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Key events
46 min No subs yet. United kick off and go sideways in midfield.
The players are out again, or at least United are. Everton wait in the tunnel as James Tarkowski lobbies John Brooks about something.
On xG, there’s not a lot to separate the teams. Everton 0.34-0.32 United. The United forward line has been the more imposing of the two, but James Garner, who captained their Under-21s before being brainlessly sold to Everton, has been the main man in midfield. And Jarrod Branthwaite, who was coveted by United a couple of summers ago, has been immense in defence.
And I’m late to an early spot from Justin Kavanagh. “Lovely footage from the tunnel,” he said, “of Lammens fixing up his captain’s tracksuit collar while standing behind Fernandes. Now that’s what you like to see in a keeper: an obsession with the little details and a fussiness for positioning and everything in its right place.”
Time for a glance at the post. “The chippy stall in your photo,” says Gary Naylor, “did some very good ones garnished with herbs and chillis a fortnight ago. Hard recomnend.
“It might get some extra trade today as I understand that there may be a ‘Not a pound inside the ground’ boycott. Feels a bit performative that – but protests are.” Very true.
HALF-TIME! Everton 0-0 Man United
No goals, no thrills, but an absorbing encounter. It ought to be 1-1: Cunha should have scored for United and Barry for Everton, only for both attempts to go over the bar when it looked easier to get them on target.
45+3 min One last sortie from United. Cunha slips in Rashford, who is well marshalled by Branthwaite. Another shot from Fernandes, another block – and again it’s Branthwaite, who is quite clearly the man of the last three minutes.
45+1 min Everton are finishing the half with some intensity. Mykolenko sends in a long throw, the ball falls to Branthwaite, whose low shot is on target – and well saved by Lammens, without much of a view.
45 min Barry breaks free down the right, but never manages a cross. There will be three more minutes, thanks to that early knock for Maguire.
44 min United have some possession and a few half-openings, but no shot.
42 min The next bad ball comes from Fernandes. And then Everton have a proper chance! Johnson whips in a cross and Barry again gets his head to it. This header is far more confident … but over the bar.
40 min United get forward, only for Mbeumo to play a loose pass to Cunha. At this rate, Sesko will be getting more than his usual 25 minutes.
39 min Everton have a chance! Well, a quarter-chance. A free kick comes in and Barry rises to it, but his header is a bit woolly.
38 min Will Unwin emailed again a few minutes ago. “Excitingly, half an hour in, Everton’s xG sits at an impressive 0.01, having managed one off-target shot and nothing else. Not a classic of the genre.” Ha.
36 min Rashford beats one man, two men, but not the third man, Tarkowski, who puts the ball out for a corner. A better ball in from Fernandes leads to a brawl in the box and the ball squirts out for a goal kick.
35 min Fernandes’ free kick is tame, Mbeumo’s follow-up cross is even worse, and both are easily headed away.
33 min Cunha plays a one-two with Rashford, who sends him through – to win a free kick as Brennan Johnson brings him down. It’s just outside the area, almost on the byline.
33 min We keep getting 30 seconds of action followed by two and a half minutes of lassitude. Maybe that’s football?
31 min Lammens comes for a cross and fails to make it – but he does have Dewsbury-Hall, unnoticed by John Brooks, sticking an elbow in his throat.
30 min Another cross from Rashford, whipped in hard and well defended by Branthwaite.
28 min Everton knock the ball around in the sunshine. Garner plays two piercing passes, one down the left to Mykolenko, one towards the right to Armstrong, but it all ends in a goal kick.
26 min Garner wins the ball well in midfield and Everton threaten something, which comes to nothing. They’ve had one shot so far to United’s six.
24 min The game is opening up. United spring forward and again the old firm of Rashford and Shaw combine well, but Rashford’s curling cross finds no takers as Mbeumo seems not to see it coming. Sesko might have gobbled that up.
21 min The first big chance! Rashford gets a good ball from Mbeumo and escapes down the left. His low cross is left by someone and received by Cunha, who can only hit it over the bar from near the spot.
20 min Fernandes’ corner is headed away by Rohl. Dalot takes a volley and there’s another block – by Cunha.
19 min Another shot for United, also a long one, and also tame – from Cunha this time. Everton are defending well in a doughty 4-5-1… But as I type that, Fernandes finds some space and he gets a better shot in – blocked by Branthwaite.
18 min Shot from Tielemans, but he’s a long way out and Pickford has no trouble coping with a bouncing ball.
16 min Everton do well down their left as Dewsbury-Hall’s toes begin to twinkle. But United drive them back and then slow things down.
15 min Mainoo, usually so tidy in tight spaces, picks the wrong moment to play a backheel, but Maguire does the clearing up.
13 min Now we do have the first yellow: Armstrong, for getting Fernandes in a rather random headlock.
12 min Diogo Dalot goes in heavily on Tyrique George. Could be an early yellow but John Brooks opts for a lecture.
11 min Rashford starts to sprint away on the counter, but he’s shepherded out. His last United goal was against Everton, and so was the second-last – he scored two in a 4-0 home win in Ruben Amorim’s rather short-lived honeymoon period.
10 min And now Everton want a penalty! Barry goes down in the six-yard box as Martinez bears down on him. The ref waves away the appeals.
8 min Chance for United! They string together a lovely sequence, right to left, and Rashford releases Shaw on the overlap. His chipped cross brings a knock-down from Mbeumo and a volley from Fernandes … which hits the bar!
6 min Brennan Johnson skims a cross in and Maguire manages a clearance. As Everton come again, Tielemans gets into trouble and his new mate Mainoo tidies up.
