Everton 4 Manchester United 0, 21 April 2019. For Evertonians, joy. “We did genuinely seem like we had all the pieces coming together at the end of last season,” explains Everton author Mark O’Brien. “There was a run of home games, culminating in that win against United, that saw us draw with Liverpool – the points that cost them the league – and beat Chelsea and Arsenal too.” Then Everton turned garbage after a summer of awful recruitment, culminating in sacking manager Marco Silva last week after poor form.

No team has a worse away record than Everton’s one win, one draw and six defeats. But Everton have Duncan Ferguson, a hero and a respected figure, if not by the thieves who once decided it would be a good idea to burgle his house with him at home.

Everton in April was awful for Manchester United, the worst performance so far under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, although Chris Smalling wasn’t entirely convinced when I spoke to him last month. “One of the worst," he said. "We’d got into the mindset that whoever we were going to play was going to be a tough game. Difficult times. When that happens the players, especially the older players, need to refocus and lead by example.”

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United’s heads had gone at the end of last season, mentally as much as physically.

After that shocking afternoon at Goodison, I asked Solskjaer if he was the right man to lead United forward. His team had lost six in eight. He was emphatic in his response, pointing to the club badge as he spoke. United’s season tailed off into nothingness and this term has hardly convinced – until last week.

Solskjaer desperately needed to add to just four wins from his first 14 league games of the season. Then came a fine victory against Spurs and hard on the heels United’s best moment since the March win in Paris as his side topped it by beating City away on Saturday. United were sublime in the first half, slicing City open with their rapid counter attacks.

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And with that Solskjaer’s critics slunk back into the shadows. The ones who’d said he was tactically inept. That didn’t really stand up after triumphs against José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. The ones who said he was out of his depth. He looked quite comfortable from where I was standing on Saturday, especially when he went to the away end where there was more pointing at the badge, this time in delirium rather than despondency. The ones who said United appointed him because he was a cheap "yes man" who wouldn’t rock the boat. The ones who said the job was taking its toll on him and that a sacking was inevitable.

Clearly he can't go on winning four out of every 14 and the critics will be back if United don’t continue to improve. They’re never far away, especially in these days of knee jerk reactions, but making definite statements about managers or players can come back to haunt. Jesse Lingard has been poor for most of 2019 and didn't help himself off the field, but to write him off completely? Nah, he’s done really well in the last week. There’s something there, as there is in Solskjaer’s plans of ridding the dressing room of negative influences (and some remain) and bringing lads through the youth system.

Solksjaer will have bad spells and even – if he stays long enough – bad seasons, but the club really want him to be there for the long term. Previous managerial appointments post-Ferguson (Alex not Duncan) didn’t work out and were destabilising as United became a go-to for money and has-beens. The club’s identity was eroded and United are still a long, long way from where they want to be, 22 points behind Liverpool after 16 games.

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That doesn’t mean the present can’t be enjoyable. The League Cup is well worth winning this season, the Europa League and FA Cup too. Trophies matter – even though United fans cheerfully dismissed it as a Mickey Mouse treble when Liverpool won them in 2001.

The foundations going down look more solid than any in recent years. The team is young, the manager fresh, with good ideas. Marcus Rashford is 22 and becoming a major goalscoring star; maligned Brazilian Fred is in danger of morphing into magnificent Brazilian Fred; Aaron Wan-Bissaka is incapable of being beaten; Scott McTominay’s improvement, even on a year ago, has been staggering.

Solskjaer wants and needs time, support and patience. He maintains he needs three or four transfer windows, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if he got all three in a time when others are being sacked with abandon?

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United’s players didn’t want Ole to be given the push as they did Mourinho a year ago and the club are adamant that they’re sticking with him and will ride out the heat that follows any United dip too. There have been several this season alone.

The owners have to back him since their best way of making money is for the team to be successful and playing Champions League football. The fans at games have been incredibly supportive of the Norwegian. Journalists like to reflect what they claim is the real thinking of the fans, but there genuinely is unity behind the manager in the actual rather than virtual world. Look at the difference between how events at United, where match-going fans have stuck behind their manager, and Arsenal, where fans have turned on each other at matches, have been reported.

What Solskjaer needs more than anything right now isn’t getting the talented Paul Pogba to return, but to start beating teams not in the top six. Enjoyable as it is, it can add to the frustration when United beat the best and are the only team to take points off the European champions, but lose at home to Palace, or fail to beat a Villa side with a woeful away record, or when they fail to hold onto a lead in Sheffield or Wolverhampton or Southampton.

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Sunday’s game against a rejuvenated Everton is a must win. The league matches that follow are at Watford, Newcastle at home and Burnley away, where United boast a solid record. This is Solskjaer’s chance to get a winning league run together like the one a year ago when he took charge, the chance to put them in a steady European position rather than a shaky mid-table spot where they’ve lost as many games as they’ve won.

European football without United is like chips with no salt or vinegar, not that Thursday’s home match to AZ Alkmaar will seem anything but a cold, damp night for fans. But even that will be better than September’s dreadful, goalless away leg. That said, United need to avoid defeat to win the group. Better to continue that winning habit and take it into the weekend against the Toffees.

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