A look ahead to Everton vs Manchester United

We travel to Goodison Park for an early kick-off tomorrow and Sir Alex Ferguson is likely to ring the changes for the second time this week.

Memories of our trip there last season are ones to forget. It was 11 months ago but memories of Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta’s injury time goals ares till hard to bear, mostly because of the smug Everton fans after the game.

That was a worrying time for us with Chelsea going strong but we pulled through and won the league. We need a similar response on Saturday, especially after that humiliation last week, but if we’re honest we weren’t great against Liverpool either. Or Norwich for that matter.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. OK it was only Aldershot but it was a strong outing from our second team on Tuesday and impressive performances from Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison when they came on are signs of more good things to come. It would’ve been good to see these two included in the team travelling to Merseyside. They would add a different option and put pressure on the likes of Anderson and Fletcher who were passengers against City, but they aren’t in Ferguson’s provisional squad.

Fergie’s likely to drop some other big names on Saturday and I for one will welcome it. It won’t be a knee-jerk reaction either after that excuse of a turnout and you have to wonder about Rio. It seems strange to talk about him in this way because he and Vidic, on the rare occasions they play together, have been consistent at the back but he wasn’t with it last week. He’s been linked with a big-money move to America and yesterday it was Roma who are interested in him. If there’s any truth behind these rumours his place in the starting line-up has to be questioned. Is his head in the right place, especially with all his off-field problems?

Anything but a win on Saturday could really put a dent not only in our fading morale but potentially in our title challenge. It’s a difficult thing to imagine but there is a chance, a chance, of City going eight points clear of us at the top.

After the match last year it’d be nice to come out of the game with a comfortable win tomorrow.  Come on lads we’ve had our blip now; lets go out there, destroy the Toffees and get this campaign back on track.

By Lewis Appleby