MANCHESTER (Sporting Alert) — Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini is in line to face his former club Everton when the two sides meet at Old Trafford in the English Premier League on Wednesday.
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Fellaini, who pushed for a move to sign with the champions in the summer, is still struggling to find his best form since the move, but could start in the middle of the pitch, as Michael Carrick (Achilles) is out injured and Phil Jones is suspended for the game after he picked up his fifth yellow against Tottenham over the weekend.
Tom Cleverley started the last game, but it is unlikely he and Fellaini will be paired again, following their unproductive partnership in the 2-2 draw at Cardiff City.
After missing the last three games with a groin injury, striker Robin van Persie could return to the match day squad, although David Moyes is likely to keep Shinji Kagawa in the attacking role right behind Wayne Rooney once again.
“Robin is OK,” Moyes said. “He has a chance of playing.”
Rooney scored a brace in the last EPL outing for Manchester United and has been back to score first against the Toffees.
In the meantime, Everton continues to be without left-back Leighton Baines, who is out with a broken toe, so Bryan Oviedo, who started against Stoke at the weekend, is set to continue at that position.
Meanwhile, on-loan Barcelona forward Gerard Deulofeu impressed in the last game, but could make way for Kevin Mirallas for this contest.
Roberto Martinez’s side comes into this fixture on the back of a 4-0 impressive win over Stoke City at the weekend and the manager said playing against the defending English Premier League champions at Old Trafford, doesn’t scare them.
“If we want to do something special this season we need to break that mentality of going to the big grounds and not being able to get good wins,” Martinez said.
“If you look at the last 10 years we have never beaten Manchester United or Arsenal or Chelsea or Liverpool at their own grounds and that for us is something we need to address.”
He added: “We need to learn from that but we are excited to go to Old Trafford and pay them the respect they deserve as they are champions.
“I do feel the game at Old Trafford is as big a test as we are going to get but after 13 games in the league I feel we are ready for that.
“That’s our aim. I don’t know how long it’s going to take us but if we want to be successful over the course of the season we should be able to go anywhere and be ourselves.”
Manchester United (from): Amos, De Gea, Lindegaard, Buttner, Evans, Evra, Fabio, Ferdinand, Jones, Rafael, Smalling, Varela, Vidic, Anderson, Cleverley, Fellaini, Giggs, Januzaj, Kagawa, Nani, Valencia, Young, Hernandez, Rooney, Van Persie, Welbeck, Zaha.
Everton (from): Howard, Robles, Springthorpe, Alcaraz, Coleman, Distin, Heitinga, Hibbert, Jagielka, Oviedo, Stones, Barkley, Barry, McCarthy, Osman, Pienaar, Deulofeu, Jelavic, Lukaku, Mirallas, Naismith, Vellios.
