Goals on the cards at Goodison in 2012/13 curtain-raiser

Everton host Manchester United in the standout fixture of the Premier League’s opening weekend and fans can expect goals at Goodison Park.

The last 13 renewals have produced spectacular matches including scorelines of 4-2, 3-3 and last season’s thrilling 4-4 at Old Trafford. Also, in five of the past six seasons at least one meeting between these two has crossed the 2.5 goal line – 5/6 say’s it’ll happen again on Monday.

Everton’s last two seasonal bows have been tightly contested, yet ultimately disappointing, 1-0 defeats, but seven of the eight years previously, however, the 2.5 goals mark has been comfortably surpassed.

This includes two hidings to the tune of 6-1 and 4-1 against Arsenal on their own patch.

The Red Devils have developed a reputation as slow starters but they seem to be intent on losing that tag based on the past two years, winning their last two curtain-raisers in games that have yielded more than 2.5 goals.

They will also take confidence from the fact that the Toffees have lost their last four on day one, shipping 11 goals in the process.
Early season defensive frailties will have United’s striker’s mouth’s watering ahead of their trip to the blue half of Merseyside, as will the fact that the last time these two locked horns to start the season United cruised to a 2-0 win.

Unfortunately for them, they went on to finish that year a distant second to a rampant Chelsea side who began with a five-goal thriller against Birmingham.

Alex Ferguson would take a scrappy 1-0 and three points on the board, yet he should be aware of the fact that four of the last six league winners have kicked off their campaigns with exciting, over-2.5 goal-producing encounters.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.