AS a deeply under-par Manchester United stumbled unconvincingly, a chant began to slowly drift through the chilly Goodison air.
To paraphrase the potty-mouthed ditty, the cleaned-up version suggested that while United are champions, they actually aren’t very good.
The problem for Everton, though, is the song was emanating from the away end.
And the harsh truth is Sir Alex Ferguson’s visitors didn’t have to be anywhere near their best to continue the trend of the Premier League’s most one-sided fixture.
So much for David Moyes’s men capitalising on United’s brittle confidence after their historic 6-1 thrashing at home by neighbours City last weekend.
Speaking before the match, Moyes suggested there are always good or bad times to play teams. But, rather than being Everton’s ideal moment, Saturday instead fell in favour of the visitors.
If United were shorn of self-belief, then the Goodison outfit were shorn of players and fitness.
Already missing the suspended Royston Drenthe, Moyes was also without injured trio Phil Neville, Tim Cahill and Sylvain Distin, while the remainder had to contend with the after-effects of a debilitating extra-time Carling Cup defeat to Chelsea less than 72 hours earlier.
Such factors told. The experience of Neville, particularly against his former club, irascibility of Cahill and unpredictability of Drenthe would have added some of the “oomph” Moyes admits was lacking from this team; for a North West derby, this was an unusually tame encounter.
The curiously flat atmosphere was not helped by the stupidly-early noon kick-off. But as Moyes admitted beforehand, it was up to his players to give supporters something to shout about.
It never really happened. Moyes claimed Everton deserved a point for their efforts, but their performance was more endeavour than enterprise.
Despite enjoying plenty of possession, particularly during the second half, Everton struggled to overly test United goalkeeper David de Gea and failed to carve out any real clear-cut opportunities.
In truth, there was only one during the entire match. And it was taken by United in the 19th minute, as Tom Cleverly and Danny Welbeck combined to send Patrice Evra into space down the left flank, with the Frenchman crossing for the unmarked Javier Hernandez to prod home inside the six-yard box. Too easy.
“We had probably the best chances in the game,” said Ferguson afterwards. “Their attempts were largely crosses, and we managed to get most of those away. David de Gea’s not really had anything to do in terms of saves, although we rode our luck when they hit the bar.”
That came shortly before half-time when, after Darren Fletcher impeded Marouane Fellaini, Leighton Baines curled a fine free-kick from 20 yards that crashed against the woodwork with de Gea beaten.
