You Can Get Slapped By Your Own Teammate And Still Beat Manchester United | Defector

"For about a decade at Manchester United there have been too many organizational resets, false dawns, and moments of humiliation to count. Grab any slice of results from this era and you can tell pretty much whatever story you want about this club. Hey, United might be turning a corner! Wow, United sure is stuck in the mud. Jeez, this is the most embarrassing team in all of professional sports."

"The match marked manager Ruben Amorim's one-year anniversary with the club, and the Red Devils came into it riding what can be considered a nice wave of results in the context of Amorim's dour and depressing tenure. Three straight wins against Sunderland, Liverpool, and Brighton were followed by back-to-back draws against Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, and a win over Everton would have put United level on points with fourth-place Aston Villa."

"The absence of Matheus Cunha from the forward line put a bit of damper on United's chances, but Everton got to work quickly making sure that the game was there for United's taking. Just 13 minutes into the game, Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye was shown a red card and banished from the field. It wasn't a horror tackle on an opponent that got Gueye sent off, but rather his decision to haul off and slap his own teammate, Michael Keane, right in the face."

"If any team should have been in a wobbly emotional state at that point in the game, it's the one that just went down to 10 men after watching two of their most reliable veterans completely lose their shit on one another. But for the rest of the first half it was United that looked tentative and confused, and in the 29th minute Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall made them pay for it with a sweet little goal:"

For about a decade Manchester United has experienced frequent organizational resets, false dawns, and repeated humiliations. Monday's home game against Everton coincided with manager Ruben Amorim's one-year anniversary and followed a run of strong results that could have positioned United level with fourth place. Matheus Cunha's absence weakened the forward line. Everton went down to 10 men when Idrissa Gueye was red-carded for slapping teammate Michael Keane. United appeared tentative and conceded in the 29th minute to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. United applied pressure in the second half, forcing saves from Jordan Pickford, but failed to overturn the deficit.

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