Alan Hansen’s Premier League Preview: Manchester United v Everton
Manchester United will be pleased to be playing at Old Trafford this weekend after their last defeat at Chelsea a fortnight ago. The defeat at Stamford Bridge took the Champions number of losses on their travels this season to three which will be a worrying statistic for Sir Alex Ferguson as his team lost just four league games in the whole of the 2008/09 title winning season. Despite defeats at Burnley, Liverpool and Chelsea, United have started the season strongly at home and boast a superb record against this weekend’s opponents Everton.
The Toffees have endured an indifferent start to the campaign where they’ve failed to string many wins together. However, despite a relatively disappointing season, David Moyes’ team have lost just one of their last 7 league matches (3 wins). Everton won their last match against struggling West Ham at Upton Park but the performance itself was not great so they’ll need to up their game this weekend.
Manchester United have lost just one of their last 28 league clashes with Everton. It’s also been 17 years since the Toffees last won a league game at Old Trafford back in 1992. Howard Kendall was the man in charge of Everton, Snap were number one in the charts with ‘Rhythm is a dancer’ and John Major was Prime Minister. This was the year that Bill Clinton became US president, Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated, Euro Disney opened near Paris, DNA fingerprinting was invented and films like the Bodyguard and Basic Instinct were performing well at the cinema. Needless to say, it was quite a while ago.
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Everton’s chances of ending a run of 13 defeats and 3 draws from their last sixteen league trips to Old Trafford look slim despite United’s lack of form. After all, Sir Alex’s side have a record of five wins and a draw there this season and have lost just once at home in their last 30 league games (26 wins). Moyes’ team have actually won two of their last three away league games but wins at bottom three clubs West Ham and Portsmouth don’t compare to getting three points to Old Trafford.
Wayne Rooney is sure to play a key role against his former side this weekend. Wayne is getting better and better as a player and will be buoyed by captaining the England side in midweek. He leads United’s scoring charts with 7 league goals but doesn’t have the best of records against Everton since leaving Goodison. Wayne has scored two goals in eight games against Everton in all competitions and none at Old Trafford. Despite this, Wayne’s importance to United is huge. After all, since the start of the 2005/06 season, he’s either scored (61) or assisted (37) in 98 Premier League goals for the club which is quite some record.
I cannot back against the champions this weekend especially as Everton are a team that the United players seem to enjoy playing against. The champions may have scored more goals against the Toffees than any other side in the Premier League (69 goals) but I think this match may be relatively low scoring, especially if United score first. Sir Alex’s side are the only team not to drop points this season from a winning position and a home win is what I’d expect on Premier 10 with £30,000 on offer this weekend.
Tags: Alan Hansen, Everton, Manchester United, Premier 10, Premier League
