🏏 Sun, 6 Sep 2026 14:00 BST
Everton
vs
Manchester United
4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1
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Match Preview
- Everton sit 10th on four points from two matches (one win, one draw, +2 goal difference), a single point above Manchester United in 12th on three. Both clubs have a game in hand on leaders Manchester City, who have taken nine points from three, so the winner here climbs straight back into the early-season picture.
- United's opening fortnight has swung violently. They lost 0-2 away at promoted Hull City, a side now sitting second on seven points, then hammered Ipswich 5-2 at home in round two. Five goals scored and four conceded in two games sums up a team capable of overwhelming opponents and unravelling in equal measure.
- Everton, by contrast, have conceded just once. They kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace before taking a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth. Captain James Tarkowski, 33 and schooled at Burnley, partners the 195cm left-footed Jarrad Branthwaite, 24, in a pairing that reads danger early and dominates the air.
- There are two homecomings in Everton blue. James Garner, the 25-year-old central midfielder, came through United's academy before a loan spell that helped Nottingham Forest win promotion, and he supplies long-range passing and set-piece delivery. On the bench sits Michael Keane, 33, another United academy graduate who made his name at Burnley.
- Both sides set up in a 4-2-3-1, which puts the double pivots under the spotlight. Everton pair Garner with Harrison Armstrong, a 19-year-old who has been at the club since the age of five, while United field 21-year-old Kobbie Mainoo alongside Youri Tielemans, the 29-year-old Belgium international with Aston Villa, Leicester and Monaco behind him.
- The centre-forward contrast is compelling. Tierno Barry, 23 and 195cm, arrived from Villarreal on the back of 11 La Liga goals and pairs his frame with real pace in behind. Matheus Cunha, the 27-year-old Brazilian bought from Wolves for £62.5m and an Olympic gold medallist in Tokyo, offers the opposite profile as a link man who finishes as well as he creates.
- United's attacking band carries serious punch. Captain Bruno Fernandes, 31, pulls the strings from the No. 10 role, with Bryan Mbeumo on the right after 20 goals at Brentford and a £71m move, and Marcus Rashford on the left following his spell at Barcelona. Ukraine left-back Vitalii Mykolenko faces the afternoon's hardest individual assignment against Mbeumo's left-footed cut-ins.
- Everton's width should not be dismissed. Tyrique George, the 20-year-old Chelsea academy product who joined on loan in January, attacks from the right, while Brennan Johnson, the 25-year-old Wales international signed from Tottenham for a club-record £35m, works the left. How Luke Shaw, 31, and Diogo Dalot, 27, manage the space behind them will matter.
- The benches offer real firepower. United can call on Benjamin Sesko, the 195cm Slovenian who scored 39 goals for RB Leipzig before an €85m move, and Joshua Zirkzee, the Netherlands forward who broke through at Bologna. Everton answer with Jack Grealish, 30, back in blue after an earlier loan and a Manchester City career, plus Tyler Dibling, the 20-year-old signed from Southampton for a club-record fee.
- The goalkeeping matchup is a study in contrasts. Everton have Jordan Pickford, 32, a long-serving England international whose reflexes and distribution set the tone from the back. United trust Senne Lammens, the 24-year-old, 193cm Belgian signed from Royal Antwerp who seized the No. 1 shirt almost immediately and is known for stopping penalties.