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Everton's Theo Walcott: Never a good time to face Manchester United

Theo Walcott has told ESPN FC there's "never a good time" to play Manchester United, despite Jose Mourinho's men suffering a difficult start to the Premier League season.

A late Chelsea equaliser at Stamford Bridge last weekend left Jose Mourinho's side 10th in the Premier League table and with only four wins from their opening nine games. Juventus then piled further misery on United as they left Manchester with a 1-0 win in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Everton, meanwhile, come into Sunday's match full of confidence after a run of three Premier League wins in a row. But Walcott admitted there is never an easy time to play at Old Trafford -- despite United's stuttering start to the campaign.

"I don't think it's the best time playing Man United at any time, I really don't," Walcott said. "But we are in good spirits, we are in good form, we're enjoying ourselves.

"It's obviously well documented [United's struggles] but the players they have, it's not going to be an easy game.

"But we know our strengths, we know what to do to obviously keep the fans quiet, that's the most important thing.

"We need to focus on ourselves really, not them. We need to do the stuff that the manager drills into us every day in training and if we do that and if everyone works to the ability we know we can, we have a very good chance."

United were thoroughly outplayed in their midweek defeat to the Italian champions, with coach Massimiliano Allegri claiming his side should have won by more than one goal.

The result left United five points behind Juventus in their Champions League group, and Walcott said he is a wary of a response as they return to Premier League action this weekend.

"If you think that a team is not playing with confidence that's probably when they are at their best," Walcott said.

"You may be going into the game a bit more relaxed and you don't need that, not in these sorts of games.

"Everyone needs to be fully focused because Man United is a massive game and this will see where we are at with them as well."

Everton's last Premier League defeat also came in their last visit to a "big six" side, away to Arsenal in September. The Merseyside club were arguably the better team until two quickfire goals from the Gunners sealed a 2-0 win.

"We didn't take our chances and that sort of haunted us really," Walcott added.

"It shows that in these games, these big games, you need to take your chances."