After quipping whether there was anyone Everton have a good record against, Sean Dyche must try and overcome another Blues away day hoodoo as his side travel to Manchester United.
Dyche has been in charge of Everton for little over two months but has already had to face away fixtures against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, a trio of head-to-heads the Blues haven’t picked up three points from in front of fans this century, with their last Premier League victories coming in such circumstances coming in 1999, 1996 and 1994 respectively. Now he must negotiate Old Trafford, another venue that has been anything but a happy hunting ground for travelling Evertonians. Despite currently being their shortest Premier League trip outside of Merseyside, like even that short journey across Stanley Park, the Blues have found few home comforts in this corner of Stretford throughout recent decades.
Indeed, while Everton’s first-ever Premier League win came here when Howard Kendall’s side upset Alex Ferguson’s champions-elect 3-0 on August 19, 1992 thanks to goals from Peter Beardsley, Robert Warzycha and Mo Johnston, they have only triumphed there since on one subsequent occasion thanks to Bryan Oviedo’s 86th-minute strike on December 4, 2013 when long-serving Blues boss David Moyes was beaten by his former employers under Roberto Martinez’s watch. Although Everton were 2-0 up through a Duncan Ferguson brace until 20 minutes from the end of another August fixture at Old Trafford in 1996, only to draw 2-2, in truth there haven’t even been many other near-misses.
