Romelu Lukaku came back to haunt Everton in Manchester United’s 4-0 win.

An unstoppable Antonio Valencia strike allowed the home side to take an early lead at Old Trafford before the Blues made a recovery in the second half.

Wayne Rooney missed a glorious chance to level the score against his former club before an Ashley Williams mistake allowed Lukaku to tee up Henrikh Mkhtaryan for United’s second.

Lukaku later added a third before Anthony Martial’s stoppage-time penalty saw Ronald Koeman’s side suffer a four-goal reversal.

Here were the key talking points from Old Trafford:

Still positives to be taken

 

It may have been a fourth defeat in four in all competitions but there were still positives for Everton to take from their latest Old Trafford visit.

Given how United started, they could have easily run away with them.

However the Blues recovered well and their second-half performance was worthy of a point at least in a match which was never reflective of the final scoreline.

While disappointing, at least the players showed the kind of fight and determination that has been sorely lacking in most games this season.

More of the same in the coming weeks will see Everton dig themselves out of the mess in which they currently find themselves.

What’s eating Michael Keane?

 

Most Everton fans have been impressed by Michael Keane since his arrival.

For most, he was among the best signings that the club made this summer.

However the last few weeks have not been kind to the centre-back and it is beginning to show in his performances.

He looked nervous up against Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford all game and was fortunate that the former missed a sitter in the first half to spare his blushes.

Ronald Koeman has already mentioned publicly how Keane is under-performing as a result of doubts that are creeping into his game.

The Dutchman needs to work his magic to get his summer signing back to his best before things become progressively worse.

Fortunately Koeman knows one or two things about being a central defender.

Koeman must take the rap on away form

 

To say Koeman is currently under pressure would be an understatement.

Everton are performing below par and criticism of the manager has been plentiful. Although some is unwarranted, a dreadful away record cannot be overlooked.

This defeat sees them go 11 games on their travels without a win – their worst run since 2004 – while Koeman has lost 11 of his first 25 away matches.

That is worse than both Roberto Martinez, who had 10 wins from an opening 25, and David Moyes, who managed eight during the same period.

It is a shocking statistic and raises further doubts among those who are already questioning whether Koeman is still the right man to take this team forward.

Sigurdsson needs to step it up

 

With a protracted transfer pursuit and big-money fee, the pressure is already on Gylfi Sigurdsson.

One wonder goal in his debut aside, the Iceland international is yet to justify either the effort or outlay that Everton invested in signing him from Swansea.

He may be playing out of position in a team that is sorely lacking confidence but Sigurdsson’s general all-around game has been far short of what is expected.

At this moment in time, he is failing to justify his place in the starting line-up, let alone his lofty £45 million transfer fee.

Koeman and Evertonians will expect a swift improvement in the coming weeks.