Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee scored twice each as new Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim secured consecutive wins with an emphatic victory over Everton in his first Premier League home game in charge.
Restored forward Rashford netted the 34th-minute opener when Bruno Fernandes’ corner caught the visitors by surprise and struck again within 30 seconds of the restart, slotting in from Amad Diallo’s pass.
Summer signing Zirkzee had hammered in from Fernandes’ pass to make it 2-0 after 41 minutes and hit his second from close range with 26 minutes remaining, teed up after Diallo dispossessed James Tarkowski and charged towards goal.
Everton’s encouraging start featured a shot against the side netting from Beto but the Toffees have now not scored for four games as part of a five-match winless run.
2 – Rúben Amorim is the first Manchester United manager to be 2+ goals up at half time of his first Premier League game at Old Trafford. Acquainted. pic.twitter.com/cJVojVpJLP
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 1, 2024
📰 Table Of Contents
United goals vs Everton
Rasmus Hojlund was United’s 3-2 home win over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday, ensuring they recovered from 2-1 behind with impressive finishes either side of half-time.
The Denmark international started on the bench against Everton, replaced by £36.5 million summer signing Zirkzee in attack.
Zirkzee repaid Amorim’s faith alongside Rashford, who missed a chance against the Norwegian side but responded more accurately when Fernandes’ cross reached him on the edge of the penalty area on this occasion, his effort taking a deflection via Jarrad Branthwaite.
Everton tested home goalkeeper Andre Onana but have now taken one point from three on the road since winning at Ipswich Town on October 19 and are two points above the relegation zone.
Two more assists for our captain today 🅰️🎩#MUFC || #MUNEVE pic.twitter.com/ur9FVZQhYm
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 1, 2024
Dyche rues Everton ‘mistakes’
Toffees manager Sean Dyche said he is finding their failure to profit from “killer moments” an “incredibly frustrating” problem.
“We had a spate of mistakes at the beginning of the season,” Dyche reflected. “We had eradicated that and we looked way stronger.
“But it’s quite obvious that player mistakes are very difficult to take as a manager and for the players… we just have to protect players, because we have another big game coming up.”
Sean Dyche’s reaction to #MUNEVE: pic.twitter.com/RRzDJutUPn
— Everton (@Everton) December 1, 2024
Everton fixtures
Everton are at home to third-bottom Wolves on Wednesday (7.30pm GMT) before visiting leaders Liverpool on Saturday (12.30pm).
“We’ve been down this road before, unfortunately, where the pressure comes on and we have to respond,” Dyche told EvertonFC.com, having replaced Dominic Calvert-Lewin with Beto in his starting line-up.
“Then we do respond, and we win a game and change it somewhat. It’s been a hard narrative to change for a long time, both with me and before me.
“We consistently are working hard to change it. We move forward, we drop back, we move forward, we drop back. Finding that consistency today… 32 minutes in, I’m liking what I’m seeing, and I think most people would be.
“And then we can’t find that killer edge and the mistakes come in and it’s got away from you too quickly… [we need to be] eradicating the mistakes and going again and bringing that mentality that we’ve shown many times before.”
