Premier League: United Look to Avenge Low Point

Everton vs Manchester United

It’s fast approaching three months since I witnessed one of the most inept managerial displays in Premier League history.

That Manchester United lost at home to 10-man Everton wasn’t unprecedented.

After all, history is littered with backs-to-the-wall displays by sides who triumphed against the odds despite a numerical disadvantage.

This though was different.

This was, as far as this SBOTOP observer was concerned, a new low: a display to match the earlier season League Cup humiliation at League Two Grimsby.

United barely looked like scoring against the Toffees and the fact they had played for 77 minutes against a side reduced to 10 men for team-mates fighting, only added to the tragicomedy of it all (depending on your viewpoint).

My views on Ruben Amorim (now former manager) on these pages are well documented and that night demonstrated many of the issues as he failed to make any attacking changes until the closing stages and completely lacked urgency.

There remains much to do before the Red Devils are at the sharp end again but the fact the strait jackets are now off and they appear to be enjoying their football again should be clear as they prepare for their first visit to the Dickinson Hill Stadium.

Talking Points

What Everton team awaits them remains to be seen.

For David Moyes’ men have been somewhat Jekyll n’ Hyde in recent months, not helped of course by the loss for the remainder of the season of their on-loan talisman Jack Grealish.

Furthermore, youngster Jake O’Brien is suspended following his red card in their defeat against Bournemouth last time out.

Defeat was something United were seconds away from in their most recent outing too, until they were rewarded by composed build-up play and a superbly executed finish by Benjamin Sesko to earn a stoppage-time draw at West Ham.

The Slovenian international could even be handed a start on Monday night as reward for his impact off the bench, although the Red Devils remain without Patrick Dorgu, Matthijs De Ligt and Mason Mount who are at various stages of their recovery from injury.

Benjamin Sesko strikes late as Man United snatch a Premier League point, denying West Ham a vital win — Joshua Zirkzee and Benjamin Sesko celebrate Manchester United’s equaliser against West Ham United

Just over a month ago, these two clubs were among those I pinpointed as needing to bounce back from early FA Cup exits to avoid misery in the final third of the campaign.

Delivering Premier League 2026 highlights in this fixture will go some way to helping achieve that aim.

History

Since their first meeting in 1892, when United were known as Newton Heath, this has been a traditional English football heavyweight clash.

For so long in the 1980s Everton had the edge; in the Premier League era United have largely been the dominant force.

Overall, they have 96 triumphs to Everton’s 72 with a further 48 games ending level.

The game at Old Trafford earlier this term was decided by a solitary goal from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, while the same meeting last term resulted in a 4-0 home win in which a very poor Everton team went down to braces from Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee.

The former never started again under Amorim in what was the Portuguese’s first league match in charge during his ill-fated 14-month spell.

After the contest he said he expected his new team would ‘suffer’ going forward and he was right as, by the time they had met in the return fixture two and a half months later, the Red Devils had only won a further three league games.

That meeting, virtually a year ago today, saw United go 2-0 down in the first half to goals from Beto and Abdoulaye Doucoure and some very unconvincing goalkeeping from Andre Onana.

Yet the visitors showed real character to fight back and earn a 2-2 draw through a superb Bruno Fernandes free-kick and a Manuel Ugarte strike on their final ever visit to Goodison Park.

It shows how much change there has been that, when the sides met two and half years ago on Merseyside – a contest which was a lot closer than the scoreline suggested – United’s scorers were Alejandro Garnacho (now of Chelsea), with an overhead kick, later voted the goal of the season, a penalty from Rashford (now on loan at Barcelona) and what proved to be Anthony Martial’s final goal in a United shirt.

Everton have only actually beaten United twice in their last 15 meetings in all competitions.