss the Everton match having just a 25% chance of featuring this weekend. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was back on the bench against Brentford, so could start against Everton.
Christian Eriksen returned to full training this week but Ten Hag has refused to rule him out of the Everton clash should he pass all the fitness tests required for a player to fully return from injury. I think we will see the Dane on the bench, not in a starting role, which would be good for him and United. I would like to see Fred start in midfield with Marcel Sabitzer, which may be better despite Scott McTominay standing out against Brentford on Wednesday evening.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (thigh) and Andros Townsend (knee) are the only Everton players to be ruled out due to injury ahead of the visit to Old Trafford on Saturday. Abdoulaye Doucoure is suspended after a red card against Spurs and will miss the next three matches for his club. Other than that, Sean Dyche has a pretty full squad to take on United as they seek to pull away from the relegation zone this season with just goal difference separating them from 18th placed Bournemouth.
Predicted Manchester United Starting XI – 4-2-3-1
De Gea;
Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Martinez, Malacia;
Fred, Sabitzer;
Antony, Fernandes, Rashford;
Martial
Predicted Everton Starting XI – 4-1-4-1
Pickford;
Coleman, Keane, Tarkowski, Mykolenko;
Gueye;
Iwobi, Garner, Onana, McNeil;
Gray
Match Prediction
United have beaten Everton twice already this season; 2-1 in the Premier League at Goodison Park and 3-1 at Old Trafford in the Emirates FA Cup. The Liverpudlian club are in a pretty precarious position in the Premier League this season with just goal difference keeping them out of the relegation zone. Should they lose to United this weekend, they could fall further with other matches being played and many clubs trying to get away from the relegation zone.
Nottingham Forest face Aston Villa, Fulham face West Ham United, Leicester City face Bournemouth (both clubs in the relegation zone), Southampton face Manchester City and Leeds United face Crystal Palace. Should the likes of Forest, West Ham, Southampton, Leicester, Bournemouth, Leeds or Palace win this weekend – with tow matches involving teams in a relegation battle, Everton could slip into the bottom three and need a miracle again.
United dominated against Brentford and they will need to do the same again against Everton if they are to take command of this fixture at the Theatre of Dreams. United know they can beat Everton but some players in the squad will also know that Everton can be a tricky team to beat – despite Ten Hag’s team doing that twice already this season. United need to win at all costs. The one thing on the horizon is that Casemiro is back after this – which changes things massively.
Manchester United 2-1 Everton
Written by John Walker
