Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Everton once again did enough to come away with all the points, but foiled themselves on both ends of the pitch. DCL and Sigurdsson had excellent chances to beat De Gea, the Icelander hit the post as well and were unfortunate right at the death to be denied by VAR. Not a dominant showing at all though, with long spells of chasing shadows in the middle of the park.

Premier League

90+3’ - Everton win yet another corner late on, but it’s cleared and there’s the final whistle, 1-1.
Ancelotti goes up to Kavanagh demanding an explanation and is promptly sent off after the game!

90+2’ - MORE DRAMA! Richarlison finds Sigurdsson wide open, his toe-poke is saved very well by De Gea, then Calvert-Lewin’s deflected shot sneaks in past a prone Sigurdsson is offside! The goal is given, but yes VAR overturns it as expected. Argh. Wasn’t really interfering with play, but was right in the path of the ball and moved aside to let Maguire’s deflection go past him and into the goal with De Gea rooted to his spot.

90’ - Oh wow! Mata sets up a great deflected shot that Pickford palms away, rebound falls to Ighalo and Pickford then kicks away at point-blank range his snapshot. Amazing reflexes from Pickford.

87’ - Everton win another corner, and again it’s cleared, though Kavanagh blows for a Davies foul. Then Sidibe wins another corner, this time on the right.
Baines takes, headed on but De Gea can collect.
Now Sigurdsson concedes a corner, dangerous cross with Fred coming in behind him. The corner is poor and cleared well.

82’ - Moise Kean is Everton’s last sub, on for Andre Gomes - bold and attacking. Davies wins a freekick off Fred deep on the left. Baines’ outwsinger is cleared, Davies shot charged down but then Sidibe wins another corner.
Baines to take from the right, Maguire clambers over Kean and wins it, outmuscled the young forward.

79’ - Sidibe gets into a nasty tangle with the advertising hoardings. He couldn’t get to the long ball from Keane, but then tripped on the edge of the grass and went flying into the boards. He’s off the pitch and Yerry Mina is warming up.
Sidibe re-enters the field of play, gets the ball on a counter and is now booked as Kavanagh was unaware he was back on the pitch. Harsh that.

76’ - Gomes wins Everton’s eight corner, Baines skims it in at head height and United clear from about three yards out. His next corner is a bit higher and cleared out.
Fernandes gets behind a visibly slower Gomes now, requires an excellent sliding challenge from Baines to prevent Ighalo getting the ball. The corner is cleared well.

73’ - Odion Ighalo and Juan Mata on for Mason Greenwood and Scott McTominay; striker for a striker, but a more attacking mid on now.

70’ - Lovely long ball from Davies lets DCL through wide on the left, his shot from a narrow angle wins a corner. Beautiful one again, and its cleared, but Fred concedes a freekick on the edge of the box, central position.
Interestingly, the ball seemed to go off his knee, not his hand. Fred gets booked for his protests. Sigurdsson and Baines both lining up. The Icelander takes it, this time it’s off the wall.

67’ - Keane getting some heat here from the fans after making a couple of hurried clearances turning the ball right over to the visitors.

65’ - Baines wins a corner, but it’s cleared. Then Richarlison has room for a shot, deflected for another corner on the left, Sigurdsson will take. Great height on this one, right into the thick of things, and Maguire clears for another corner, eventually cleared too.

62’ - A Fernandes dummy allows Greenwood to run in, Martial’s shot blocked for a corner. Fernandes then leads Richarlison and Sidibe to run into each other, but Davies slides in to block well.
The Blues make another sub, with Bernard on for Walcott. Will the Brazilian go out right?

59’ - Sidibe wins a corner after Pickford finds DCL with a pinpoint long ball. Baines’ corner is low and cleared.

56’ - DCL running again at Lindelof, and now wins a freekick just outside the box on the left. The defender is also booked, and now three of the back four have yellow cards.
Sigurdsson will look to curl it in.. beautifully hit over the wall and hits the near post with De Gea nowhere near it! Richarlison pokes at the rebound but it catches him by surprise, wide.

