Everton v Man Utd pre-match preview

Manchester United journalist Michael Plant explains why Sunday's trip to Goodison Park could be tricky for the Red Devils.

Transcript

00:00 Manchester United return to Premier League action this weekend when they take on Everton

00:04 at Goodison Park. It's a game that only a few weeks ago could have looked like a relatively

00:10 straightforward one for United when Everton were struggling. But suddenly now Everton

00:15 have hit a really good run of form. They've won three out of their last four, six out

00:20 of their last nine in all competitions and suddenly this looks anything but an easy three

00:25 points for Manchester United. Of course there's the big ongoing issue at Everton surrounding

00:30 the ten points that they were docked last week by the Premier League due to issues relating

00:36 to profitability and sustainability regulations. Of course Everton are opposed or certainly

00:43 don't agree with the punishment. They think it's very harsh in their eyes and fans this

00:49 weekend are planning to protest against the decision from the Premier League with banners

00:55 being handed out, flags being handed out and I think there'll be probably the Premier League

00:59 anthem will be booed ahead of the game and all that comes together to make it actually

01:03 it's going to be quite a hostile atmosphere for United to play in and Everton, you know,

01:08 the fans really got behind them a couple of years ago when they were in the midst of a

01:11 relegation fight, you know, meeting the team boss, plenty of blue flares outside the stadium,

01:17 things like that. And I actually remember being at Goodison two years ago when United

01:20 went there and lost 1-0 and the atmosphere certainly when Everton took the lead was fantastic

01:25 that day. So it's going to be a difficult game for United even though Everton are level

01:30 on points with Burnley at the bottom of the table. Pretty incredible really. As for United

01:35 they actually come into this game in pretty good form themselves. They have won four of

01:38 the last five in the Premier League. Remarkably across the last five matches are actually

01:42 the most informed team in the division. Now anyone who's watched those games know that

01:46 United aren't playing particularly well, that they are getting results as much as anything

01:50 through mistakes from the opposition and through creating chances, I suppose much from defensive

01:57 errors as much as anything. But I suppose that Ten Hag will be hoping that a two week

02:02 break from the internationals could potentially see a bit of an upswing in performances and

02:07 a bit of confidence as well from the recent run. And you know United are currently in

02:11 sixth place in the table. As I say, based on performances, you couldn't believe that

02:15 really but it's given them a bit of a platform despite the difficult start. They have won

02:20 seven of the first 12 games and it's given them a platform to potentially build on. And

02:24 as they start getting more and more players back, a bit of encouragement surrounding

02:28 the takeover which we expect to go through soon anyway and hopefully from Ten Hag's perspective

02:33 this can start building for Manchester United.