Manchester United v Everton preview: Red meets blue on Super Sunday

Red meets blue in the second part of Super Sunday as Manchester United host Everton in a mouth-watering Premier League clash.

United have made their best start to a Premier League season (after four games) since Sir Alex Ferguson departed.
They go into the weekend top of the Premier League and have already spent more nights top of the tree this season (34 up to an including Friday night) than in the previous four seasons combined (16), since the departure of Ferguson.
Hope has sprung eternal that United could sustain their strong early season form, although Jose Mourinho has never beaten Ronald Koeman as a manager in five meetings between the two.
Confidence could be low within the away ranks though after back-to-back 3-0 defeats (Tottenham and Atalanta) with Koeman criticising the team's attitude in the surprise thrashing in Italy.

Team news

Paul Pogba's hamstring injury rules the midfielder out.
The 24-year-old limped off in Tuesday's Champions League win against Basle - a match Phil Jones and Eric Bailly missed through suspension. Mourinho intends to bring the pair back in at centre-back on Sunday.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo continue their recovery from knee ligament damage, while Luke Shaw is pushing for a recall after recovering from ligament damage in his foot.
Ross Barkley (hamstring), Ramiro Funes Mori (knee), Yannick Bolasie (knee) and Seamus Coleman (broken leg) all remain out of contention for Everton, but Morgan Schneiderlin should return to face his former club as will Wayne Rooney.

Opta stats

Manchester United have won 18 and lost just one of their last 24 Premier League home games against Everton, losing 0-1 in December 2013 while former Everton boss David Moyes was in charge of them.
Everton have lost more Premier League games versus Man Utd than against any other side in the competition (33).
Sunderland still have more Premier League away wins in 2017 so far (2) than Everton (1).
Jose Mourinho has faced Koeman more times without winning (5) than any other manager in the Premier League.
Romelu Lukaku has scored four goals in his first four Premier League apps for Manchester United, only two players have scored five goals in their opening five games for the Red Devils (5 - Louis Saha and Robin van Persie).

Rooney (or Schneiderlin) could become the eighth different player to score against Manchester United having already played for them in the Premier League (Hughes, Dublin, Ince, Gillespie, Berg, Campbell and Welbeck).
Gylfi Sigurdsson has been directly involved in six goals in his last six Premier League appearances against Man Utd (three goals, three assists), including netting in his last appearance at Old Trafford in April for Swansea.

Paul Merson's prediction

Everton have disappointed me this season. They have signed all these players but last week they got ripped apart by Tottenham and they weren't much better at Stamford Bridge before that. I don't see anything other than a comfortable Manchester United win.
Pogba has been playing well and will be a miss, although not in this game. Marouane Fellaini will come in and will probably cause Everton problems. They will be alright for this game without Pogba.