52’ - Sidibe does well to muscle off Martial from a Fernandes throughball, then inexplicably loses the ball for a corner. Luckily it’s cleared well.
Commentators very correctly observing that Walcott and Sigurdsson have been on the fringes of the game. Almost invisible really when attacking.

50’ - DCL’s hard work wins him a corner off Lindelof. The corner by Sigurdsson is high, Keane puts it back into the box but it’s cleared.

48’ - Davies now with an awful giveaway in the middle, and then gives Fernandes too much space allowing a shot that goes over and wide.

46’ - United kick off the second half, it’s gotten cloudy here and De Gea will not have the sun in his eyes, but is also facing the wind.

Halftime Thoughts - Everton have cooled off considerably after a hot start. They definitely need to address the right side, but the midfield is missing again. They’ll need better from the four in the middle.

Premier League

45+2’ - Better build-up from the Blues, ball falls to Baines and his swerving cross is delightful, a diving Richarlison gets his head to it but not enough contact and it flashes wide.
There’s the halftime whistle.

44’ - Davies slides in late on Matic, and now he is in the book as well. Everton’s right is a problem area right now and the visitors are honing in there. The zonal possession stats will be interesting to see.
Maguire trips DCL after he loses the ball in the midfield, and now the defender is also in the book.
Referee Chris Kavanagh has come alive now, and we’ll have three minutes added on.

40’ - Handbags on the touchline now. Richarlison got clattered again, then DCL goes sliding in on Shaw and there’s some shoving and pushing between a handful of players, Davies right in there too. DCL and Shaw both get booked, VAR has a look for ‘violent conduct’, no red cards.

38’ - Richarlison had gone down earlier and is down again now. Fred had caught him on the knee with a studs-up follow-through that the ref missed. He is back on the pitch but moving around awkwardly, but is on the right wing now, which is interesting.

32’ - And there’s the equalizer. United have been pressing, and their talisman Fernandes gets the goal, but errors lead to it. Sidibe’s poor pass to Walcott turns it over, Davies lets Bruno go and he lines up a swerving shot.. Pickford has left way too much room on the near post, and it beats him. Very poor from the England #1 with Gareth Southgate watching.

30’ - United win a corner off a Martial shot. That corner is not cleared well and now it’s another. Ball high in the air and Pickford fouled as he goes up for it.

27’ - Coleman has been struggling with an injury since an awkward fall earlier, and is down again. Djibril Sidibe comes on for the veteran.
Meanwhile Ancelotti indicates Davies over for some intense consultation.

25’ - DCL wins a freekick off Lindelof down the left wing. Inswinger from Sigurdsson falls tantalizingly into the box, but no Blues can get to it and it’s cleared.
Blues attack down the right, cross into the box is dummied by DCL, Richarlison spreads it wide to Sigurdsson who takes a poor first touch and the chance is wasted.

23’ - Everton’s passing has not been as crisp as Ancelotti would have liked. They are playing into the wind right now and that is causing issues with the long ball.

17’ - Theo Walcott has looked lively, but is not quite getting the ball where he wants it.
Now Gomes steals the ball off his countryman Fernandes, then makes a run into the box, stays on his feet but then blasts his shot wayward. Could have gotten a penalty had he gone down.

14’ - Everton aren’t retaining the ball well, which is not ideal as United’s midfield is moving the ball quite well. The Blues’ pressure is what’s helping them win balls in the middle though, and DCL & Richarlison will win battles against the slower Lindelof and Maguire.

9’ - Now Martial turns and shoots, wide. United are looking good when they have time to set up with the ball.
Ball falls to Matic and he has a good shot on goal, saved by Pickford but he pushes it right back into the danger area, luckily no Red Devils nearby.

6’ - The Blues are winning the ball in the middle and the pace of the counter is going to create more chances.
Now United go forward and Fred has a good cutback partly cleared, Nemanja Matic steps up and his thundering shot beats Jordan Pickford, but goes off the top of the bar! What a start to this game!

4’ - DCL almost puts the Blues up by two! A long ball out the back finds DCL through behind Lindelof, but the ball doesn’t sit up for DCL and his toe-poke is pushed out for a corner.

