Despite performing when selected against Feyenoord and West Ham United, this was the big audition Henrikh Mkhitaryan dare not fluff. Not after what occurred in his previous and only Premier League start for Manchester United.

Then, Jose Mourinho named Armenia's captain in the XI for the derby on September 10th and with Manchester City leading 2-1 at halftime the manager hauled him off and he was not given even a substitute appearance in the ensuing nine league matches.

Those starts against Feyenoord and West Ham were in the Europa League and EFL Cup and given the way Mkhitaryan was dropped post-City the 27-year-old may have wondered when another chance in the league would arrive if he disappointed on Sunday.

As the old adage goes, Mkhitaryan had certainly become a finer footballer in his absence from the side with fans insisting he would have stopped the stuttering form that has caused four consecutive draws at Old Trafford (five in total) and only one victory – at Swansea City – since September.

Gnomic form

When discussing Mkhitaryan’s selection pre-game, Mourinho was in gnomic form. “We are playing so well,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who is playing. It’s about the characteristics of the game. I think Martial and Mkhitaryan are faster, transporting the ball into attacking areas and attacking spaces behind defences, so that’s it.”

United began this match 10 points from a Champions League berth, a direct product of their paucity of game-winners who might have ensured all three were taken in some of those five draws.

In this sense Mkhitaryan was Mourinho and United’s great unknown: a player yet to be given a chance and who as the pacy Bundesliga footballer of the year with an eye for goal might inject a much needed X-factor into what has been a middling campaign so far.

If he was to do so against Ronald Koeman’s eighth-placed Everton there was scant sign as the half-hour mark passed. Lining up on the right of a 4-2-3-1, Mkhitaryan won a free-kick – perhaps luckily - when barging into Ramiro Funes Mori and that was about it. Until then he had been peripheral but in this misfiring team this was hardly his fault.

The United on show during the first half was the one which is leaden-footed and without spark: an ideas-deficit outfit that belies the supposed sparkling talents possessed by Paul Pogba, Martial, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and, indeed, Mkhitaryan.

This was the latest outing in which Pogba started as the No 10 yet when Mkhitaryan started to drift inside in search of action there were flashes of the dimension he can add. Twice he zipped a pass off then raced along an inside channel and threatened to open up Koeman’s side.

Given what happened against City, Ibrahimovic’s lobbed finish over the onrushing and hapless Maarten Stekelenburg as halftime neared would have improved Mourinho’s mood and surely Mkhitaryan’s hopes of emerging for the second half.

Barnstorming

The truth was that after the barnstorming 4-3 between Bournemouth and Liverpool earlier in the day, United and Everton had come close to stinking Goodison Park out before the Swede’s opener.

But if he awaited the dreaded hook from the manager it never arrived and so out trotted Mkhitaryan after the break and he was to prove far more effective. To begin with, he began with more of the wandering around stuff, twice moving across to the left wing to initiate attacks and even briefly took up a centre-forward position: the fluidity of movement here indicated how the former Borussia Dortmund man was settling more and more into the side’s pattern of play.

United were operating far better now and so was Mkhitaryan. This, at last, was the form shown in pre-season and in those starts in the cup competition. From United’s quickest break, Mkhitaryan twisted and turned and then shot: he was unfortunate to see the effort deflected by Seamus Coleman away to safety.

It is a stretch to say he had become United’s standout performer but the forward had become a consistent threat and there was some surprise when he was replaced on 84 minutes.

This was for Marouane Fellaini who became United’s villain by giving away the penalty from which Leighton Baines equalised. Another truism of the game is that attack is the best way to defend and Mkhitaryan was providing a consistent outlet for United each time they took hold of the ball and found him.

Why, then, Mourinho took him off his a mystery though the Portuguese did offer this answer: “When you have a player on the bench with two metres to play in front of the defensive line to win the match, [you do it]”.

His substitution means Mkhitaryan is yet to complete 90 minutes in eight run-outs for United. On this showing, that may soon come.