As the
season officially gets under way this weekend, we, the fans looks forward to
another exciting and potentially drama filled season ahead, and it all begins with
a trip to Goodison Park.
The clash
against Everton would see Shinji Kagawa making his first Premier League
appearance and van Persie making his debut in the red of Manchester United. As
a goal scoring midfielder, Kagawa will bring creativity and flair to the squad,
and promises to be the signing of the season for United. Ferguson also snapped
up last season’s Golden Boot winner, Robin van Persie for a bargain much to the
dismay of the Arsenal supporters. The signing of van Persie was a show of
intent that United are ready to reclaim the Premier League from the noisy
neighbours. The prospect of seeing van Persie and Rooney line-up together for
the fixture is a mouth-watering treat to all United fans. Having scored 57
Premier League goals between them the fans will be expecting a goal fest this
Monday.
The wealth of attacking options at Ferguson’s
disposal will create selection dilemma, a dilemma that Ferguson would surely
welcome. But it is once again the injury
to the back-line that he would have looked to avoid. Smalling, Jones and Evans will
be out for the foreseeable future. It was a welcome sight to see the return of United
skipper Nemanja Vidic to the heart of defence alongside Rio Ferdinand. Tom
Cleverly having missed most of last season through injury would also be
available for selection. Darren Fletcher also returned and made an appearance
in a benefit match against Aberdeen, but Ferguson will remain cautious in his
approach over Fletcher’s fitness concerns.
Having to
speculate the possible formation for the upcoming fixture is surely no easy
task. With van Persie most likely to make his Manchester United debut in the
fixture, one could say that he would be lining up alongside Wayne Rooney in a 4-4-1-1
traditional approach with Rooney playing in the hole behind him and Kagawa
playing out wide on the left-hand side, making room for Carrick and Scholes in
the middle of the park. United’s new #7 Antonio Valencia will be expected to occupy
the right wing where he can do most damage. The back four would be pretty
straight forward keeping in mind the injuries sustained to Smalling, Jones and
Evans. Vidic will marshal the troops along with Ferdinand. Evra and Rafael will
support them on either side. De Gea will be expected to keep in goal having
grown by leaps and bounds after his first season in the top flight. United will
hope to hit the ground running in their opening fixture and aim to do one
better than they did last season.
Everton, on
the other hand, had a slow start to the 2011-12 season having won just 3 of
their opening 10 games, but ended the season strongly in 7th place,
having gone on an nine-game-long unbeaten run at the end. The fact that David
Moyes led Everton to finish above Liverpool hasn’t gone unnoticed. Much of this
was due to the contribution of winter signing Nikica Jelavic who scored 9 goals
in 13 games for the Toffees and ended the season as their top scorer.
Everton’s summer
signing, Steven Naismith is expected to make his first competitive debut
against Manchester United. The former Rangers man arrived at Goodison Park on a
free transfer and is well known in the Scottish Premier League. Naismith’s key
attribute is his versatility, though he started as a striker he has been used
across the midfield to good effect. The fixture will also see the return of
Steven Pienaar as full time Everton player having been sold by Tottenham this
summer. This summer also saw the departure of Jack Rodwell to Manchester City
and fan favourite Tim Cahill to New York Red Bulls. Everton currently have all
squad players fit and ready for action.
David Moyes
is expected to play a 4-4-1-1 formation with Jelavic playing upfront and Osman
off him. Pienaar will occupy his role on the left wing and Naismith is set to
make his debut on the opposite flank. Gibson, a former United player is set to
partner Fellaini in the middle of the park. The defence will feature the centre
back pairing of Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin. Leighton Baines will play on
the left and Tony Hibbert on the right of the defence. Howard will stand
between the posts and have the hard job of keeping the fearsome looking United
attack out. The Toffees would look to avoid defeat at their home ground and
avoid starting the season as they did previously.
Looking back
at the fixtures from last season, Manchester United had a narrow 0-1 win at
Goodison Park with Javier Hernandez scoring in the 19th minute. The
reverse fixture was another story. The fans saw an open, free scoring game as Everton battled from 4-2
down to finish the game all square at 4-4 at the Theatre of Dreams. Nikica
Jelavic scored a brace in that game and will be a constant threat to the United
goal. A stat to note is that Wayne Rooney has scored 5 times in the last 7 opening
season games for United. Will he be United’s first scorer of the 2012-13
campaign or will the new recruit van Persie or Kagawa beat him to it?
Probable
Line Up:
Everton: #24 Howard;
#2 Hibbert, #6 Jagielka, #15 Distin, #3 Baines; #14 Naismith, #25 Fellaini, #4
Gibson, #22 Pienaar; #21 Osman; #7 Jelavic
Manchester
United: #1 De Gea; #21 Rafael, #5 Ferdinand, #15 Vidic, #3 Evra; #7
Valencia, #22 Scholes, #16 Carrick, #26 Kagawa; #10 Rooney; #20 v. Persie
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