It was going so swimmingly for Manchester United they could have ended next Sunday in fourth. Not anymore. Failure to seal a third consecutive league win - a feat they last managed in January - marked a familiar day of regression against an unfazed Everton.
There were no full-time boos like they were a fortnight ago amid the raucous chanting of the Merseysiders, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's name echoed around the Stretford End again. Some were appreciative, others apathetic.
Still, on the day the club named an academy graduate in their matchday squad for the 4,000th successive match, they witnessed the next keeper of the flame in Mason Greenwood. The 18-year-old salvaged a point.
"He scores with his left foot and he scores with his right," the United supporters chant to David Bowie's Starman and Greenwood is a star in the making similar to that of Marcus Rashford. Rashford tallied eight from 18 starts in his first few months as a professional footballer and Greenwood is one goal shy already.
Greenwood has as many United goals as Memphis Depay. Radamel Falcao and Angel di Maria? He outscored those two in midweek and has seven times as many as Fred. That is close to £200million worth of signings Greenwood has toppled in the first half of his first full season.
Solskjaer proudly waved at Greenwood amid a pointless check by the Video Assistant Review. Greenwood's challenge ever since his first start of the campaign was to transmit his form to the Premier League and he now has two uplifting goals to his name; this was the first at Old Trafford.
Greenwood's impact is tempered by United's return to square one. Those who heralded the scalps of Tottenham and City last week forgot United dismally drew with Aston Villa at the start of the month and this was a performance largely in keeping with that.
United have taken 10 points off the top four yet squandered 12 against the bottom seven. Their big-game nous is offset by a small-time mentality that Solskjaer insisted was not an issue. The inconsistency suggests it is.
Solskjaer is at least lucid to some of the flaws, clarifying United's transfer targets had to be 'starters' and two or three were needed, which still seems diplomatic. Everton's midfield was so makeshift Duncan Ferguson appeared to have forgotten to pick one to partner Tom Davies and United still could not identify one of their own to dictate play.
Jesse Lingard, at 27, still operates at his optimum off the ball through intuitive and intelligent runs that draw opponents out of position. Against Everton's throwback formation and their own version of the counter-attack, the game largely passed him by and Lingard was the obvious withdrawal come Greenwood's overdue introduction. United lack a playmaker to conduct matches against the fodder.
The Everton Twitter account tweeted a line-up with a hole in their midfield and United fell into the trap. Davies, the sole central midfielder, was partnered by Mason Holgate in a flat 4-4-2 that threw a flat United. Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire failed to shackle Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin and United need more from the £80m Maguire.
Lingard was serenaded by the Stretford End following his candid comments about his personal life and almost on the scoresheet within 15 seconds of kick-off with a snap-shot on the turn. The precise passing from Lindelof and Scott McTominay fashioned openings for Marcus Rashford and Daniel James that merited finer finishes.
Another Glaswegian Ferguson was back on the touchline and even in retirement Duncan Ferguson's well-earned hardman status endures in December weather, for he eschewed an overcoat, scarf and gloves in the technical area and when the rain turned torrential, he removed his suit jacket. It was still off at the final whistle. If Ferguson's selection looked as though it had been made by a managerial novice, he was streetwise enough to tell Lucas Digne to collapse to the surface so he could be substituted.
The aerial emphasis from Everton caused De Gea to crack at a corner from substitute Leighton Baines that bounced in off Lindelof. De Gea, hurt early on while palming a Mason Holgate drifter over, regressed to his first 18 months at the club with a flimsy and meek attempt of a punch, though he was obstructed by Calvert-Lewin's arm. The VAR had a cursory check and dubiously concluded there was no foul.
Solskjaer and his staff members Mike Phelan and Kieran McKenna were infrequent on the touchline and should perhaps have been more visible amid the improvement Ferguson coaxed from his battlers. There were no jeers at half-time from a defiant Stretford End, which chanted 'United' as the players rushed for the tunnel.
Mason Greenwood, Juan Mata and Andreas Pereira began their warm-ups within seconds of the restart. Solskjaer got out of his seat and beckoned Luke Shaw to push higher up yet the failure to elicit a reaction remotely akin to Thursday night's against AZ Alkmaar was belatedly addressed with the introduction of Greenwood and the switch to a 4-2-4 set-up. It paid off.