Back to winning ways!

Manchester Uniteds first game in Everton’s new stadium resulted in three valuable points on the road, but the performance failed to impress. It was far from an easy watch for the traveling fans, but a moment of pure clinical quality proved to be the difference.

Match summary

The first half was a real “back alley brawl.” Everton’s home crowd was deafening, and David Moyes had his team fired up. The Toffees were incredibly physical, making life difficult for Bruno Fernandes and company. United’s best early chance came just four minutes in when Amad Diallo had a shot cleared off the line by James Tarkowski.

In the 71st minute, United broke with lightning speed. Matheus Cunha sent a beautiful long ball to Bryan Mbeumo, who held the play up perfectly before feeding the onrushing Benjamin Sesko. The Slovenian striker, who had only been on the pitch for 13 minutes, kept his cool to slot a low finish past Jordan Pickford.

Everton pushed hard for an equalizer in the closing stages, but United’s young keeper Senne Lammens stood tall, making a massive save from Michael Keane to ensure the clean sheet stayed intact.

Corners

Everton: 10

Manchester United: 1

In the last part of the game Everton turned to some tactics seemingly stolen from Arsenal, by turning their corners into what looked like a rugby scrum. It made for an awful watch, and hopefully gave the higher ups in the premier league food for thought. Something needs to be done to get rid of this.

Main takeaway

Sh*t game, but nevertheless three important points. The quality of passing was horrible, and it looked like the players might have enjoyed their brake a little too much. However, as I mentioned in the match buildup Sesko was the game changer. He is in red hot form, and should start the games. Honorable mention as well to both Lammens and Maguire for keeping the clean sheet.