3’ - Everton goal!! A monumental blunder from David De Gea gifts Dominic Calvert-Lewin an easy goal! The goalie dawdles too long on the ball and as DCL closes him down, his clearance goes off the striker’s boot and into the goal!

1’ - Everton get us underway with a hustly-bustly start, full of running early on.

The starting lineups are out and Carlo Ancelotti has made quite a few changes. Djibril Sidibe and Yerry Mina drop to the bench after a shaky performance last weekend, with Seamus Coleman and Michael Keane back in. Leighton Baines retains his spot with Lucas Digne still not fit.

In the middle, Tom Davies will slot in next to Andre Gomes, with the youngster likely tasked with shadowing Bruno Fernandes. Theo Walcott is back and goes into his right midfield spot.

For United, OGS has also made five changes, with Fred, Matic, and McTominay lining up in the middle of a 4-3-1-2, Bruno as the #10 and Martial and Greenwood up top.

Preview

Despite a strong attacking performance last weekend Everton came away empty-handed yet again from the Emirates in a 3-2 loss at Arsenal. The Blues will have to put aside that disappointment and show that same attacking spirit against another top six side that is having an underwhelming season today. Manchester United are the visitors at Goodison and the 4-0 thrashing they received last season in this same fixture will still be fresh in the memories of most of the players and definitely for Ole Gunnar Solksjaer who termed it as a low point of his United tenure.

Carlo Ancelotti has certainly gotten the Toffees playing some vertical, adventurous football in his short spell in charge, but the Italian veteran will be much more concerned by the leaky backline and inconsistency from Jordan Pickford in goal. It’s not like he has too many options to make drastic improvements by swapping players out, so it’ll come down to finding the best match-ups against a relatively talented Red Devils side who remain quite beatable.

The Blues midfield jinx continues to rear its ugly head, with Morgan Schneiderlin going under the knife and now likely done for the season though Andre Gomes got through his second half appearance with no added complications and will likely start. Lucas Digne remains a gametime decision while Theo Walcott appears to be fit again.

For United, Marcus Rashford remains out injured but the spotlight will be on new signing Bruno Fernandes who has started off with a bang in his first few games. Low-key Anthony Martial is back to form as well and firing goals too, so the Blues will have their hands full today.

This game has the feel of one that will be won or lost in the middle of the park; with both sides effective on the counterattack and susceptible to defensive errors, whoever controls the ball and dictates the pace of the game could take home all three points. Fifth and twelfth are separated currently by five points, and more points dropped could quickly see the Blues sink into the wrong end of that mess.

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 28

Date and start time: Sunday, March 1st at 6:00 a.m. PT / 9:00 a.m ET / 2:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 45°F/7°C, partly cloudy, 4% chance of precipitation, 21 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: NBCSN, Telemundo - United States; Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Main Event - United Kingdom; DAZN - Canada, beIN Sports HD 2, SuperSport 3 Africa, RMC Sport 1, Canal+ France, ESPN 2 Sur

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI - Pickford; Baines, Holgate, Keane, Coleman; Sigurdsson, Gomes, Davies, Walcott; Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Virginia, Mina, Sidibe, Delph, Bernard, Kean, Iwobi

Manchester United

Starting XI - De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, Matic, Fred, Fernandes, McTominay, Martial, Greenwood.

Subs - Romero, Bailly, Williams, Mata, Lingard, Andreas, Ighalo

Last Meeting

The Blues were in all sorts of turmoil when they last took on Manchester United, with Duncan Ferguson having just taken over after the sacking of Marco Silva. Willed on by their touchline commander Everton took the lead and fought bravely with an injury-hit lineup, but the relentless pressure from the hosts finally told as Old Trafford breathed a sigh of relief after a late equalizer.

Last season though in this fixture, the Toffees got off to a flying start from a spectacular goal by Richarlison, and then poured on the misery for OGS’ side with a piledriver from distance from Gylfi Sigurdsson, a fantastic volley for Lucas Digne and then Theo Walcott with a dandy finish to top it all off.