Manchester United Continue to Baffle With Impressive Win at Everton

What actually are Manchester United?

They're currently apparently a club in crisis who routinely record an excellent result once a week.

Their 4-1 victory over Newcastle aside, Manchester United have largely been poor in the Premier League this season. They couldn't defend against Brighton, they lost to Crystal Palace and they were humiliated by Tottenham.

Ole's at the wheel, but he doesn't have a licence, he's failed he's theory test seven times and his driving instructor clutches the door handle in fear every time he approaches a roundabout.

But then in the Champions League, the Red Devils were outstanding. If it's a midweek game in Europe, United can let their hair down. Two Solskjaer tactical masterclasses produced terrific results against PSG and RB Leipzig, and faith in the Baby Faced Assassin was restored.

Until the weekend, when United would then underwhelm against Arsenal once more. But fear not, because there's a European game just around the corner where Solskjaer's side will dazzle again.

Unfortunately, on Wednesday evening, their escape that is the Champions League wasn't much of a safe space anymore as the Red Devils conjured up some astonishing Sunday league defending as a 35-year-old Demba Ba ran them ragged and they suffered an embarrassing defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir.

With Mauricio Pochettino murmurs in the buildup to Saturday's crucial clash with Everton, Solskjaer was under the spotlight once again.

He didn't endear himself to the already tetchy United fanbase by dropping Donny van de Beek to the bench, despite the summer signing's decent showing in the Turkish capital, in favour of a more defensive minded midfield combination of Fred and Scott McTominay plus Juan Mata - at fault for Basaksehir's second on Wednesday evening.

This was followed by more eye rolls, sighs of frustration and mutterings of 'here we go again' and Everton took the lead inside 20 minutes through a low Bernard drive from the edge of the box.

But instead of rolling over and succumbing to another defeat - which would have made it United's worst ever start to a Premier League season - the Red Devils fought back.

Bruno Fernandes applied the finishing touches to a slick team move - Mata heavily involved before Shaw produced a floated delivery, not dissimilar to the one that led to United's goal in Istanbul, and Fernandes arrived late to power home a header.

The midfielder was on the scoresheet once more seven minutes later as his teasing cross intended for the head of Marcus Rashford avoided the England forward and the entire Everton backline to curve into the net off the post.

Everton came back at United in the second half and enjoyed long spells of possession in the Red Devils half, but David de Gea was rarely called into action. Harry Maguire defended as if his life depended on it, throwing his head in front of anything and everything, while the discipline and robustness of Fred and McTominay offered United's back four the protection that they had been so severely lacking on Wednesday evening.

Edinson Cavani wrapped up the win in stoppage time, tucking home Fernandes' pass after a perfectly executed United counter attack.

It was a terrific result for United against a high flying Everton side not quite at their best.

This is what we have come to expect from Solskjaer's United; when they're on the ropes and the doubters are coming thick and fast, they pull an outstanding result out of the bag.

Solskjaer's United are shambolically, chaotically inconsistent. But when questions are asked, they tend to answer them. Until next time they step foot on the pitch, at least.