Everton vs Manchester United tips

Starting with the home side, Everton have had a mixed couple of weeks.

Coming off the back of wins against Chelsea, West Ham and Arsenal, there was surely no way that Everton could lose to already relegated Fulham.

Confidence was high, performances were flowing and then came the disappointment.

Everton simply didn’t show up at Craven Cottage and fell to a shocking 2-0 defeat.

Tom Cairney claimed his first Premier League goal since 2010, coincidentally against Everton for Hull, to start the scoring off.

Ex-Liverpool man Ryan Babel then secured all three points for the relegated side.

Safe to say, Everton fans were not happy in the slightest after they crashed right back down to earth.

With just how often Fulham were able to carve Everton open, the Toffees will need to produce a performance like the ones against Chelsea and Arsenal if they are to avoid a potentially embarrassing defeat at Goodison Park on Sunday.

Although there is no shame in losing to Barcelona, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be concerned by the decline in his side’s performances in recent weeks – especially at the back.

Having conceded just nine goals in Solskjaer's first 14 fixtures in command, United have now let in 16 and failed to keep a single clean sheet in the subsequent 10.

Nevertheless, they are at least maintaining the attacking threat that has seen them score in all but one of their 17 league matches on the road this season, so should cause problems for a Toffees backline they have put eight goals past in the last three encounters.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has still only lost two Premier League matches as Manchester United manager, but both of those were in their last two away games and they have looked far from convincing over the last month or so. All their attacking swagger seems to have disappeared, and on Sunday they will come up against an Everton defence who have made huge strides forward recently.

The result of this defensive improvement has been some low scoring games, with six of The Toffees’ last seven home games in the top flight seeing fewer than three goals in total. Man Utd. meanwhile, have seen fewer than three goals in four of their last seven away games in the league, and considering four of the last six meetings between these teams have also been low scoring affairs we think backing Under 2.5 Goals alongside a 1-1 correct score prediction is the way to go.

Could you get anymore different with Everton? One minute they are ripping apart Arsenal and beating West Ham away, then all of a sudden, against a Fulham side that have not scored two goals in a game since day one, and they cannot keep a clean sheet against them. It is a bad attitude there - you cannot look at the manager, you have to look at the players.

Man United are a million miles off. They need to win the game or they are out of the Champions League, but I don't think they will get it - they are well short at the moment. Some of their results have been very fortunate. For me, the unbeaten run was covering over the cracks.

Source: Sky