Manchester United vs Everton LIVE: FA Cup result and final score as Marcus Rashford penalty seals win

Frank Lampard’s defiance will not be enough to save Everton from their plight

The way Everton’s plight was described bluntly. Some, it was put to their manager, would think they didn’t need “this s**t”. Frank Lampard, with the ready grin that can interrupt the serious points he makes in interviews, smiled and said: “Yeah, and I’m in it.”He may not be for much longer: with five points from the last 30 available in the Premier League, with Everton in the relegation zone, after losing 4-1 at home to Brighton, he goes to Old Trafford. Lampard scored in a Champions League final against Manchester United; his latest meeting with them could have a finality of a different kind.

It is the kind of fixture that beleaguered managers are sometimes given to finish them off. For Lampard, whose Chelsea reign began with 4-0 defeat at Old Trafford and ended after an FA Cup tie, whose surge to safety with Everton last season was powered by victory over United, a couple of days after seeing headlines that his job was under threat, it is a tie laced with history and significance. Lampard was not being immodest when he termed himself “a big man working for a great club”.

Rather, one of the great players of his generation was arguing that he can cope with the pressure. He has two decades of experience at the business end of the game, albeit most as a player. He has also been sacked by a club with a high turnover of managers and institutionalised impatience after a promising start to a season gave way to a troubled spell. Now he has not sought out Everton’s often capricious owner Farhad Moshiri or their rest of the board to ask if he will still be in charge for a potentially defining league game against Southampton. “I don’t need a vote of confidence, I genuinely don’t,” he said. “I don’t think it would mean much. I am also a big boy, I know how this world works, I am not presuming anything.”

Manchester United vs Everton big match preview, by Richard Jolly

Frank Lampard was always likely to go strong given the importance of tonight’s match to his Everton future. He switches to a back five with Seamus Coleman replacing the injured Nathan Patterson and Ben Godfrey returning. Neal Maupay starts alongside Demarai Gray in attack.

Very interesting. Both Erik ten Hag and Frank Lampard have named strong teams for the FA Cup third round, despite a hectic return to the Premier League after the World Cup. Ten Hag makes four changes from the team that started against Bournemouth on Tuesday.

Harry Maguire drops out, with Raphael Varane returning and Luke Shaw moving to centre-back as Tyrell Malacia starts at left back. Antony and Diogo Dalot also return.

Confirmed line-ups

Manchester United: De Gea, Dalot, Varane, Shaw, Malacia; Casemiro, Eriksen, Fernandes; Antony, Martial, Rashford

Everton: Pickford; Coleman, Coady, Tarkowski, Godfrey,Mykolenko; Onana, Iwobi, Gana; Gray, Maupay

Frank Lampard has insisted he has not “hunted” for reassurances about his position from the Everton board after a return of just one point from five games has left them in the relegation zone.

Lampard’s future has come under scrutiny after Everton lost 4-1 at home to Brighton, meaning they have a lone victory in 11 matches in all competitions, and the former Chelsea manager said he has had “private conversations” with the club’s powerbrokers.

But he did not ask them for their backing, explaining: “I have never and will never seek reassurances. My job is to focus on the job in hand. I don’t need reassurances. I come to work to try and improve every day. I am not hunting around for reassurances.”

Lampard helped save Everton from the drop last season but they now find themselves 18^th in the table and the 44-year-old is adamant he wants to stay and try and keep them up.

“I am not silly, we need results to stay in the league,” he said. “Whatever the challenges, I face them head on. I want to be a success here.”

Erik ten Hag does not know when Jadon Sancho will return to action with Manchester United.

The 22-year-old started the season well with three goals before the international break in September, but has not played since United’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea on October 22.

Ten Hag said he had seen a notable dip in Sancho’s confidence after he was left out of the England squad for the Nations League matches in September.

“Sometimes there are circumstances with fitness and mood,” Ten Hag told reporters. “He was not in the right status or fitness state.”

Sancho scored three times in his first eight appearances of the season, but missed the final four games before the World Cup break and did not join United on their recent two-match tour of Spain.

Man United are likely to make changes after a good recent run in the Premier League, so the likes of Fred, Alejandro Garnacho, Tyrell Malacia and Scott McTominay could come into the side. Donny van de Beek probably would have played but went off injured last time out.

Everton’s woeful run gives Frank Lampard a dilemma of whether to stick with a first-choice line-up to try and pick up a result and instil some confidence, or to hand chances to those on the fringes and risk another defeat which might hasten the end of his time at the helm.

Predicted lineups

MUN - Heaton, Dalot, Maguire, Lindelof, Malacia, McTominay, Fred, Elanga, Fernandes, Garnacho, Martial

EVE - Pickford, Coady, Tarkowski, Godfrey, Patterson, Iwobi, Gana, Davies, Mykolenko, Gray, Calvert-Lewin

United 8/15

Draw 10/3

Everton 13/2

Prediction

Further pain for Frank Lampard even if the Red Devils make significant changes. United 2-0 Everton.

Man United play Everton at 8pm GMT on Friday 6 January at Old Trafford.

Where can I watch it?

The game will be broadcast on ITV 1 and STV, and can be streamed on ITV X or the STV Player across all devices.

Good evening and welcome to live updates as Manchester United host Everton in the FA Cup third round tonight. Frank Lampard is under pressure following a dismal run of form that has seen Everton drop into the Premier League relegation zone, but the Toffees boss will hope the FA Cup brings a change of fortune.

Everton face a tough task against a resurgent and in-form Manchester United team, however. Erik ten Hag’s side have won their last six matches in all competitions and have kept four clean sheets in a row, a run that continued with Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth at Old Trafford.

United have not won the FA Cup since 2016 and Ten Hag will now be hopeful of lifting silverware this season given his side’s recent form. For Everton and Lampard, meanwhile, they will aim to pull off an upset that would lift the mood around Goodison Park following the disastrous defeat to Brighton this week.