It's been a mad season at Goodison and even our good run of form has been punctuated with displays like the cup match against Birmingham, the display at Anfield and, to a lesser extent, the display against Sporting last week.
So, even after working it right up Chelsea in our last league match, there was never a great deal of optimism going into this game...it's Man United after all and we generally just let them get on with taking the points off us!
And our worst fears looked to have been realised as, on 16 minutes and in United's first attack of any note, Antonio Valencia got the better of Leighton Baines and Dimitar Berbatov smashed the Ecuadorian's cross into the roof of the Gwladys Street goal.
But there wasn't even enough time to think 'here we go again' as Everton were level three minutes later.
Louis Saha challenged John Evans for a high ball and possession broke to Diniyar Bilyaletdinov who took one touch before firing...no, smashing...no, twatting the ball past a flat footed Edwin van der Sar.
Foot like a traction engine!
And the Russian could have doubled his tally five minutes later but Patrice Evra did enough to put him off and he fired a Baines cross high over the bar.
Then came what was possibly the game's pivotal moment as Wayne Rooney missed the chance to put United back into the lead.
The fat lad only ever performs at Goodison when he's wearing an Everton shirt but he's been in devastating form lately and is the sole reason that United are still in the title race!
So when he rounded Tim Howard there was a collective gasp as everyone expected to see the ball rolled calmly into the net.
But his second touch was uncharacteristically awful and Phil Neville was on hand to shoulder the striker of the ball and the chance was gone!
Everton then took control and were by far the more composed side, making Man United chase after everything and just passing the ball around them, in short, playing the way Man United normally do against us!
On 37 minutes Landon Donovan, who once again looked the part, should have put the Blues in front but he horribly miscued his shot after Wes Brown made a complete balls of another Baines cross.
The ball initially dropped over Donovan's head - right onto the arm of Wes Brown - but as the ball bounced back to the American he was caught completely by surprise and could only partially scuff the ball into the arms of a very grateful van der Sar.
1-1 half time and Everton on top!
Everton picked up in the second half where they left off in the first and our midfield quartet didn't give Man United's a minute to settle when they had the ball and made sure they couldn't get it back when they didn't!
But for all our possession there was still the nagging feeling that United were just one flash of inspiration away from turning the game on it's head - like they so often do - and everyone was still expecting Rooney to conjour something up.
He very nearly did as the game entered the final minutes - his curling free kick deflected narrowly wide off the head of Sylvain Distin - but by that point the Blues were 2-1 up and cruising!
Dan Gosling replaced Bilyaletdinov after the Russian had put in a productive 70 minute stint and five minutes later found himself on the score sheet.
A great move down the left saw Donovan play Steven Pienaar in and the South African hit a low cross in from the byline and Gosling expertly side-stepped Brown and stuck out a leg to stab the ball past van der Sar.
From thereon in Goodison was awash with Blue emotion and madness - the way only Goodison is on days like this - and the best was still to come.
Wayne Rooney lost possession on the half way line and Leon Osman played the ball to Jack Rodwell - who had two minutes earlier replaced Setevn Pienaar - and the youngster seemed to glide through the Man United defence and placed a low shot into the corner of the Street End net.
It was off the scale!
And the best thing about the whole day was that we beat them because we were better than them, genuinely better than them in every area of the park...and it's not often you get to say that after a game against United!
It's been a mad season at Goodison and even our good run of form has been punctuated with displays like the cup match against Birmingham, the display at Anfield and, to a lesser extent, the display against Sporting last week.
So, even after working it right up Chelsea in our last league match, there was never a great deal of optimism going into this game...it's Man United after all and we generally just let them get on with taking the points off us!
And our worst fears looked to have been realised as, on 16 minutes and in United's first attack of any note, Antonio Valencia got the better of Leighton Baines and Dimitar Berbatov smashed the Ecuadorian's cross into the roof of the Gwladys Street goal.
But there wasn't even enough time to think 'here we go again' as Everton were level three minutes later.
Louis Saha challenged John Evans for a high ball and possession broke to Diniyar Bilyaletdinov who took one touch before firing...no, smashing...no, twatting the ball past a flat footed Edwin van der Sar.
Foot like a traction engine!
And the Russian could have doubled his tally five minutes later but Patrice Evra did enough to put him off and he fired a Baines cross high over the bar.
Then came what was possibly the game's pivotal moment as Wayne Rooney missed the chance to put United back into the lead.
The fat lad only ever performs at Goodison when he's wearing an Everton shirt but he's been in devastating form lately and is the sole reason that United are still in the title race!
So when he rounded Tim Howard there was a collective gasp as everyone expected to see the ball rolled calmly into the net.
But his second touch was uncharacteristically awful and Phil Neville was on hand to shoulder the striker of the ball and the chance was gone!
Everton then took control and were by far the more composed side, making Man United chase after everything and just passing the ball around them, in short, playing the way Man United normally do against us!
On 37 minutes Landon Donovan, who once again looked the part, should have put the Blues in front but he horribly miscued his shot after Wes Brown made a complete balls of another Baines cross.
The ball initially dropped over Donovan's head - right onto the arm of Wes Brown - but as the ball bounced back to the American he was caught completely by surprise and could only partially scuff the ball into the arms of a very grateful van der Sar.
1-1 half time and Everton on top!
Everton picked up in the second half where they left off in the first and our midfield quartet didn't give Man United's a minute to settle when they had the ball and made sure they couldn't get it back when they didn't!
But for all our possession there was still the nagging feeling that United were just one flash of inspiration away from turning the game on it's head - like they so often do - and everyone was still expecting Rooney to conjour something up.
He very nearly did as the game entered the final minutes - his curling free kick deflected narrowly wide off the head of Sylvain Distin - but by that point the Blues were 2-1 up and cruising!
Dan Gosling replaced Bilyaletdinov after the Russian had put in a productive 70 minute stint and five minutes later found himself on the score sheet.
A great move down the left saw Donovan play Steven Pienaar in and the South African hit a low cross in from the byline and Gosling expertly side-stepped Brown and stuck out a leg to stab the ball past van der Sar.
From thereon in Goodison was awash with Blue emotion and madness - the way only Goodison is on days like this - and the best was still to come.
Wayne Rooney lost possession on the half way line and Leon Osman played the ball to Jack Rodwell - who had two minutes earlier replaced Steven Pienaar - and the youngster seemed to glide through the Man United defence and placed a low shot into the corner of the Street End net.
It was off the scale!
And the best thing about the whole day was that we beat them because we were better than them, genuinely better than them in every area of the park...and it's not often you get to say that after a game against United!
