Back at the scene where Merseyside police had investigated a phone-smashing incident, there was additional evidence Cristiano Ronaldo had been at Goodison Park.
Downgraded to a substitute again, Ronaldo pounded the touchline turf as early as the 15th minute, heckled by a few Scousers on his return to Everton, where he was last filmed smashing a fan's phone. One day before his deadline to respond to the Football Association's needless charge, Ronaldo smashed a record.
The 37-year-old's 44th-minute strike was his 700th club goal and second at a ground he last registered at aged 20 in February 2005. It is that longevity that sets Ronaldo apart from the game's mortals.
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"You've only come to see Ronaldo," chirped the United fans. At full-time, a Portugal flag was unfurled and Ronaldo applauded appreciatively. Some Evertonians will have captured his fingerprints all over this game on their smartphones.
Marcus Rashford had already twice visibly despaired at Ronaldo's selfishness yet it is that single-mindedness that has made him the game's greatest goalscorer. Sprung by Casemiro's piercing pass, Ronaldo hit the ball as purely as in Nicosia on Thursday night, only Jordan Pickford was porous.
Ronaldo hit everything but the net in Cyprus and was overdue a first club goal from open play in nearly six months. He greeted it understatedly, perhaps conscious of his recent history on Merseyside and the FA's piousness. Rashford, beaming, was the first to embrace him.
Ronaldo had watched Rashford and then Anthony Martial start ahead of him over the last week, perhaps pretenders to the throne in Ronaldo's eyes, and endured the ignominy of an unused status in the derby. Martial's brittleness ushered Ronaldo in early and he only needed a quarter of an hour to make his mark.
Ronaldo should expect a recall against Omonia, a chance to end their goal's charmed life against his shooting. Martial, on his first Premier League start in over a year, has now succumbed to three injuries already in three months and the third was after a phased reintegration into the side.
The form is temporary, class is permanent rule applied to Ronaldo's compañero in Madrid. Casemiro's first Premier League start started chasteningly though it is a signal of his aura more United players rushed to him than Ronaldo to celebrate the winning goal.
Casemiro encountered an athletic midfield trio of Amadou Onana, Idrissa Gueye and Alex Iwobi and the latter two have ample scars from English football battlegrounds. Everton had hitherto not lost with Onana starting.
Casemiro had watched enough football in England from the bench in the last seven weeks to realise you barely have a moment to pause for breath in a breathless league and he was operating at a La Liga pace when pick-pocketed. Iwobi, a revelation as a midfielder, was stationed central to plant the ball into the top right corner in the fifth minute.
It is always a mark of a quality player if they can overcome an error in the same game and Casemrio adjusted to the tempo, nowhere near as frenetic as it can be at Goodison. Casemiro is a more polished passer than Scott McTominay and demonstrated that.
United know from Easter Sunday in 2019 Goodison Park days after a European away day can be an ominous outing. Against the Premier League's miserliest defence, this was always due to be a unique test of United's progression, especially when they conceded first again.
Everton may retrospectively wonder whether Iwobi's sweet strike in the fifth minute came too early. They were curiously lifeless for the rest of the first-half and barely buoyed by the 1-0 advantage Everton held for only 10 minutes. Only the introduction of Garner stirred them in the dying embers when United were confined to their penalty area.
Before and after Iwobi clipped the ball past David de Gea, every United outfield player was in the Everton half with United in possession, a predictable pattern that posed a major question of a team not renowned for patiently picking the lock.
United answered it resoundingly in the first-half, arguably their best under Ten Hag given the context and their lead was long overdue. They were backed raucously by the away dayers, audibly upbeat at 0-1.
How galling for Everton they were undone by United's favoured tactic as, true to form, they equalised through the counter-attack; Bruno Fernandes seizing on Idrissa Gueye's carelessness before the Anthonys clinically combined. Antony has three goals in three Premier League games since his £85.5million arrival - the first United player to achieve that milestone.
More encouragingly, this was his standout performance in a United shirt. The Brazilian was more direct and collaborative, completely in sync with teammates as they were more aligned with the style Ten Hag prefers.
Ten Hag will still rue Martial's absence record. At the tip of the arrow in pre-season, he has scored or assisted in each of his four cameos this term but has not completed 90 minutes for United since September 2021. In the Premier League, it stretches all the way back to January 2021.
It is often impossible to discern whether Martial is injured, especially on a rainy Sunday evening, and he withdrew from the warm-up early. He lasted 29 minutes, having faultlessly measured his assist for Antony in the 15th minute.
Everton must have breathed a sigh of relief at the departure of the scourge of seven goals against them. Only he was replaced by Ronaldo.
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