Forget, for a minute, the signing Everton did not make and concentrate on ones they did. Their deadline day ended in shambolic fashion, but the last buy they made conjured a spectacular, sensational end to his debut.
The consensus was that they lost the transfer window. Yet when they were losing against Manchester United, two newcomers delivered a draw in glorious fashion.
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First to equalise was Tyrique George, proof that, while Everton left some of their business too late in the summer, they got much of it done early. Then it was Ainsley Maitland-Niles, whose arrival was only announced 45 minutes before the deadline.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles produced a sublime finish to snatch a point (Reuters)
The new boy celebrated his debut goal with gusto (Reuters)
He was perhaps Everton’s sixth choice among their right-back targets. He was the third right-back they used against Manchester United, only summoned because James Garner had to go off a minute after dropping back into defence. “Jimmy went down with cramp,” said David Moyes. “We are still trying to get to know Ainsley.” This was quite an introduction. “A brilliant goal,” purred his new manager.
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Some 19 minutes into his debut, six minutes into stoppage time, the ball fell to Maitland-Niles; 25 yards out, he curled a shot into the top corner. “It’s amazing; everyone wants to start off like that and thankfully I did,” said the former Arsenal player.
Everton can reflect on another kind of late drama. Folarin Balogun, whose midnight U-turn on Tuesday left them short of strikers, may have starred at the World Cup, but the United States centre-forward may have struggled to conjure finishes of such quality.
Tyrique George’s first equaliser was a stunning effort (Getty)
George’s shot was rising and rasping, unstoppable and, for him anyway, unforgettable. At £18m, George is not the most expensive winger to arrive on Merseyside this summer; not when Bradley Barcola could cost Liverpool over £100m more. Maybe, had Iliman Ndiaye not been sold to Manchester City, he would not have been on the pitch. Instead, after starting on the left, he switched to the right when Jack Grealish was introduced for his second coming. His first Everton goal came after a pass from Hayden Hackney, another of the summer additions.
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Moyes might have done some fine business on the cheap. At £4.2m, Maitland-Niles may be the last-ditch, cut-price replacement for Seamus Coleman, but over two spells at Everton, the Scot has shown a capacity to galvanise Everton in adversity. He could be doing it again.
He had a no-excuses mantra when he spoke to his squad. “The players have hugely bought into it,” he said. They sought to find a positive from a negative. “Sometimes when you have less players it means everybody has to be ready.”
And they have been. This was a second successive week when Everton delivered an injury-time equaliser, following James Tarkowski’s goal at Bournemouth, to extend their unbeaten start to the season. “As a manager you don’t plan it that you are going to get a result at the last minute, but when you are behind you need the boys to dig in deep,” said Moyes. They did.
David Moyes could celebrate a hard-fought point (Reuters)
And so Everton are above United in the table. “We haven’t started the season that bad,” insisted Michael Carrick. They haven’t started it that well, either, especially after Maitland-Niles let fly.
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“It feels like a defeat,” admitted Carrick. “The cliche is the obvious thing to say. We are bitterly disappointed to be up twice, so close to the end and with all the work that went into putting us into that position. We have taken a point, but it feels like we should have got a lot more.”
But United were punished for twice sitting back and trying to defend a lead. They earned it belatedly. While Bruno Fernandes hooked a shot against the bar, their first half was notable for a failure to turn territory, possession and pressure into clear-cut chances. Marcus Rashford had the beating of Merlin Rohl, the makeshift right-back whose place is now under threat from Maitland-Niles, but United mustered a lone shot on target.
A minute into the second half, however, Bryan Mbeumo provided an immediate improvement, driving infield purposefully to drive a shot past Jordan Pickford.
Bryan Mbeumo gave Man United the perfect start to the second half but it wasn’t enough for his team (Getty)
It suggested that Carrick’s half-time team talk had drawn a response. There was a second managerial intervention to give United a lead, and one which may have made Moyes fear history was repeating itself.
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Benjamin Sesko has been confined to the bench for the start of United’s season by a shin problem, but he has proved a very effective replacement in 2026. His fifth goal as a substitute for Carrick was a second at Hill Dickinson Stadium; it looked a second winner, too, when Luke Shaw, whose United career is so long that he was scouted by Moyes in his ill-fated spell as boss at Old Trafford, rolled back the years with his attacking efforts, surged forward and crossed. Sesko headed it in.
Shaw and Rashford had combined well before the Mancunian came off. “He was feeling a bit of something,” said Carrick vaguely, while allaying fears it was serious. Yet United were feeling something, too, as two points slipped from their grasp: bitter disappointment.
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