Just hours before Manchester United, Everton’s great tormentors, arrived for their annual parade-ground drill at Goodison Park, David Moyes gathered his players together and informed them the time had come to throw off the shackles of 18 years of oppression. By 2.35pm on Saturday, the champions’ regime had been rocked to its foundations.
Few sides had acquiesced to United’s rule quite as obligingly as Everton. Just twice in the Premier League era had Sir Alex Ferguson come unstuck against sides managed by Moyes and his predecessors. A third defeat in 30 games is hardly a source of shame, but there will be plenty of concern in its nature.
The Gwladys Street uprising was no dogs-of-war affair, no cunning ambush. Everton were simply better equipped, better trained. What will worry Ferguson most of all is that Moyes and his side knew it. The night before the game we had a meeting with the players at the hotel and told them we were going after Manchester United to try and win the game,” said Moyes.
“We always go into games like that but there was an emphasis this time. We were without Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill, but we had to give the others a feeling that we were going to get about them. It was not about what Manchester United were doing, it was because of where we are mentally. It was the right time for us.”
That Moyes should be so diplomatic is no surprise. He shared a glass of wine with his fellow countryman after the game, revealing the United manager had been fulsome in his praise of his conquerors. But such tact cannot mask a shift in attitude to United, that they are no longer the fearsome force of last year.
In truth, necessity may have been the mother of United’s destruction. Without Cahill and Fellaini, and with Phil Neville at right-back, Moyes had little choice but to try to outflank his guests. Why Everton should have taken such an approach hardly matters, though. It is that they did, and with such success, that is significant.
“You would look at the game and ask whether we got it right tactically against Manchester United,” said Moyes. “We should be given a bit of credit, not just because of our spirit, but because of our tactics and the ability of the players. We played in a way to try and give us a foothold, to play in a different way, to give us something different.”
Ferguson can only hope that his side’s failings were a temporary blip, a hangover from their Milanese bacchanalia after their midweek Champions League triumph. “Maybe we left something in Milan,” he said. “We looked tired in the second half. Milan could have had an impact. It is difficult to think that when you go through all the emotions, the pace, intensity and atmosphere, you do not lose something. It was just too much today.”
More worrying for the Scot was Patrice Evra’s revelation that United had lost belief in themselves. “We lost the game mentally,” said the French left-back. ''We did not have the spirit of winners today. We did not believe enough.”
That may not have been the only problem. United, with Wes Brown and Jonny Evans, appeared vulnerable in defence. Their central midfield lacked authority; Dimitar Berbatov, despite his stunning opener, was peripatetic. Even Wayne Rooney was easily tamed, the devil which Goodison’s hostility usually inspires in the England striker easily exorcised, perhaps a legacy of the recent rapprochement between player and former club.
Ferguson will have not failed to notice that it was Jack Rodwell, a player he hopes will soon follow Rooney’s path, who slalomed past Evans to seal Everton’s victory after Dan Gosling had fired the hosts ahead. United will soon return to Goodison, seeking in Rodwell, an even bigger prize than three points. Moyes, though, is unconcerned. “We are a good enough team now to keep bigger suitors away,” he said.
On the pitch and off it, United now know Goodison is not such a happy hunting ground.
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