5 min Senne Lammens goes long too – all the way to Pickford. Maguire returns.
5 min Maguire is on his feet now, with a plug in one nostril and a bottle of water in one hand. He trots to the touchline for the obligatory minute off.
4 min After lying on his side in worrying fashion, Maguire manages to sit up. A replay suggests it might be a broken nose – his face went into the back of Barry’s head.
2 min Long ball from Pickford. Harry Maguire goes up for it with Thierno Barry and goes down in a heap. Leny Yoro starts limbering up.
1 min Moyes and Carrick exchange fond smiles and Everton kick off.
The teams come out. Blue tracksuit tops and red ones. Jordan Pickford and Marcus Rashford. Kobbie Mainoo and James Garner. Harry Maguire and James Tarkowski. Bruno Fernandes and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
“Looking forward to your top post-match analysis as much as your present…” says Paul Moody, generously enabling me to link to my free newsletter, United Writing. “Also looking ahead to tough games… City next Sunday… Hoping for 1-3 today and be very entertaining.”
“Selected scuttlebut,” says Ian Copestake, promisingly, “from Everton fans on the train from Birkenhead to the game is that the fans have been lied to. Promises made by the new owners (shiny new stadium not mentioned) have not been fulfilled. Mutiny is round the corner (probably at Sandhills).”
An unexpected proposal from John Stedman. “I like the new(ish) Dining Across the Divide series [in the Saturday magazine] and hereby propose a new feature: Drinking Across the Sporting Divide, which you can pitch to your taskmasters in Guardian Towers.
“As a follower of LFC with no Liverpudlian antecedents, I suggest meeting you in a locale of your choice to debate in civilised tones the eternal recently manufactured enmity between your team and mine. The George and Dragon in Fordwich should be within The Guardian’s Blind Date budget.”
John, I like where you’re coming from.
And here’s our correspondent at the ground, Will Unwin. “There is a subdued atmosphere at Hill Dickinson,” he reports, “as those in blue funnel into the ground, rightly concerned by the long term. Folarin Balogun’s failed move leaves them with only Thierno Barry as a recognised striker, although whether he can be prolific is unknown.
“Michael Carrick is also short in certain positions and this is the start of a long season where playing twice a week could catch up with United. Left-back is the obvious problem position if Luke Shaw gets injured. He played every Premier League game last season, but that was without the rigours of European football in between. His fitness record includes plenty of blemishes, so everyone will keep a close eye on his performances and availability.”
David Moyes is talking to Sky, and of course he’s asked about the transfer window. “That’s all gone now, so we have to play football and that’s what we’ll do.” And what is he expecting from the fans? “Nothing different to usual. They’re always really good to us.”
It wouldn’t be an Everton game without a word from Mary Waltz. “Greetings from California,” she says, at what must be the break of dawn over there. “This season started so well. Points taken. Moyes at the helm. Of course we will add on deadline day………. Or maybe not. Life as an Everton fan. Sigh.”
The first email comes in from Joshua Keeling. “United fan here,” he says. “Agree that all three results are possible. It’s never easy, going to Everton. Feels like United need to win today ahead of the derby next week.”
Yes … they could probably only afford one defeat in this mini-season of five matches before the long international break, and they used it up at the first opportunity.
Teams in full
Some eye-catching names on the benches. Everton have Jack Grealish and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, plus the 18-year-old Northern Irish striker Braiden Graham, the lesser-spotted Tyler Dibling and the elegant Hayden Hackney (mentored by Michael Carrick when they were both at Middlesbrough). United have Mason Mount back from injury, and he edges out Shea Lacey, so Bryan Mbeumo may have to put in a full shift on the right.
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Röhl, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Garner, Armstrong; Johnson, Dewsbury-Hall, George; Barry.
Subs: Travers, O’Brien, Keane, Maitland-Niles, Hackney, Alcaraz, Grealish, Dibling, Graham.
Man United (4-2-3-1) Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Martinez, Shaw; Tielemans, Mainoo; Mbeumo, Fernandes, Rashford; Cunha.
Subs: Darlow, Mazraoui, Yoro, Heaven, Santos, Mount, Zirkzee, Dorgu, Sesko.
Referee John Brooks.
Teams in brief: no change for Man United
Michael Carrick, who played under Moyes in his season at Old Trafford, keeps things steady too and names an unchanged team. So Matheus Cunha continues as the false 9, Marcus Rashford gets a second successive start as the 11 with a 9 on his back, and Benjamin Sesko, who scored the only goal at Everton in February, remains on the bench.
Teams in brief: one change for Everton
David Moyes had to make one change from the last XI he picked because Ilian Ndiaye has gone to Man City. Brennan Johnson takes his place, but otherwise Moyes keeps faith with the men who drew at Bournemouth.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the David Moyes derby. Or is it the Wayne Rooney, Michael Keane, James Garner, Morgan Schneiderlin and not quite Joshua Zirkzee derby?
The Premier League prediction posse, both human and automated, is expecting Manchester United to win today after the 5-2 win over Ipswich, their first hatful under Michael Carrick. But Everton fans, when not berating their owners for a broken transfer window, may have something to say about that.
Everton haven’t conceded at home this season while United haven’t scored on the road. Everton are unbeaten while United capsized at Hull. United may have far more depth but Everton have flair to spare in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish. In my considered opinion, all three results are perfectly plausible.
Kick-off is at 2pm and I’ll be back soon with the teams.
#Everton #Manchester #United #Premier #League #live #Premier #League
