Manchester United vs Everton

Saturday’s Premier League action kicks off at Old Trafford as Manchester United and Everton go head-to-head in a high-stakes contest.

After going winless in three consecutive Premier League matches without scoring (D1, L2), Manchester United returned to winning ways in midweek, courtesy of a 1-0 home victory over Brentford, re-establishing a three-point cushion on fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur. However, there’s no time for celebration, as they’re not out of the woods yet. The ‘Red Devils’ return to Old Trafford, where they boast an intimidating 87.5% win ratio in all competitions this calendar year (W12, D2), confident about building on their midweek triumph. Though their most recent Premier League home outing yielded a 0-0 draw against basement boys Southampton, Man Utd’s eye-catching run of 28 unbeaten matches in their last 29 top-flight home H2Hs against Everton (W20, D8) should settle Erik ten Hag’s nerves.

In the meantime, Everton fought back late to hold Tottenham to a dramatic 1-1 home draw earlier this week, doing United a favor but, more importantly, steering outside the bottom three for the first time in a while. Unbeaten in their last four league matches (W1, D3), the ‘Toffees’ start this round level on points with 18th-placed Bournemouth, so there’s no room for complacency. Instead, manager Sean Dyche has to worry about his side’s lackluster away form, with Everton managing just one victory across their 14 Premier League travels this season (D6, L7). Moreover, since beating Southampton 2-1 in October, they’ve gone winless in their last ten away league games (D4, L6), keeping just one clean sheet in that stretch. But back-to-back 2-2 draws against Chelsea and Nottingham Forest on their last two top-flight road trips have shown signs of recovery.