Ferguson is left to ponder

Everton - 3 Manchester Utd - 4 Those Evertonians who dared to dream for 14 tantalising minutes should have known better. Comebacks are a cliché these days, so trust Manchester United to add their own inimitable twist to a rampaging contest even if, away from the giddy glory of this occasion, the reality will be more sobering now.Whether at Carrington or Bellefield, these two clubs have plenty to ponder. Why did Everton endure such an anaemic opening before rallying when their position was virtually hopeless?

Just as mystifyingly, while the champions may initially have thrilled at what Alex Ferguson deemed to be their "best away display for years", and later conjured the game's most significant riposte, a pitifully soft underbelly hardly suggests theirs will be a successful Premiership defence.

Plucking criticisms from this breathless frenzy smacks of acting the killjoy, yet the two Scotsmen cursing in the dug-outs on Saturday could not escape the bigger picture.

"Last season our defending was integral to our success," said Ferguson, crimson with rage. "On the evidence of the last two or three games we've got to improve. You just couldn't see the second half coming in a million years."

That much was true. United were as dazzling as Everton were dire in the opening period. The irrepressible Louis Saha and Ruud van Nistelrooy tormented the home back-line to the point of humiliation. The pair should each have scored in the first five minutes, with Paul Scholes also battering against the foot of a post, though the fallibility of Everton's embarrassing attempt to play offside hinted at imminent reward.

The hapless David Unsworth promptly stepped up to grant Saha the freedom of the home side's half to belt in the opener. The same defender might have cleared a messy Saha through-ball 15 minutes later, only for Van Nistelrooy to wriggle around Alan Stubbs to plant a second through the exposed Nigel Martyn. Scholes' delicate ball then bypassed Steve Watson and Tony Hibbert to allow the Frenchman - played on inevitably by Unsworth - to spear a third.

At that stage the visitors were untouchable, swarming all over Everton and ravenously seeking further reward. Saha and Van Nistelrooy squandered when clear on goal but, with the advantage established, such profligacy merely prompted more home partisans to up and leave in disgust. Those who remained showered their team with noisy contempt at the half-time whistle, the solidity demonstrated at Anfield a week before exposed as a sham.

Cue the transformation. "My message was delivered very calmly at half-time," said David Moyes, ever conscious that Everton, for all the flashes of promise they produce each week, are being cast adrift from mid-table. "I couldn't muster many words because I was shocked by what had happened. We'd sat back and admired United, but at least the lads went on to show they cared. No one would have thought it possible to come back from 3-0 down against them."

Perhaps the visitors themselves felt their job was done. Little else can explain how established international defenders can be panicked so visibly by a succession of set-pieces, albeit with Duncan Ferguson an awkward presence in their midst.

Wayne Rooney and Tomasz Radzinski were pesky, buzzing in United territory, while the third half-time substitute Gary Naysmith provided dead-ball bite. Unsworth and John O'Shea, inadvertently, nodded the Merseysiders back into contention. When Thomas Gravesen's free-kick was thumped gloriously in by the leaping Kevin Kilbane, Goodison erupted.

Cristiano Ronaldo, introduced late into the mayhem, provided the sting in the tail by prising out a wondrous cross which Van Nistelrooy, evading Hibbert, headed in. "Ronaldo's game isn't all about his tricks any more but about effectiveness," said the Dutch striker, who has now plundered an astonishing 101 goals - none from outside the area - from 131 United appearances. "You don't see 20 stepovers. He understands that now."

The only stepover of note came from a supporter, livid at the visiting players' post-goal celebrations, who vaulted the advertising hoarding out of the Paddock before he was grappled by stewards. United's players could yet be sanctioned for their actions, though it should be noted that the tirade of foul-mouthed abuse, like this match, was never one-sided.