Manchester United dig deep after difficult week to show they are still heading in the right direction

Manchester United had to get all three points at Goodison Park, and their victory will only be better for them.

It had to be said that those two late goals at the Etihad Stadium did Manchester United a disservice.

Losing 6-3 rather than 6-1 may have saved some blushes, but there were also potential downsides. The margin of defeat went from one that better represented the obvious chasm between the two teams, while providing a potential opportunity for complacency following a poor performance to sneak in.

And while United ended up returning from their Europa League trip to Nicosia with an important victory, it can hardly be said that they tore the place apart. After coming back strong after a dismal start to the season, last week had been a bit of a step back.

But it's not really like that anymore, not at the end of a night in which United had to fight their way back from an early time frame and then hold a lead in a frantic final five minutes aerial bombardment of an Everton side not giving up their own six-game run without a fight.

And victories like this, when you've had to tap deep into your reserves of courage and determination, are worth a fortune. They can tie a team together in ways money just can't buy.

Traditional wisdom would have it useful to be able to make a full debut to one of the best defensive midfielders on the planet. No one is in doubt of Casemiro's abilities, and his absence from the Manchester United first team had become more perplexing with each passing game. Now he was finally in the starting line-up, with the delayed start of his full spotlight explained before the match by Erik ten Hag as giving him the opportunity to fully settle into the club.

Ten Hag might have wished to extend this acclimatization spell for a week after only five minutes. With the ball at his feet and his back to goal, Casemiro had the ball snatched away by Amadou Onana, leaving the Brazilian on his back and United's defense in sudden and entirely unexpected trouble. The ball found its way to Alex Iwobi, who bent the ball in the corner to give Everton the lead. Goodison Park is always a feverish place in the spotlight, and of course it exploded. Despite all the pouring rain, it was a baptism of fire for Casemiro.

Everton have been defensive this season but deserved a good turn nine minutes later when Idrissa Gueye lost the ball in midfield. From there, and with Everton's midfield and defense completely unprepared for this sudden loss of momentum, it took two assists to find Antony, who continued his goals-per-game streak with a diagonal shot on Jordan Pickford.

And with the bit between their teeth, Manchester United have rediscovered some of the swagger that left the building so suddenly at Eastlands. Suddenly they were on top. Everton's defense was the steel rod that kept the team safe from the kind of panic that so ruined their last season, but United's forwards could see the whites of their eyes and for minutes , it felt like breaching this particular dam would be inevitable.

A touch of bad luck almost stopped this forward momentum. Anthony Martial was reportedly injured before kick-off with his place in the starting XI uncertain, and he lasted just 28 minutes before being replaced by Cristiano Ronaldo. We saw the worst and the best of Ronaldo in the last seventeen minutes of this half. He had only been on the pitch for ten minutes when he ran offside unnecessarily before gesticulating his annoyance at the pass he received, which could have been something and nothing if Bruno Fernandes hadn't didn't put the ball in Everton's net seconds later, only to be called off for Ronaldo's offside.

Six minutes later came the flip side. This time it was Alex Iwobi's turn to be taken into possession (something of a theme of the evening, that), this time by Casemiro, who undid much of the damage his first mistake had caused with a through pass for Ronaldo to score. his 700th career club goal. United led at half-time, an admirable fightback that you wouldn't have imagined last year's side would come close to.