David Moyes named an attacking 4-4-2 line-up for the Goodison battle with Sir Alex, Louis Saha getting a rare start alongside Yakubu to take on his old team. Hibbert and Baines were dropped to make room for Neville at right-back. Fellaini was in quickly on the end of a beautiful pass from Arteta but Vidic foiled his shot on goal.
Everton were bright in the first five mins but the Red Devils soon began to assert themselves, cutting out poor Everton passes and forcing more familiar safety-first play. A good passing move from the back bought an Arteta corner that cleared the first man. Fellaini was getting blown ominously for any and all contact.
Everton were getting pinned back more and more, Yakubu giving away a dangerous free-kick with a stupid pull on Park. Rooney screwed it well wide. But the first goal came when Fletcher danced through the static Everton defence onto a clever ball from Giggs to slot home with ease. They almost got a second when Howard got down well to a glancing Vidic header.
Vidic caught Saha late to win the first yellow card of the game and it was pinball for Everton off the free-kick with each attempt blocked off a United defender. United were taking more and more control of the midfield, Everton with no idea how to progress on the rare occasions they had possession in the United half. Pienaar was the only one in Blue doing anything inspiring but he was getting minimal support.
A mix-up gave Yakubu a golden opportunity to chip the stranded Van der Sar but he fluffed it. Everton pressed a little more before the break but couldn't get close.
Everton started the second half with much more zest and determination, but with little reward. Challenges flew in as United tried to break, ending in Neville taking out Ronaldo, who did a dying moose impression, and was welcomed with raucous chants of "Cheat, Cheat Cheat", lifting the atmosphere nicely. Neville was carded — a gross miscaraggeof what passes for justice in today's corrupt league — for a hard but perfectly legal tackle. Of course the Manc prima donnas swarmed around Wiley in an effort to have Neville ejected.
A mistake by Ferdinand let Yakubu run loose but Pienaar's shot was blocked. However, from the throw, Pienaar fed Neville, whose cross was headed home superbly for level the scores. Minutes later, Yakubu got past Ferdinand again and so nearly scored, his shot pushed on to the post by Van der Sar.
Rooney got himself a little too wound up, was yellow carded, and pulled off by Sir Alex before he could score the fabled 100th goal. Everton continued to play as if they felt they could actually win the game, but lacked composure at vital moments after creating a number of potential openings. Still, they were playing with spirit for once, against one of the Sky 4, and the long-suffering Goodison crowd certainly appreciated that for a change!
Vaughan came on for Yakubu at the death, perhaps a change that might've been made earlier... followed by Anichebe in injury time. Fellaini finally got the yellow card for persistent fouling as the seconds ticked away.
A much better second half for Everton — if only they had played like this in the first!
Michael Kenrick
The 2007/08 season was all about the glass ceiling between Everton and the so-called "Sky Four", embodied in the dotted line in the final Premier League table that separated the Blues in fifth and the Champions League qualifying places above and starkly emphasised on the field in the Carling Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
Just as evident as that divide appeared to be in the final reckoning, however, was the approach of the manager and the team to games against those top four clubs, so often characterised by defensive formations and timid displays, that just as often ended in resounding defeat. A bit like last week's 3-1 defeat at Arsenal and, in terms of performance at least, most of the first 57 minutes of this home clash with Manchester United.
Indeed, until a Phil Neville-insired turning point just before the hour mark, all the signs were that this game was going to go the way of almost every other fixtures between these two sides in the Premier League era. Despite a decent start by the home side, United quickly assumed almost complete control and but for some heroics by their former 'keeper Tim Howard, they may have had the points wrapped up by half-time.
It may have come almost an hour late but Everton finally did shrug off that all-too-familiar inferiority complex to deliver a stirring fightback that might have earned them more than the point they deservedly claimed were it not for a crucial intervention by Ewin van der Sar and the woodwork that denied Yakubu what might well have been the winner.
Roundly criticised for again employing the 4-5-1 formation against the Gunners and then not changing it until it was too late, David Moyes got his starting line-up spot on this time around. Louis Saha was deployed up front alongside Yakubu to face his old club in front of a four-man midfield boasting Mikel Areta, Leon Osman, the improving Marouane Fellaini and the stellar Steven Pienaar.
Joseph Yobo returned to central defence after missing the previous two games through injury and then illness as Joleon Lescott was moved back out to left back and Neville, himself making his first start in three matches, replaced Tony Hibbert at right back.
Following a week dominated by talk of foregone conclusions and general disaffection with a season gone horribly wrong, one of the players' biggest challenges right from kick off was to dispel the notion that this was going to be another routine win for Sir Alex Ferguson's men at Goodison Park. And they set about their task quickly, hoping to catch the Champions out in the early going.
With less than a minute gone, Lescott picked out Fellaini in the box with a superb pass but he was closed down smartly by Nemanja Vidic and his shot deflected wide for a corner that the Belgian international glanced wide.
