Manchester Utd suffer defeat at Everton as top four hopes take major hit

Everton left Manchester United battered and bruised as they thumped them 4-0 at Goodison Park on Easter Sunday with Richarlison, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Lucas Digne and Theo Walcott all on target for the hosts.

Following their chastening evening in Barcelona on Tuesday night, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have hoped for a fast start from his side. Instead, United looked lethargic in the Merseyside sunshine and it was Everton who started brighter, Richarlison forcing a good save from David De Gea with a volley from close range after 11 minutes.

Richarlison’s first chance from the game had come from a set-piece and clearly United hadn’t heeded that particular warning as just two minutes later he scored from a similar situation. Digne’s long throw into the box was nodded on by Dominic Calvert-Lewin with Richarlison volleying the loose ball spectacularly into the roof of the net.

Having been distinctly second-best for the opening 20 minutes, United had their first sniff of a chance through Marcus Rashford, as he latched onto an exquisite long ball from Paul Pogba before putting an improvised volley over Jordan Pickford’s crossbar.

Everton grabbed a deserved second goal after 28 minutes courtesy of Sigurdsson. Idrissa Gueye led a counter-attacking charge after a United corner had been cleared and the Senegalese found Sigurdsson who caught De Gea out with a thumping strike from distance that arrowed into the bottom corner.

⚽️ Most PL goals v Man Utd since the start of 2014/15:
5 Gylfi Sigurdsson
4 Sergio Aguero, Jamie Vardy pic.twitter.com/cj8KFru7se

— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) April 21, 2019

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer clearly wasn’t happy, making two changes at the break with Ashley Young and Scott McTominay brought on for the injured Phil Jones and the underwhelming Fred respectively. Everton were forced into a change of their own shortly after the restart as Richarlison hobbled off with Walcott taking his place.

The changes didn’t have the desired impact for United, though, as ten minutes after the interval Everton went 3-0 up. A Sigurdsson corner was headed clear but only as far as Digne who sent a beautiful volley swerving like a bowling ball through the bodies in a congested penalty area into the bottom corner.

Incredibly, things got even worse for the visitors shortly after. Sigurdsson picked the ball up on the left wing and slipped a through ball in behind for Walcott to latch onto with the substitute taking a touch and then bending a trademark finish into the corner past an exasperated De Gea.

With the points wrapped up by the 64th minute, Marco Silva even had the luxury of taking the inspirational Gueye off 15 minutes from the end, although Everton did suffer a blow in the closing stages when Digne had to come off with a knock.

A statistic that summed up how poor United were on the day was that Anthony Martial’s strike 86 minutes into the game was their first – and only – shot on target and even then it was comfortably gathered by Pickford down to his right.