At the end of a 90 minutes in which he had contributed nothing at all, the ball fell to Cristiano Ronaldo in the Everton box, gifted a chance to find a leveller for Manchester United.

The Red Devils were behind for much of the game after Anthony Gordon's strike brushed the shoulder of Harry Maguire and flashed past a helpless David de Gea.

United looked totally lost for much of the second half. Bruno Fernandes tried to squeeze some life out of his attacking teammates but was often wasteful, Jadon Sancho apparently played the whole 90 minutes but that's going to need a stronger citation, and Juan Mata played his first half-hour of Premier League football all season.

It might have gone someway (ok, that's generous, a little way) to being forgiven if the anonymous Ronaldo had buried the only chance he had all game, but his wayward strike deflected off Michael Keane and against Jordan Pickford, trickling away with the visitors' hopes of a late and undeserved leveller.

Ronaldo's return to Man Utd has certainly not gone according to plan, with the Portuguese superstar already registering his first trophy-less season since 2005 and the club's own drought being extended to half a decade.