Ashley Young to make his return against Everton on Sunday

Barclays Premier League table-top­pers Manchester United play hosts to Ever­ton at Old Traf­ford this Sunday, looking to stretch their nine point lead over second placed rivals Manchester City. The Man­cuni­ans defeated Ful­ham 1–0 at Craven Cot­tage in their last Premier League match, while Ever­ton drew 3–3 with Aston Villa at Good­ison Park.

Manchester United and Eng­land flank-­man Ash­ley Young will return to first team action for the Red Dev­ils this upcoming weekend after a five-match absence. As for Ever­ton, David Moyes will have to make do without key defenders Seamus Cole­man and Tony Hibbert but Bel­gium international midfield player Mar­ou­ane Fel­laini will probably return to the first team squad for Sunday’s clash. In the corresponding league fixture in last campaign, Manchester United and Ever­ton shared the spoils in a high scoring 4–4 draw at the Theatre of Dreams. Sir Alex Fer­guson said: “I was happy for Wayne Rooney and Chris Smalling to play full games at Wemb­ley Sta­dium because they have not had a lot of football anyway. In fairness, Eng­land manager Roy Hodg­son was quite fair with us in terms of who played a full game and who played parts. Hodg­son did that with us all, particularly the teams playing in Europe.”

Manchester United Pro­vi­sional Squad: Anders Linde­gaard, David de Gea, Rafael da Silva, Alex­an­der Buttner, Chris Smalling, Rio Ferdin­and, Patrice Evra, Phil Jones, Nemanja Vidic, Tom Clev­er­ley, Michael Car­rick, Ryan Giggs, Ant­o­nio Valen­cia, Ander­son Luís de Abreu Oli­veira, Javier Hernan­dez, Luis Car­los Almeida da Cunha, Shinji Kagawa, Paul Scholes, Danny Wel­beck, Robin van Per­sie, Ash­ley Young, Wayne Rooney.

Ever­ton Pro­vi­sional Squad: Tim Howard, Jan Mucha, Phil Jagielka, Sylvain Dis­tin, John Heitinga, Leighton Baines, Bryan Oviedo, Steven Nai­s­mith, Thomas Hitzlsper­ger, Leon Osman, Steven Pien­aar, Mar­ou­ane Fel­laini, Nikica Jelavic, Phil Neville, Vic­tor Anichebe, Aposto­los Vel­lios, Dar­ron Gib­son, Kevin Mir­al­las, Shane Duffy.