This was a swaggering pageant from Manchester United. In the season’s defining phase Erik ten Hag’s team are hitting a new gear that today reduced Everton to patsies and which deserved more than a one-goal lead at the interval.
That came courtesy of Scott McTominay drifting into the type of schemer’s area behind lines that is supposedly beyond a midfielder labelled as functional. But no. The Ten Hag way is to see potential everywhere, unmined gold from the boots of all of his charges. So to see, at the start of the second period, the maligned Harry Maguire sweep a diagonal ball that arced sweetly in the spring sunlight and that had Everton scrambling to defend was, too, scant surprise.
