Cristiano Ronaldo came off the bench to help Manchester United to a 2-1 Premier League victory over Everton on Sunday, raising his career goal record to 700.
Just as they did last weekend in their Derby thrashing at the hands of local rivals Manchester City, United fell down early at Goodison Park after Alex Iwobi fired a magnificent goal into the net from 20 metres.
The visitors, on the other hand, responded considerably better this time around and quickly even things up as big-money addition Antony tucked home, the Brazilian becoming the first United player to score in his first three Premier League games.
Substitute Ronaldo then entered the action unexpectedly early after Anthony Martial suffered a back injury and required only 14 minutes to score his first Premier League goal of the season, his 144th for United in two spells.
United forward Marcus Rashford thought he had secured the visitors’ sixth win in six league games late on, but his effort was ruled out after a VAR review for handball against the England front.
Everton never looked like snatching a late equaliser as United held on for a win that pushed them up to fifth on 15 points, nine behind leaders Arsenal. Everton’s first defeat in seven league games drops them to 12th place with 10 points.
“It’s difficult to keep track of Ronaldo’s goals because every week appears to be a new record,” another Portugal international Bruno Fernandes told BT Sport.
“I am overjoyed since he has worked so hard to achieve this objective.” Today he got the goal and the win, and the fact that the team triumphed is the most important thing to him.”
Everton improvement
Everton have improved recently, winning their last two league games following only one win in their previous ten, with confidence pouring as they took the game to United.
Alex Iwobi, who formerly played as a winger, is having a fantastic season in the middle of Everton’s midfield, scoring his first-ever Premier League goal from beyond the box to nearly lift the roof off a soggy Goodison Park.
Defensive blunders, on the other hand, are still all too common at Everton, with Fernandes catching Idrissa Gueye on the ball before Martial supplied Antony for United’s well-worked equaliser.
Apart from Iwobi’s superb score, Everton failed to mount another effort in the first half, with United’s Christian Eriksen and Anthony Martial denied by brilliant stops from Jordan Pickford.
