OLD TRAFFORD — Back to square one. Minus one. Just when you thought Manchester United are on the way back to the top, they self-destruct like no other team can.

The visit of Everton represented the start of a run of fixtures – United don’t play any of the traditional “Big Six” until mid-January – that was supposed to give the truest indication of where Ruben Amorim’s project is headed, on the anniversary of his first game in charge.

Not victories at Anfield, but clashes against those bottom-half teams who made last season the campaign from hell it became.

Amorim could almost see it coming. When faced with questions last week of whether he was eyeing the kind of run that could really propel United into an unlikely title tilt over the next few months, he insisted he was only looking ahead

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