Opening weekend of the Premiership campaign has been plenty entertaining, but there is still one more intriguing match on tap involving one of the league's marquee teams.
Everton and Manchester United are set to square off on Monday afternoon (3pm ET, ESPN 2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com) at Goodison Park, and both teams will be aiming for three points to the start the season. Tim Howard, who is coming off last week's heroic performance in the U.S. men's national team's historic win over Mexico at Estadio Azteca, will start against his former club, while recent Red Devils acquisition Robin van Persie is on the bench at the beginning of what should be an open finale to the first week of Premiership action.
If you will be watching today's match, please feel free to share your predictions, thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Kagawa-Rooney and co. could be fun watching, especially having to chase games like they may have to
laughed out loud 🙂
Haha +1
Maybe don’t rely on injury prone frail CBs? Like I said, Man United’s defense is a joke. They were exposed last year and will continue to be exposed this year.
They have 4 CBs out. How many teams would be able to cope with 4 CBs out.
That s#%t was inspiring!
United deserved to lose. This game could have easily been 3 or 4-0. They are going to have a hard time even finishing in the top 3 with that joke of a defense.
Vidic plays like a child, all the time.
Tim Howard played 90 minutes in a win against Manchester United and got a CLEAN SHEET.
runs at and beats Vidic and co
Awww yes. here comes young coleman.
Lacking a holding midfielder, injuries in the defense, being dominated in the air, intricate passing without any end product.
I have to wonder if Robin van Persie still thinks he’s at Arsenal.
Timmay got a bit lost out there. He owes Jagielka his clean sheet.
And have Berbatov waiting too with Chicharito not even making the bench! Deep attacking lineup.
Not so much on D though.
Yeah but they are not what United need right now since neither one could stop Fellani.
Absolutely right. And they’ve just persisted in having Carrick mark him.
In hindsight, I might’ve started Berbatov just for his height with the problems they’ve been having in the air.
Life is good when you can bring RVP and Ashley Young off the bench.
Great goal. So deserved.
That Fellani goal was inevitable. He won every ball in the air today.
and Fellaini gets his goal. perfect match from him so far 10/10. Beautiful cross as well.
What a Header.
United has had 9 lives this game. Another great strike denied by the crossbar.
Just kick it out, let Fellaini block off the defender, drop it to oncoming midfielder, rinse and repeat.
Osman’s getting robbed but boy this everton team is fun. Fellaini wins another one for Osman.
Which is why United will still struggle with Manchester City and your team. Also, why I don’t consider United a serious contender for the champions league this season.
I don’t think it was a dive or even an embellishment, but it definitely wasn’t a penalty. He just fell over. Didn’t like him whining about it afterward, though.
Ya, I was slightly referring to that one but more to the 2-3 that Everton had. There was one where Baines was running into the box and someone came flying into him but Baines was honest and didnt go down. And then the Jelevic one in like the 5th minute.
“Or maybe I just have no clue what I’m talking about. that’s always possible.”
Nah, that can’t be it. Everybody on the internet knows everything. 😉
To be serious though, the question of medical staff competency (and of course corruption) is a good one. Are injury-prone teams the fault of the medicos, the trainers, or the GMs who don’t do the due diligence on a player’s durability? Maybe a bit of all three?
It’s not surprising Man United is struggling against Everton. Carrick is getting beaten badly by Fellaini, Man United’s midfield of Cleverley/Scholes will get controlled by any midfield with two hard working players in it.
On the plus side, basically every touch Kagawa has looks to be the smart/right one, and provided a really good ball in stoppage time for Rooney.
Not even on the bench.
United had most of the possession but none of the control in the first half.
at work: is chicarito playing? it’d be great to see Howard own him twice in two weeks.
Everton* and through* hate iPhone spell check
United should be down in this match, De Gea has single-handedly kept this even.
World class goalkeeping by both keepers. Kagawa is really impressive Everytime he gets on the ball he does something positive he had a couple balls hes sent they toward everyone’s goal. Valencia doing well at right back. Would love to see Clint on Everton could really be great in the hole and it would allow Fellini to play more as a box to box. Great game though glad the little league world series didn’t delay the game I was worried for a sec would put it past Espn.
It’s too bad Everton lack some speed in the forward position; they’d be up if Jelavik could do more than lumber about.
“The points are going to have to be quarried. This is a hard one.” Oh how I love you Ian Darke.
That was definitely an embellishment bordering on a dive from Welbeck.
I often wonder these same things. Are there certain exercises that they do or don’t do that cause these problems?
I also wonder how big a role medical staffs play in this. Everyone knows that the Suns medical staff is top notch and kept Nash and Hill healthy when they probably could have missed games. You’d think soccer would be similar.
Or maybe I just have no clue what I’m talking about. that’s always possible.
Ref is not interested in giving any penalties yet.
This Everton attack can fly. I know Man U’s had more of the ball but Everton’s the one asking the questions.
Da Gea is on his game. Keeping United in this.
Fellaini’s winning all those long balls down the center. They might just wanna send everyone deep and call a hail mary play haha.
Fellani is a beast.
Scholes is lucky he wasn’t just sent off right there. What in the hell was that? Ridiculous tackle.
What does United and Arsenal do in training that causes them to have an injury crisis every season? The season just started and United already have 4 CBs out.