After 10 minutes, a nice move down the right ended with a succession of passes across the edge of the United area and Saha seeing his shot blocked even though Arteta, perhaps unbeknownst to the Frenchman, was completely in the clear behind him. And a couple of minutes after that, the Spaniard played a terrific one-two with Pienaar before dinking a ball across goal that was also diverted behind.
Unfortunately, that positive spell by the Blues gave way to a longer period of supremacy by United that saw Moyes's side hemmed into their own half for long periods.
Wayne Rooney's first sight of goal, a cross-cum-shot that curled across the box and dropped a few feet wide of Howard's left-hand post, had served as a warning sign after seven minutes but it was a couple of fouls on Park by the Blues' strike duo in dangerous areas outside their own box that presented the visitors with a couple of decent opportunities in the first quarter of the game. Thankfully, on both occasions, both direct free kicks were wasted.
In the 22nd minute, however, Everton's defence was carved open with depressing ease and Ferguson's men took the lead. Fellaini blocked Darren Fletcher's initial shot but when the Belgian midfielder stopped running and allowed the United man to collect Ryan Giggs' threaded a return pass into the area, Fletcher just had to evade Lescott and fire neatly under Howard to break the deadlock.
Four minutes later, Cristiano Ronaldo's 25-yard drive was bundled behind by the 'keeper and from the resulting corner it appeared as though Vidic glanced a downward header that Howard stopped one-handed before a Blue jersey hacked it out... but only as far as Giggs whose curling drive was finger-tipped wide again by the American.
A little later, Phil Jagielka snuffed out Rooney with a brilliant challenge just as the former Blue was about to shoot from close range as the Red Devils tried to put the game out of reach before half time. Overall, the contrast between the two sides in the ability to keep the ball was almost embarrassing.
United found red shirts in advanced areas with ease, their familiar slick passing, speed of thought and intricate ball-play outshining the Blues' propensity to hit it long where Yakubu and Saha were largely peripheral figures and with the Blues' midfield sitting too deep to claim the second ball, it was meat and drink to Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.
The Blues weren't completely out of it, though, and they had a brief flurry at the end of the half when Yakubu tried to capitialise on a mix-up between Van der Sar and Vidic but his chip was too heavy and sailed high and wide, and Osman had a tame half-volley saved. On balance, though, it was all painfully predictable.
And then there was Alan Wiley whose refereeing performance did more to underscore the bias towards the big four than even Mike Riley;s in the derby. Virtually every 50-50 decision went United's way, including the decision not to book Giggs for chopping down Saha a couple of minutes before the break and then to blow the whistle on a Neville throw-in with less than the one minute's stoppage time having elapsed.
If there was one contentious decision that did fall Everton's way in the first half it was when Neville escaped a card for what could have been construed as a deliberate arm across Ronaldo's neck but the referee settled for a free kick instead.
The situation was very different when the same two players clashed 12 minutes into the second half, though. Neville chopped at and tripped Ronaldo, but when the Portuguese whinger scrambled to his feet the Blues' right back followed up with a meaty after-the-whistle challenge, cleanly taking the ball but also catching Ronaldo's knee on the follow-through. Mr Playacting, of course, made an absolute meal of it, players squared off against each other and the home crowd came to life as the temperature instantaneously rose towards boiling point.
Neville didn't escape a yellow card this time but he had unwittingly lit the blue touch paper for Everton's sudden awakening. Suddenly, they were in energetic, harrying mood, tackling everything that moved and driving forward with purpose.
Within seven minutes they were level when everything finally came together in the final third. Pienaar laid the ball back from near the byline to Neville and when he swept in a pin-point cross, Fellaini rose highest to steer a header int the far corner and well beyond the Van der Sar reach.
A minute later, the game was almost turned on its head by Ferdinand's second hilarious error in as many minutes. Under no real pressure, he fluffed a backpass to his 'keeper and Yakubu's opportunism was rewarded as he raced clear with just Van der Sar to beat. Unfortunately, the Dutchman got a firm hand to the Yak's shot and the ball bounced agonisingly off the post and back into play.
While much of the build-up to the game had been about Rooney's stated desire to score his 100th league goal against his boyhood team, the lairy England striker had largely been frustrated by the Blues defence and his exit from the proceedings was hastened in the 69th minute when he followed through on Arteta and was booked for his trouble.
With the Goodison faithful's boos ringing in his ears, he kissing the United badge and pointed to the crowd, prompting his manager to haul him off for his own protection a couple of minutes later. His replacement, Nani, was equally as ineffective because Everton had seized control of the game by this point, but while the Blues were a team transformed, they still fell maddeningly short of claiming all three points when opportunities presented themselves on the counter in the closing stages. On a couple of occasions, Arteta and Pienaar led really promising breakaways but failed with the final ball.
