Manchester United's seasonhas hit something of a roadblock in recent times, with a four-gamestreak without a win seeing them eliminated from the League Cup while also puncturing their hopes of putting distance between themselves and the contenders for the final Champions League spot.
Having fallen behind Chelsea into third place on Saturday due to their 0-0 draw with Southampton at Old Trafford, their New Year's Day trip to Everton takes on a new significance.
Jose Mourinho and his men will be hoping that they can start 2018 off on the right foot in order to draw a line under their poor run over the latter part of December.
The full verdict on Romelu Lukaku's head injury has yet to be delivered but the Belgian is likely to miss a couple of weeks of action after being stretchered off on Saturday following his clash of heads with Wesley Hoedt.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is out for another month after the gamble of rushing him back from ACL surgery failed quite spectacularly, the Swede finding it difficult to reach anything like the game pace in either of his first-team starts.
Eric Bailly is out for the foreseeable future with a serious ankle injury sustained on international duty with Cote d'Ivoire which has resulted in the need for surgery, while Marouane Fellaini will still be unavailable due to a knee injury and Antonio Valencia is unlikely to recover from his hamstring problem in time to feature.
Michael Carrick will remain on the sidelines following a procedure to deal with an irregular heart rhythm, and Chris Smalling will likely still be out due to the muscle injury which has kept him out of the last two matches.
MAN UTD SUSPENSIONS
There is no players facing a ban due to the accumulation of bookings since the FA's cut-off for suspensions after five yellow cards are December 31. Only those with nine bookings are now threatened with a ban, with the end of March being the next amnesty date.
MAN UTD POTENTIAL STARTING LINE-UP
While Jose Mourinho will want to make a number of changes to cope with the 48-hour turnaround of fixtures, he is somewhat restricted due to the loss of the likes of Lukaku and Ibrahimovic through injury and the need to pick up three points and end their recent malaise.
Matteo Darmian and Daley Blind could fight for full-backspots although Mourinho may push Ashley Young through one more fixture before giving him the night off against Derby County on Friday, allowing the England full-backand some of his more experienced team- mates to take a fortnight off before the clash with Stoke on January 15.
EVERTON TEAM NEWS
Everton's currentfortunes couldn't be much different to what they were when they arrived at Old Trafford in September, with the arrival of Sam Allardyce in place of Ronald Koeman marking a significant turnaround in form.
With Reds legend Wayne Rooney firing, the Toffees have made a quick run up the table and find themselves in a comfortable position after 21 games.
Jonjoe Kenny and Mason Holgate have begun to make defensive positions their own, while Jordan Pickford has marshalled the back line well as he increases his claims to the England number-onejersey.
Saturday's lossto Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium was their first defeat under Allardyce, and the former England boss will back his troops to make things difficult for United.
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