Chapter 509 - 115 — Still First II

Thursday, November 23rd, Ten Hag put the Premier League table up on the Carrington screen — not to celebrate it, but to make a point.

UNITED — 28

LIVERPOOL — 27

CITY — 26

VILLA — 25

ARSENAL — 24

TOTTENHAM — 24

"The gap means nothing," Ten Hag said. "One draw and we’re not top anymore. Everyone in this league is going to start treating us like the team to knock down. That’s the only thing this table tells you."

Then Everton.

The analysts moved fast through the obvious point — the table position created by the deduction had nothing to do with the quality of Everton’s actual football. Physical duels expected. Second balls contested hard. Calvert-Lewin a constant aerial threat, McNeil delivering into the box, Doucouré running beyond midfield looking for the loose ball.

And a stadium that would try to turn every decision into fuel.

"If they want it played at maximum speed the whole afternoon, you decide when we slow it down," Ten Hag told Demien directly. "If the transition’s really there, take it. Don’t let this become a fight just because they want it to be one."

「MATCH PREPARATION」 「Second-Ball Recoveries: 5」 「Pressure Escapes: 5」 「Progressive Actions After Recovery: 4」 「Central Turnovers: Maximum 1」 「Reward: +12 TP」

Demien cleared it across Thursday and Friday’s sessions without much resistance, working a good deal of it alongside Kobbie Mainoo, who’d be starting his first Premier League match at Goodison.

Nobody made a production of pairing them. It just showed itself in the reps — every time Mainoo pushed forward after winning a recovery, Demien automatically dropped to cover the space behind him. Every time Demien stepped into a duel, Mainoo shifted to protect what he’d left open.

Two young midfielders reading each other without either of them needing it explained.

The bus approaching Goodison on Sunday rolled past a stadium that barely resembled the one from previous seasons.

Supporters had marched before kickoff, banners and placards aimed squarely at the Premier League rather than at Manchester United — 10 POINTS. NO WARNING. NO JUSTICE. written across more than one of them.

Inside, the league anthem was booed from the first note, protest cards held up in a coordinated wave across one whole stand.

Demien didn’t take any of it personally. United just happened to be the first visitors through the door after the punishment landed.

MANCHESTER UNITED

Onana.

Dalot — Maguire — Varane — Shaw.

Mainoo — Demien.

Bruno — Rashford — Garnacho.

In the third minute, United worked it toward the right, Dalot advancing and lifting a cross toward the far side of the six-yard box, the ball seemingly traveling behind Garnacho entirely.

Garnacho backpedaled, planted, and launched himself into the air.

Bicycle kick.

It flew into the top corner.

EVERTON 0 — 1 MANCHESTER UNITEDAlejandro Garnacho 3’

Demien’s reaction sold it better than anything he could have said afterward — ninety-nine in every stat that mattered, a legendary arsenal most of the league would never touch, and still enough sense to know when somebody else had just done something completely ridiculous. He didn’t spend a second wondering whether he could reproduce it. That one belonged entirely to Garnacho.

The early goal didn’t calm Goodison down. If anything, it made Everton more aggressive, the crowd louder rather than quieter, sensing an injustice piling on top of another injustice.

Everton pressed hard. Calvert-Lewin won everything in the air he could reach. McNeil attacked every second ball like it mattered more than the scoreline. Doucouré kept running beyond midfield looking for the loose contact.

Mainoo made one crucial defensive intervention when Everton looked certain to get in behind, reading the run early enough to get across and clear it.

Demien did exactly what he’d been asked to do all week — collecting second balls, using his body to escape the physical duels rather than force his way through them, drawing fouls when the contact warranted it, changing the direction of possession whenever Everton’s press threatened to turn the match into pure chaos.

One Everton midfielder charged at him expecting the emotional tempo of the afternoon to win him a loose ball through sheer effort.

Demien turned away from the challenge entirely and sent United down the opposite flank instead.

Everton were creating real pressure, shots stacking up on their side of the ledger even without troubling Onana seriously, and by halftime the game still felt live despite the scoreline.

HALFTIME: EVERTON 0 — 1 MANCHESTER UNITED.

Everton kept pushing after the break, and United finally started punishing the space that aggression left behind.

Around the mid-fifties, Martial attacked the box and went down under a challenge from Ashley Young. The referee checked it, confirmed the penalty.

Rashford scored it.

EVERTON 0 — 2 MANCHESTER UNITEDMarcus Rashford 55’ (pen.)

United controlled the game state completely now, Demien deliberately slowing possession whenever Everton’s chase grew desperate, giving them nothing easy to counter and forcing them to keep committing bodies forward that left space behind on every turnover.

United broke again around the seventy-fifth minute, Bruno releasing Martial, who finished cleanly.

EVERTON 0 — 3 MANCHESTER UNITEDAnthony Martial 75’

No goal or assist for Demien on the day — just ninety minutes of high pass accuracy, several defensive recoveries, more than one pressure escape that kept United’s structure intact, and nothing resembling a real mistake anywhere in his afternoon.

Everton kept trying to the end. Onana held the clean sheet. United managed the closing minutes without incident.

Fweeeeeetttttttt!

FULL TIME: EVERTON 0 — 3 MANCHESTER UNITED.

「MATCH COMPLETE」 「Everton 0 — 3 Manchester United」 「Performance: Strong」 「Result: Win」

By the time United left Goodison, the rest of Matchweek 13 had already finished elsewhere.

Manchester City and Liverpool had drawn 1-1. Arsenal had beaten Brentford 1-0 through a late Havertz winner. Aston Villa had beaten Tottenham 2-1.

PREMIER LEAGUE — AFTER MATCHWEEK 13

Pos

Club

P

W

D

L

GD

Pts

1

Manchester United

13

9

4

0

+17

31

2

Liverpool

13

8

4

1

+17

28

3

Aston Villa

13

9

1

3

+13

28

4

Manchester City

13

8

3

2

+17

27

5

Arsenal

13

8

3

2

+14

27

6

Tottenham

13

7

3

3

+6

24

United were no longer one point clear.

They were three ahead of Liverpool and Villa, four ahead of City and Arsenal.

Still unbeaten.

The coverage that evening shifted its whole framing — no longer asking whether United’s position was a fluke of an early-season table, but whether they were building something that would actually last the distance.

Ten Hag refused to entertain any of it publicly. Thirteen matches. A three-point cushion. Twenty-five games still to play. Nobody sensible called anything decided this early.

Demien understood the maths as well as anyone. But this time, unlike the first table he’d looked at, there was a gap.

That mattered, even if it wasn’t supposed to yet.

Monday, November 27th, brought no celebration.

Everton’s starters went into recovery. Everyone else trained. Demien finished his own physical checks and walked into the analysis room to find the Premier League table already gone from the screen.

A Champions League group table had replaced it.

Then the footage began — Istanbul, Galatasaray’s crowd, Zaha cutting inside, Icardi holding the line, Ziyech drifting between positions, Torreira sitting deep.

United were first in England.

Europe was still unfinished.

Only two Champions League group matches remained, and the first of them mattered enough that Ten Hag wasn’t rushing through it the way he had Malta or North Macedonia.

The room had barely had a day to enjoy being three points clear at the top of the league.

The next problem was already running on the screen in front of them.

GALATASARAY vs MANCHESTER UNITED

WEDNESDAY — ISTANBUL