Everton manager David Moyes said he had to "fight" to overcome the disappointment of being sacked by Manchester United and added that it is "very rare" to see his former club languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table.
Everton will host Ruben Amorim's side at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon, with Everton a point clear of 15th-placed United in the table.
Moyes joined United from Everton following the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, though he was dismissed from his post after just 10 months in charge at Old Trafford. The Scotsman has since gone on to manage at Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham United -- where he won the UEFA Conference League -- before returning to Goodison in January.
On the prospect of facing his old club this weekend, Moyes said: "I played them a lot when I was manager of West Ham. It's another game in many ways. It's a great football club but my job is to try and beat them at the moment.
"It's part of the life of a football manager. There's very few managers who have things always go in one direction. You have lots of ups and downs. Even the best managers have times when it's not so good.
"I had to find a way of fighting back from the disappointment of losing my job at Manchester United and finding ways to get myself back to a good level. We've done that at West Ham, won a trophy at West Ham.
"Now that I'm back at Everton, the first job is what I had to do at West Ham and make sure we stay as a Premier League club and then hopefully find our way to start getting closer to European football and see where we can go from there."
Moyes added: "I always think Manchester United is one of the biggest fixtures of the season wherever you are. They've always got good players. They've got so many talented players who are so good at what they do.
"They're probably having a bit of a difficult patch at the moment. It's very rare to see Manchester United in the league position that they're in. But we need to see if we can build on what we've done here at Everton."
This weekend also promises to be a big one for Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite, who has been regularly linked with a move to United.
They had two bids for the England international rejected last summer after failing to meet Everton's valuation.
"I know we've still got some work to do in the summer [in terms of staying in line with Profit and Sustainabilty Rules]," Moyes said.
"I was aware of that when I came in. But I'm hoping that we're beginning to stop thinking about that now and think about moving forward.
"I think we've got a bill to pay and when we pay that bill hopefully that's us in the clear. Jarrad's a top player and if people want to buy Jarrad then I've said many times, bring a big bag of money."