4 hours ago
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Defiance serves David Moyes’s Everton well, especially when laced with a sense of indignation. At the end of a troubled week in the transfer market, and at the very end of a game when all seemed lost against Manchester United, they showed weaker in number need not translate to weaker in spirit.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles, 19 minutes into his Everton debut, rescued a point for Moyes’s side with a stunning 25‑yard strike into Senne Lammens’s top corner with virtually the final kick of a game that slow-burned into an eruption. Benjamin Sesko had appeared to have delivered victory for United at Hill Dickinson Stadium for the second season in succession, with an 88th‑minute header past Jordan Pickford, but the visitors could not hold out.
Michael Carrick wiped his face in sheer disbelief after Maitland‑Niles sent the home crowd into raptures. His team had the lead twice through flashes of ingenuity and quality only for two outstanding Everton finishes to leave the United manager defending his side’s modest start to the season. “We haven’t started that badly,” Carrick said in response to a question that suggested otherwise. “It’s not a bad start.”
Tyrique George cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s fine opener with another superb strike, but the need for improvement in United’s defending was clear. Everton’s point, however, was deserved.
It would be putting it mildly to say that Maitland-Niles’s deadline‑day arrival for £4.3m from Lyon met with an underwhelmed response, given the lengths Everton went to to source a permanent successor to Séamus Coleman at right‑back. But what a way to introduce yourself, win over the doubters and lift the mood around your new club. Five minutes of stoppage time were up when Mbeumo’s defensive challenge rolled to the former Arsenal player. His first‑time shot left Lammens rooted to the spot and the Everton hierarchy no doubt breathing a sigh of relief following the club’s shambolic end to the transfer window.
Hill Dickinson was shorn of the tifos and flag displays usually organised by The 1878s, the supporters group who have withdrawn support for the foreseeable future, and there were attempts to organise a “not a pound in the ground” protest to hit the owners where they would feel it. But there were no visible or audible shows of dissent against the Friedkin Group inside the ground. Not that anyone from Everton’s ownership group was here to witness any, beyond Rishi Majithia, Dan Friedkin’s son-in-law and TFG’s day-to-day representative at the club. They missed practically nothing before half-time.
United went close early on when Bruno Fernandes cushioned a volley against the Everton crossbar from Mbeumo’s knock-down. Luke Shaw engineered the chance by breaking free down the left and picking out Mbeumo. It should have been a fruitful route for the visitors with Shaw and Marcus Rashford frequently getting in behind Merlin Röhl but, in keeping with the performance of both teams before the break, an end product was lacking. Matheus Cunha had the best opportunity from a low Rashford delivery but side‑footed wastefully over.
Moyes rightly persisted with Röhl at right‑back despite the addition of Maitland-Niles. The Germany under-21 international is considered a potential long-term solution to Everton’s problematic position and his early season displays merited the manager’s show of trust. Defensively this was a difficult but valuable experience for Röhl, who demonstrated his usefulness in the final third with a fine cross that Thierno Barry headed over from close range having pulled away from Harry Maguire. That was Everton’s one chance of note in a forgettable half.
United were the more composed and creative side, without seriously troubling Pickford after Fernandez’s effort, but finally added penetration to their performance 62 seconds after the restart. Everton were collectively asleep when the breakthrough arrived. Receiving Kobbie Mainoo’s pass wide on the right, Mbeumo set off in a straight line for the Everton goal, darting between non‑existent challenges from George and Vitalii Mykolenko before sweeping an excellent finish beyond Pickford as James Garner sat off on the edge of the area.
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A superbly timed challenge from James Tarkowski prevented Cunha converting into an empty net from Rashford’s back-heel. It looked a key moment when Everton, having passed up several presentable chances from Kiernan Dewsbury‑Hall, Harrison Armstrong and Brennan Johnson, equalised with seven minutes of normal time remaining. George was found in space by Hayden Hackney, who made a telling impact as a substitute along with the returning Jack Grealish, and he unleashed an unstoppable shot into the near, top corner of Lammens’s goal from a ridiculously tight angle.
United finally profited from one of their raids down the left to quickly retake the lead. Sesko started and finished the move when he found Fernandez, who released Shaw down the wing. The left‑back’s cross sailed over Tarkowski for Sesko to score with a textbook header past Pickford, the effort trickling over the line after the keeper got a hand to it. The final sting, though, came from Everton and their new, previously unheralded right‑back.
