Manchester United had to scrap for all three points at Goodison Park, and their win will feel all the better for them having done so.
There was a case for saying that those two late goals at The Etihad Stadium hadn’t really done Manchester United many favours.
Losing 6-3 rather than 6-1 may have spared some blushes, but there were potential downsides, too. The margin of defeat went from one which better represented the obvious chasm between the two teams, while offering a potential sliver of opportunity for complacency following a poor performance to sneak in.
And while United ended up coming away from their Europa League trip to Nicosia with an important win, they could hardly be said to have torn the place up. After their strong comeback from a dismal start to the season, the last week had felt like a bit of a backward step.
But it doesn’t really feel like that anymore, not at the end of an evening in which United had to fight to come back from an early lapse, and then hold onto a lead over a frantic last five minutes of aerial bombardment from an Everton team that wasn’t giving up their own six-game unbeaten run without a fight.
And wins like this, when you’ve had to reach deep into your reserves of grit and determination, are worth a fortune. They can bond a team in ways that money simply cannot buy.
Received wisdom would have it that it helps to be able to give a full debut to one of the best defensive midfielders on the planet. Nobody has any doubts about the abilities of Casemiro, and his absence from Manchester United’s first team had come to feel increasingly perplexing with each passing game. Now here he finally was in the starting line-up, the delayed start to him stepping fully into spotlight explained away before the match by Erik ten Hag as giving him the opportunity to fully settle into the club.
Ten Hag may have been wishing that he’d extended that acclimatisation spell by another week after just five minutes. With the ball at his feet and his back to goal, Casemiro had the ball nicked from him by Amadou Onana, leaving the Brazilian on his backside and United’s defence in sudden and quite unexpected trouble. The ball found its way to Alex Iwobi, who bent the ball into the corner to give Everton the lead. Goodison Park is always a febrile place under the floodlights, and of course it exploded. For all the pouring rain, it was a baptism of fire for Casemiro.
Everton have been defensive skinflints this season, but one good…
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