Everton 4-0 Manchester United: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer suffers another defeat as Red Devils humiliated at Goodison
The wheels are well and truly coming off for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United after his side suffered a humiliating 4-0 hammering at Everton on Easter Sunday.
Richarlison, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Lucas Digne and Theo Walcott scored the goals for the hosts, who followed up wins at home against Arsenal and Chelsea with a third big scalp in a row as they produced another great Goodison performance.
And 4-0 was the least Everton deserved as they dominated from start to finish, with United always a step off the pace, not putting any pressure on the hosts and not having a shot on target until the 86th minute.
It was another worrying performance for Solskjaer, who has seen performances drop alarmingly since he got the job full-time as they suffered their worst Premier League defeat in nearly three years.
Everton moved up into seventh place, which could yet secure European football next season, but it's now six defeats in eight that have taken all the optimism out of the club Solskjaer had revived after turning things around following Jose Mourinho.
Then there's the small matter of Manchester City in the derby game at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
Hapless United put to the sword
Thirteen minutes had gone when Lucas Digne launched a long throw into the area and Dominic Calvert-Lewin flicked on. Richarlison met it with an acrobatic volley that flew into the net.
Sigurdsson doubled the lead from a quick counter-attack in the 28th minute. Nemanja Matic backed off enough to allow Sigurdsson to cut inside and unleash a fierce low drive from 30 yards. De Gea was slow to react and the ball shot into the bottom corner.
Things could have got worse as Phil Jones needed to produce a fine challenge to cut out another break and Richarlison fired another effort at De Gea after a Diogo Dalot mistake.
The interval failed to re-energise United, who conceded again 11 minutes after the restart. Everton had suffered a blow by losing Richarlison to injury but it did not dampen their threat and Digne lashed in a long-range shot after De Gea punched clear from a corner.
There was no hiding place for United. Walcott, who replaced Richarlison, added the fourth as Everton were again allowed to break all too quickly. He was released by Sigurdsson and showed his composure as he closed in on goal to slip the ball past De Gea.
The United fans voiced their support for Solskjaer but the team's form is a serious concern with a tricky derby against Manchester City and a clash with Chelsea in the next week.
Everton 4-0 Manchester United - Opta stats
- This was Everton’s biggest margin of victory over Manchester United in any competition since October 1984, when they beat them 5-0 in a top-flight contest. It was also Man Utd’s biggest defeat to any opposition since October 2016 against Chelsea in the Premier League (also 0-4).
- This was Manchester United’s fifth consecutive away defeat across all competitions, their longest such run of losses since March 1981 under Dave Sexton (also five).
- Manchester United have conceded 48 Premier League goals in 2018-19, their highest ever tally in a single season in the competition and their most in a league campaign since 1978-79 (63).
- Everton have won more Premier League points at home to the “big-six” clubs this season (10 – P6 W3 D1 L2) than any other team from outside the top six in the table, with only Man City (15), Liverpool (13) and Chelsea (11) earning more overall at home to such opposition.
- Manchester United have gone 11 consecutive matches without a clean sheet in all competitions for the first time since December 1998.
- Everton have now won four of their last seven home league games against Manchester United (D1 L2); they had only won three of their first 20 Premier League games against them at Goodison Park before this (D3 L14).
- Only Andrei Kanchelskis (15 in 1995-96), Yakubu (15 in 2007-08) and Romelu Lukaku (15 in 2013-14) scored more Premier League goals in their debut season with Everton than Richarlison has this term (13).
- Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson has been directly involved in nine Premier League goals against Manchester United (five goals, four assists), more than he has versus any other club in the competition.
- Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea has now conceded eight goals from outside the box in the Premier League this season; the only campaign in which he's conceded more from long range was 2013-14 (nine).
- Aged 25 years and 343 days old, Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku today became the sixth youngest player to reach 250 Premier League appearances - and is the youngest ever non-English player to do so, overtaking Ryan Giggs (26y 167d).
- Manchester United did not attempt a shot on target in this game until the 86th minute (85:44) through Anthony Martial’s strike from outside the penalty area.