1 month ago
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David Moyes needed Everton to put up a fight at Old Trafford, and got a little more than he bargained for.
Ruben Amorim needed Manchester United to seize an opportunity to break into the top-four and got as insipid a performance as they have produced in a year under their Portuguese coach.
Up against 10 men for all but 13 minutes of this game after a moment of sheer madness from Idrissa Gueye, United fell behind to a sumptuous strike from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and couldn’t get past a resolute Everton defence and their brilliant goalkeeper Jordan Pickford who excelled in front England manager Thomas Tuchel.
This was a sobering night for Amorim and his players on the first anniversary of his opening game in charge. A mini-revival had brought an unbeaten five-match unbeaten run, but United had failed to win the last two and now it’s three.
After a 4-0 win over Everton in the corresponding fixture last December, Amorim warned that a storm was coming and it clearly hasn’t passed yet judging by this abject display. The boos at full-time spoke volumes.
Nothing summed up the lack of quality still evident in this United squad better than the performance of Joshua Zirkzee.
Idrissa Gueye was sent off for slapping Everton team-mate Michael Keane in a bizarre incident
The sending off did not hamper the visitors as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's goal won the match for the 10 men
Without Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha – whose injury was bizarrely revealed by Visit Altrincham’s social media feed when he was unable to switch on the Christmas lights at the weekend – the Dutchman was given his first start in 225 days and failed to take the opportunity.
Assuming Cunha and Sesko will be fit sooner rather than later, it would make sense for Zirkzee to call time on his United career and go out on loan in January.
He was by no means the only United player to come up short here. A big win last night could have seen them move up as high as fourth place in the table. Instead they stay in 10th, level on points with Everton.
For Moyes, this was a richly deserved and satisfying victory over the club that fired him after 10 months in charge in 2014, back in the days when a Champions League quarter-final defeat to Bayern Munich and seventh place in the table were considered sackable offences.
This was his first Premier League win at Old Trafford in 18 attempts as an opposition manager with Everton, West Ham and Sunderland. It was also the first time Everton have won in the Premier League for 19 years after going down to 10 men in the first half.
The red card came about from an astonishing incident in the 13th minute. There isn’t much that should shock us in football anymore, but the sight of two teammates at each others’ throats certainly takes some beating.
So it was that Gueye and Michael Keane channelled their inner Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer – or David Batty and Graeme Le Saux for fans’ of an older persuasion.
What made it all the more ridiculous was that Everton had got off a solid start, and United were making their first foray into the danger zone. Bryan Mbeumo’s run came to nothing and Gueye’s stray pass to Keane on the edge of the box allowed Bruno Fernandes to fire narrowly wide from distance.
The verbal spat between 5ft 9in Gueye and 6ft 3in Keane escalated dramatically as the veteran Senegal midfielder slapped his teammate around the face with his left hand.
There were echoes of Bowyer going at it with his Newcastle teammate Dyer when both were sent off against Aston Villa in 2005, and Batty and Le Saux when Blackburn lost to Spartak Moscow a decade earlier.
Joshua Zirkzee had United's best chance but he was denied by a superb Jordan Pickford save
United's recent revival under Ruben Amorim came to an end with defeat at Old Trafford
Referee Tony Harrington, whose only intervention up to that point had been to settle some handbags between James Tarkowski and Zirkzee, immediately reached for the red card and Gueye was off.
Even then, the 36-year-old had to be wrestled towards the tunnel by Pickford as he threatened to completely lose his head. It really was the height of idiocy, and Gueye is fortunate that his team put up such a sterling effort to win this game.
The bust-up came just moments after a disconsolate Everton captain Seamus Coleman had headed straight for the away dressing-room as his first start in two months lasted less than 10 minutes. There was every expectation at that point that the balance of the game had swung firmly in United’s favour.
Credit to Moyes’s side though. They cleared their heads – perhaps literally in Keane’s case – and took the lead with an excellent goal just before the half hour mark.
Former United youngster James Garner fed Dewsbury-Hall and he shrugged off a half-hearted challenge from Fernandes before stepping inside Leny Yoro and unleashing a fantastic effort from the edge of the box which Senne Lammens could only help only help on its way into the top corner.
Everton ended a long wait for victory at Old Trafford, winning there for the first time since 2013
United had their chances to level but couldn’t break down an heroic Everton resistance or an inspired Pickford.
He tipped over another long-ranger from Fernandes, made a smart save from Mbeumo and then prevented Zirkzee from being United’s unlikely saviour when he turned his header from Luke Shaw’s cross around the post.
Patrick Dorgu blazed high and wide from Zirkzee’s cross to the back post, and Fernandes scuffed another good chance over the bar from close-range. Of United’s 25 shots, only six were on target.
But let’s not take away credit from Everton. It was a fantastic performance – and for that Idrissa Gueye should be a very relieved man.
