Five key stats before United v Everton

The Reds need a victory after successive defeats to Fulham and Manchester City and a positive result is even more important given that this is our final league outing for three weeks, with the Emirates FA Cup tie against Liverpool and an international break scheduled in before the Easter weekend trip to Brentford.

Meanwhile, the Toffees are aiming to end a run of winless top-flight games which dates back to December.

Sean Dyche’s men have claimed just five points from 10 games in this time, although they did get a boost recently as the Premier League reduced their points deduction from 10 to six, increasing the gap between them and the relegation zone.

Here are five key stats you should know before the Merseysiders come to town…

UNHAPPY HUNTING GROUND

Saturday’s visitors won on their first-ever Premier League visit to Old Trafford, back in August 1992, but they’ve only left M16 with all the points once in their subsequent 30 sojourns. That victory came 11 years ago, when Bryan Oviedo scored late on to secure a 1-0 success for Roberto Martinez's men against a United side managed by former Toffees boss David Moyes.

FORTY AND COUNTING

The Blues from down the M62 are, along with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, one of just five sides other than United to be ever-present in the Premier League era. That has helped us to rack up 40 wins against them in the division, which is the joint-most one team has beaten another – United v Villa is the other!

EIGHT FOR OUR NO.8?

Bruno Fernandes has seven goal involvements (four goals, three assists) in eight games for us against the Toffees, who are his favourite Premier League opponents after Leeds United (eight in six). The skipper hasn’t scored past the Blues and Jordan Pickford in our last five meetings, so he’s due one at the weekend!

GETTING IT DONE EARLY

The 12:30 GMT slot has been an auspicious one for us under Erik ten Hag, with United winning five of the six Premier League games kicking off at this time since the Dutchman took charge. We saw off Southampton, Wolves, Manchester City and Everton in the early start last season and added Fulham to the list this term, before losing in our most recent such game, at West Ham United in December.

GARNA’S GROWING INFLUENCE

We haven’t played a great deal of football at Old Trafford recently, but Alejandro Garnacho has often come to the fore when we have been in action at home. The Argentina international scored braces against Aston Villa and West Ham and, before that, laid on an assist for Scott McTominay against Chelsea, meaning he’s been directly involved in five of our last 10 league goals in M16. Of course, Garna also scored his Goal of the Season contender against Saturday’s opposition, towards the start of the reverse fixture four months ago.

Thanks to Opta for the stats.