Man Utd 2 – 0 Everton
Everton’s winless run in the Premier League was extended to 11 matches as they went down in fairly routine fashion to Manchester United in a game that exposed their limitations, particularly in the final third.
An open contest against a United side hit by injuries and which has come in for criticism of late alongside their manager meant there were opportunities for Sean Dyche’s side but they ended up suffering double jeopardy of a different kind to the one they could yet face from the second independent commission, conceding two first-half penalties that sealed their fate this afternoon.
Clumsy fouls in their own box on Alejandro Garnacho by James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey handed Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford the chance to effectively put the contest beyond the goal-shy Toffees, who had 23 shots in all with no result, and that was how it played out.
Everton went close through Dwight McNeil and Abdoulaye Doucouré while Lewis Dobbin flashed a shot across the face of goal late on but it was another joyless occasion for the travelling Blues who had made the trip along the M62.
Dyche kept faith with the side that had started against West Ham, with Beto retaining his place up front, Jack Harrison lining up wide on the right with Ben Godfrey behind him again as a makeshift right-back.
And it was another high-octane start from the visitors who sought to force an early mistake from their hosts and perhaps grab an early goal. Everton were successful in harrying United’s back line into a series of errors but failed to create anything meaningful with them, Amadou Onana coming the closest to fashion an opportunity when he tried to bring down Dwight McNeil’s cross but couldn’t control it in front of goal.
Initially hemmed in, Erik ten Hag’s team soon began to demonstrate their threat on the break which would become a feature of the first period and would be the keys to their success on the day.
Harrison did well to slide behind Rashford’s attempted shot and Raphael Varane failed to test Jordan Pickford from the resulting corner but with just 10 minutes on the clock, Garnacho turned Tarkowski and the Everton captain swept his standing leg, leaving referee Simon Hooper with no option but to award a penalty.
Pickford went the right way but was well beaten by Fernandes’ spot-kick and the game already had a depressingly familiar feel about it given that this is the most predictable fixture in the Premier League.
The Red Devils enjoy an embarrassingly lop-sided record in meetings with the Toffees since 1992 and it was game over 10 minutes before half-time, but not before Everton had at least tried to make a game of it at the other end.
McNeil almost delivered a swift riposte to United’s opener when he hammered a volley just wide, Harrison blazed over from 25 yards out, James Garner tested André Onana with an accurate shot that the Ghanaian parried away and McNeil just missed the far post with a cross-cum-shot on the half-hour mark.
For the home side, Garnacho was a constant threat and after lashing a great chance of his own over from the angle and seeing Fernandes sky his potential assist over the bar, he handed the Portuguese an inviting opportunity from a direct free-kick with Onana felled him outside the box.
Fernandes looked to have doubled the lead with a curling shot into the top corner but Pickford pulled off a stunning one-handed save to keep it out.
Sadly, it merely delayed the killer second goal, earned again by Garnacho after United had counter-attacked following a poor, deep free-kick by the Everton keeper and Godfrey chopped the young Argentine down in the box, with a second spot-kick the result.
Rashford took responsibility on this occasion, stuttering his run-up to send Pickford the wrong way before burying the ball in the other corner to make it 2-0.
The Old Trafford crowd was baying for a third penalty in first-half stoppage time when a Garnacho cross struck Vitalii Mykolenko’s arm but Hooper waved away the claims and from the corner Victor Lindelof forced a decent stop from Pickford with a low shot searching out the inside of the post.
Everton might have halved the deficit with the last chance of the first half when Beto robbed Evans of the ball, found Garner who teed up McNeil but the winger’s shot was charged down by one of three red jerseys in front of him.
Their job largely done, Ten Hag’s men appeared happy in the second half to continue to allow Everton to have much more of the possession than might have been expected but Dyche’s side failed to make anything tell.
Doucouré had an early shot blocked before it could worry Onana but almost sneaked a shot inside the post before the keeper kicked it away, while substitutes André Gomes and Dobbin couldn’t find the target. The Portuguese drove a free-kick into the wall trying to replicate his heroics in the FA Cup replay against Crystal Palace, the Blues’ only win in any competition since 16th December, and the young Academy product ballooned a shot well over.
Meanwhile, Garnacho smashed another effort from an angle over and just failed to reach a wicked Fernandes delivery as he came sliding in at the back post before Pickford finger-tipped a skidding shot from the latter past the other upright.
From that corner, it was almost 3-0 but amid a mÄ›lée in the six-yard box, Pickford stopped Lindelof’s prodded effort on the line and safely pounced on the loose ball.
Though Dyche appeared to have folded by removing Doucouré and then Garner, Everton came closest to making a game of it with a quarter of an hour left. Godfrey won a header at the back side of the United box that fell to Dobbin at the other post but his snapshot from a tight angle flew across goal where Dominic Calvert-Lewin, on for Beto, couldn’t react in time to convert from close range.
Onana tried his luck a overhead kick that found the target but lacked the power to trouble his namesake who plucked it out the air and repeated the feat when Calvert-Lewin met a late corner with his head but, again, couldn’t put enough on the effort as the match petered out.
Visits to Old Trafford over the past few years haven’t always been predictable but this was another depressing reminder of the gulf in resources between these two clubs and the fact that Everton have only won here twice in the Premier League era. Incredibly, a much-maligned United team have beaten the Toffees 5-0 on aggregate over the two matches between the two sides this season.
Dyche’s side had plenty of the ball today, probably much more than they expected, but routinely failed to create clear-cut chances with it or deliver a set-piece into the box capable of threatening Onana’s goal.
It means the Blues go into a long three-week break needing a reset and a different approach, neither of which are likely given Dyche’s one-dimensional management and the club’s sheer lack of options when it comes to making changes to either the line-up or the formation.