There was time for some late drama, though. With five minutes left, Yakubu expertly beat Wes Brown on the halfway line but was denied the opportunity to sprint into the clear when he was sent sprawling by the defender's trailing leg. Technically, Brown was the last man but it was no real surprise to see Wiley err on the side of caution and only flash a yellow card.
Then, at the other end the ball fell to Ronaldo with a clear sight of goal but he failed to even test Howard when he could only drive into the Park End Stand.
Moyes kept the pressure on United with late substitutions of Yakubu for James Vaughan and then Saha for Victor Anichebe and the Blues secured the point despite Wiley allowing United to keep attacking beyond the four minutes of alloted injury time.
Whatever happened in the Everton dressing room at half time clearly worked wonders. The spirit and determination shown after the break is exactly what the fans have been crying out for for weeks now and with any luck it will provide the springboard for the next few weeks as Moyes tries to get his team's season back on the rails.
His cause was helped by an attacking line-up and another improved display by Fellaini who acquitted himself well throughout and only blotted his copybook by again failing to track his marker and thereby paving the way for United's goal. He seems to have learned how to jump, now the coaching staff need to instill in him the need to keep running and not switch off when the opposition have the ball. Arteta, meanwhile, is still performing below his best, the box of tricks that endeared him to Evertonian hearts still strangely absent.
Additionally, the front two still remain starved of service where it counts — in and around the six-yard box. Yakubu has taken a lot of stick for his workrate this season but his chance one-on-one with Van der Sar was the first genuine goalscoring chance he has had in the last few games. Similarly, while Saha hasn't quite scaled the heights he promised with his first couple of subsitute appearances in early September, he hasn't yet had a bona fide goalscoring chance to break his duck.
But as an undeniable step in the right direction that brought an end to a miserable sequence of results against United at Goodison, this was a mightily positive performance. Pienaar was a livewire throughout, always looking to make things happen and Neville, another player who has been slated, deserves to be commended for a powerful dslpay even if his distribution was familiarly erratic.
Now, the task is obvious: Use this as a morale-boosting stepping stone to start climbing the table and put pressure on the pack chasing Europe in the top half of the table starting at Bolton on Wednesday.
Lyndon Lloyd
It's been a while since such a directionless and apathetic air hung around Everton and there is a depressing inevitability about this high-noon showdown with Manchester United that makes you just wish we could get it out of the way as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
David Moyes's side are without a win in seven games, out of two cup competitions and have slid to 16th in the table on the back of that morale-sapping run of results. United by contrast, have won six straight, are still in the League Cup and the Champions League and really seem to have hit their stride in the last few games — their last five games saw them score 14 goals without reply.
In short, this fixture has rarely felt so pointless from Everton's perspective and, just as with the derby, the fact that tickets are still available at the time of writing tells its own story. The farcical events of the summer, the feeling of betrayal over Kirkby and the general pall of misinformation and lack of direction from the top are coming home to roost. The supporters clearly feel massively let down and many have probably started wondering why they bother.
The sad part is that, as Acting CEO Robert Elstone remarked in his blog on the Official Site this week, it's going to hit the club in the coffers thereby affecting the manager's ability to further strengthen the side in January.
The Blues took just one point from 24 against the Sky Four last season, have been beaten comprehensively by Liverpool and Arsenal already this season and there is, sadly, nothing to suggest that this game will be any different.
The team just lacks an out-and-out leader who can inspire as equally with his performance as he can with his spirit. Duncan Ferguson may have been infuriatingly erratic but he was unquestionably a "big occasion" player who reveled in situations like this where the odds are so overwhelmingly stacked in favour of the opposition. It was he who scored the only goal the last time Everton beat the Red Devils — indeed, the only time we have beaten them this century — and the closest thing that the current Everton side has to him, Tim Cahill, will be watching from the stands serving the third and final game of a suspension.
Joseph Yobo is available again after suspension and both Victor Anichebe and Segundo Castillo will undergo late fitness tests after recovering from hamstring strains and resuming running during the week. It's likely that all three will be on the bench. Yobo may play if Moyes pushes Joleon Lescott back out to left back but Moyes doesn't seem to have the same faith in Castillo as do I and therefore probably won't risk him against United's midfield.
Phil Neville will no doubt be reinstated given his history with United, probably and maddeningly in midfield, at the expense of Leon Osman and Jack Rodwell. Given the backlash against his formation at Arsenal last week, it's hard to see how Moyes could go 4-5-1 but you wouldn't bet against it. Nonetheless, expect Yakubu and Louis Saha to start up front.
There may have been spells in the last couple of games where the Blues got it together, most notably through Steven Pienaar, but they were painfully short-lived. Moyes's challenge, of course, is to rouse his troops to achieve what frankly looks like the impossible — beat a "big four" side for the first time since March 2007. They have the ability and the talent but do they have the mental fortitude and the team spirit?
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