Manchester United take on Everton in the Premier League on Sunday and the Old Trafford outfit go into this game with their tails up.
United picked up a superb 2-1 over Villarreal in the Champions League in midweek and these three points were much-needed, especially after that shock loss to Aston Villa.
Man United will undoubtedly go into this weekend’s game as the favourites but Everton have made a wonderful start to the 21/22 campaign so there’s every chance that the Toffees could cause yet another upset. Everton are tied on points with United and have lost just one out of their previous five league matches.
It will not be a total surprise if Everton manage to stop Manchester United from picking up all three points but according to Paul Merson, a depleted squad will be the major stumbling block for the Toffees boss.
He wrote for Sportskeeda: “How lucky do Manchester United want to get? Villarreal gave them a proper footballing lesson in the UEFA Champions League last night, but they hung on for their lives, scored late on and won the game!
“Sooner or later, the way they play has to change and I believe this could be the game where they finally click.
“It can’t be so bad all the time, so I expect Manchester United to win this Premier League encounter 2-1.
“They were unfortunate not to score the penalty against Aston Villa and were well beaten against Villarreal despite getting a result, so it’s kind of hard to predict their results.
“Everton have done a great job so far this season, but they have their fair share of injury concerns.
“With a full-strength starting XI, they could have caused Manchester United problems, but I don’t think that will be the case at Old Trafford this week.”
Everton have a long list of injury absentees with players like Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Andre Gomes all recovering from injuries. And we totally agree with Paul Merson that Everton will find it really difficult to beat Manchester United with so many injury absentees.
Man United, on the other hand, have some injury concerns of their own but most of them are in the defensive areas and with players like Richarlison and DCL out, we doubt if Rafa’s side can cause any sort of problems to United’s backline.
32-year-old Salomon Rondon is going to lead the line for the away side and it will be really difficult for him to get the better of players like Raphael Varane and Lindelof.
