Fellaini, the gift that keeps on giving for Everton, and that Mourinho must rue using

Manchester United's Marouane Fellaini looks dejected after conceding a penalty on Sunday. Andrew Yates / Reuters / December 4, 2016

Everton 1-1 Manchester United

EVE: Baines 89’ (pen); MNU: Ibrahimovic 42’

Man of the Match: Idrissa Gueye (Everton)

LIVERPOOL // It should have been a day of celebration for Marouane Fellaini. He was the misfit who had become a mainstay, confounding his doubters by bringing up a personal landmark that seemed testament to his staying power and strength of character.

He was making his 100th Manchester United appearance, and at the club he had served with ungainly effectiveness.

But for Everton, he is the gift that keeps on giving.

They benefited for his services for five years, enjoyed the £27.5 million (Dh128.6m) United paid for him in 2013 and savoured his return to Goodison Park. Two minutes after coming on, a sluggish Fellaini chopped down a more dynamic Idrissa Gueye. Everton’s penalty specialist Leighton Baines beat a hitherto unbeatable David de Gea.

Victory had slipped from United’s grasp. Sent on to preserve the points, Fellaini cost two of them.

“When a team that is losing plays direct, when you have a player on the bench with two metres to play in front of the defensive line,” said Jose Mourinho, explaining his decision to introduce the Belgian at the expense of United’s most classy and creative player, Henrikh Mkhitaryan. It backfired.

Also see

• Premier League results: Fellaini ruins Ibrahimovic's fine work as Everton level United

• In pictures: Marouane Fellaini messes everything up for Manchester United

And so United find themselves with one win in eight games, 13 points adrift of Chelsea. They clambered back above West Bromwich Albion into sixth place, but it was of scant consolation to a curt Mourinho.

“When my team are playing pragmatic football and winning matches and winning titles, you say it is not right and nice,” he complained. “Now you say what matters is to get the result.”

Now Mourinho, for once, wants points for stylishness. United showed solidity until it mattered most, leaving them only with artistic merit.

Certainly their goal was taken with panache. Anthony Martial showed a side to his game few realised he had by supplying the pass from deep and, as the increasingly error-prone Maarten Stekelenburg was caught in no-man’s land, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s inventive lob hit bar, post and line before spinning in. It was nevertheless a majestic effort and his sixth goal in five games.

Yet whereas United’s home games have been notable for the number of chances fashioned and spurned, this was not. Mourinho rued the moment Ander Herrera hit the woodwork – “2-0, goodbye,” he said – but the busier goalkeeper was De Gea.

Everton had not tested the Spaniard until the 53rd minute. They launched a late bombardment, with Gueye and Ramiro Funes Mori drawing fine saves before Fellaini floundered. For the second successive game at Goodison Park, Everton got an 89th-minute equaliser.

“We showed fighting spirit,” said their manager, Ronald Koeman. He had dropped his captain, Phil Jagielka, and playmaker, Ross Barkley, and rung more changes with three substitutions that drove his side forward and United back.

Yet Everton were powered by Gueye, a bundle of energy. While, implausibly, Mourinho claimed to have witnessed neither incident, United twice resorted to illegal means to halt him.

Fellaini was properly penalised. Marcos Rojo was not. The Argentinian got away with a caution when he should have been sent off for a studs-up, two-footed challenge on the Senegalese. If not quite comparable with his compatriot Sergio Aguero’s lunge at David Luiz the previous day, it merited the same punishment.

Perhaps more pertinently for United, referees have proved keener to dismiss Mourinho than his charges.

“We had some amazing performances from Phil Jones and Rojo,” said the United manager, ignoring the way the latter could have been red-carded after 17 minutes.

Referee Michael Oliver had erred on the side of clemency, too, when Gareth Barry somehow escaped a booking for barrelling into Ibrahimovic.

It illustrated Everton’s indomitable attitude. United would come to rue it, along with the actions of an old Evertonian.

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