After a 2-0 embarrassment and then 5-2 dominant display, Manchester United remain as unpredictable as ever at the start of the season, and while their opening fixtures have been relatively kind against the newly promoted sides, Sunday afternoon’s short trip to the Hill Dickinson stadium to take on Everton and former manager David Moyes provides the first major test ahead of a big week for United as they return to the Champions League and have the Manchester derby on the horizon.

In our preview of the game we are going to take a look at the team news coming into the game including our predicted XI for this one, we will have a look at some of the key battles and players to watch and then of course we will make a prediction for how this one could play out.

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Team News

Coming into this game, United’s bill of health remains largely unchanged from their previous fixture, with the longer term absence of De Ligt and Ugarte ruling them out for an extended period, the uncertain fitness of Mount, Amad and Baleba means they will likely not start the game although could feature in the squad potentially.

Given the close of the transfer window this week, we also now know that Harry Amass and Joshua Zirkzee remain at the club at least for the first half of the season, and Amass could become a sub option for left-back cover, while Zirkzee will likely remain on the bench for this one as he remains down the attacking pecking order, even with his late link with a move to Everton.

After the attacking threat and control of the second half especially vs Ipswich, I am predicting Michael Carrick will go with an unchanged XI to start against Everton, although I would expect to see a few changes later in the game with Sesko needing more minutes on the pitch to get his season up and running, while the midfield pairing of Mainoo-Tielemans will likely be rotated around with Santos at some stage hopefully with the game wrapped up.

Predicted XI: Lammens, Shaw, Martinez, Maguire, Dalot, Mainoo, Tielemans, Rashford, Fernandes, Mbeumo, Cunha

Key Battles

In this clash previously, it’s been a physical battle which was evident at set pieces in the meeting between these sides last season, and I expect this to continue in much the same way. Everton had a mixed deadline day which saw Grealish return on another loan and I expect him to feature, however they lost Ndiaye and couldn’t recruit another striker late on.

Because of this potential line-up, I think the battle of the game will be in midfield, as Tielemans and Mainoo will need to offer support against the potential threat of Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall who started the season well, however if Bruno Fernandes can link-up with the creative forward line, I think Rashford-Cunha-Mbeumo could get in behind the more physical presence of Tarkowski-Branthwaite.

Another player to keep an eye on in the midfield battle will be James Garner, a United academy graduate who made 7 appearances for the first team and has been linked on several occasions with a return to the club, only put off this summer likely because of a recent contract extension and price factor for United’s midfield rebuild, but with his versatility to play in defence or the midfield, I think he could be a thorn in the side of Manchester United on Sunday.

Prediction

For this one, I predict Manchester United will need to be much more physical and switched on defensively than they’ve shown thus far in the season, but I think we will see a definite middle ground of the 2 performances thus far, with United unlikely to keep a clean sheet, but will probably manage to outscore their opponents if they can build on their last outing.

As a result, I’ve gone for United to come away from this with a win to continue building confidence at the start of a huge 7 days for the club, possibly taking an early lead which they double just after half-time, but then concentration proves difficult towards the closing stages and Everton manage to get a late consolation that puts a bit of pressure on the team late on.

Everton 1-2 Manchester United

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