Rooney did not even travel to Goodison Park as manager Sir Alex Ferguson, on the occasion of his 700th Premier League match, claimed he wanted to protect the 24-year-old from abuse from the fans with whom he used to be a favourite.
The disruption appeared to affect his team-mates early on as they fell behind to a Steven Pienaar goal but Darren Fletcher, Nemanja Vidic and Dimitar Berbatov put United well ahead before the Toffees' stunning late comeback through Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta.
Ferguson has overseen plenty of player controversies during his lengthy tenure at Old Trafford, dealing with the likes of David Beckham's celebrity lifestyle and Roy Keane's unique brand of criticism.
Rousing
However, leaving out a player to protect him from opposition fans is unprecedented and surely unlikely to be repeated.
Whether it affected the overall result is open to debate but when the England international next appears, likely to be in Tuesday's Champions League clash against Rangers he will get nothing less than a rousing Old Trafford reception.
Rooney's absence seemed to affect United more than they expected as, for the first 15 minutes, they found themselves under constant pressure.
Arteta's sixth-minute free-kick was tipped over by Edwin van der Sar, although referee Martin Atkinson did not spot the goalkeeper's touch.
The Spaniard had another shot deflected behind by Jonny Evans, Pienaar saw his shot from the Spaniard's corner blocked and Leon Osman blazed over all in the same passage of play.
Ferguson was less than happy and was soon prowling his technical area barking orders at the players.
John O'Shea's response was a blistering drive from the left angle of the penalty area which grazed the outside of Tim Howard's left-hand post.
Everton's pressure, albeit slightly less intense, continued while Nani was off the field having a cut lip tended with Cahill, Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines all failed to trouble the goalkeeper with half-chances.
There was always the danger their failure to capitalise on possession would leave the way open for United to nick a goal and they almost did in the 34th minute.
Caught
Tony Hibbert's foul on Ryan Giggs, despite winning the ball, saw Nani roll the free-kick to Paul Scholes and his powerful drive took a big deflection off Cahill but Howard, diving in the opposite direction, somehow diverted the ball over with his foot.
Four minutes later the American goalkeeper stuck up a hand to palm away Giggs' close-range shot after United counter-attacked.
But the visitors were caught cold themselves when Patrice Evra missed an ambitious overhead-kick clearance to put Arteta charging through on goal and although he shot straight at Van der Sar, Leon Osman turned the rebound to Pienaar at the far post who rolled home.
Two minutes before half-time, however, Nani's cross was diverted home by Fletcher and Berbatov's volley almost put them ahead in added time.
It was apparent at the start of the second half Everton were in for a tougher test and it took just three minutes for that to become a reality.
Nani's corner from Berbatov's deflected shot was only half-cleared and when Scholes returned the ball to the Portugal international wide on the right he swung over a cross for an unmarked Vidic to head in from five yards.
It at least provoked a reaction from Everton and Pienaar's curling 20-yard shot was held by Van der Sar at the second attempt.
But United were where they like to be, in control and able to counter-attack, and one rapid foray forward saw Howard deny Nani low to his right.
He got nowhere near the next one in the 66th minute, which owed everything to the brilliance of Scholes and Berbatov.
The former England international's raking pass picked out the Bulgarian wide on the right and his first touch brilliantly took him clear of Sylvain Distin.
With acres of space to run into the languid striker took five or six paces before lashing an early shot into the bottom corner, taking Howard by surprise.
Baines curled a free-kick into the side-netting and as Osman hit a woefully-weak shot at Van der Sar as the hosts tried to find a way back but, as has been the case in their previous matches, they lacked a cutting edge.
However, in a dramatic finish Cahill headed home in injury-time before Arteta's deflected strike snatched an unlikely point. Tweet
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i would love some-one to come on here and tell me this team is good enough to win anything appart from the hopless cup? or this team doessnt need strengtening or that this midfield is the best in europe? or tell me fergie knows what he's doing?
what is neville doing on a football pitch? this guy was finished 4 years ago! what is o'shea doing in midfield? or even at this club for that matter? sorry fergie has lost the plot and if he carrys on with his team selections and his no value in the market rubbish then he should leave and let a younger manager (mourinho) to take over the team.
club has become a family&friends play ground for fergie, and he's having problem letting it go.
chelsea will walk the league this year mark my words.
In the space of a month United have cost me two new televisions! I can't afford any more lost points in injury time.
i would love some-one to come on here and tell me this team is good enough to win anything appart from the hopless cup? or this team doessnt need strengtening or that this midfield is the best in europe? or tell me fergie knows what he's doing?
what is neville doing on a football pitch? this guy was finished 4 years ago! what is o'shea doing in midfield? or even at this club for that matter? sorry fergie has lost the plot and if he carrys on with his team selections and his no value in the market rubbish then he should leave and let a younger manager (mourinho) to take over the team.
the club has become a family&friends play ground for fergie, and he's having problem letting it go.
chelsea will walk the league this year mark my words.r comment here...
Early days yet but what a match,I was only saying at 90 minutes how Everton could`nt finish.
Never could keep me mouth shut.
Fergie really showed his prowess as a manager and coach today. All them old men out there playing the full 90 plus minutes? Four points now dropped in added on time. What a clown.
poor this would not happen couple years ago we can kiss goodbye to the league cant through away points like we did today and against fulham whays going on no leadership on the pitch fergie not getting his subs right ? we need to bulk up are ideas or we wont make top four we got liverpooh next week if we dont win that it over i reckon torres loves to score against us i think evans and ohsea try hard but not good enoght sad to say . well unhappy so poor fergie needs to get his finger out .
That is the first time I have seen us play this year through being on holiday. I was quite shocked if I am honest at how bad we were at times. Some of the decisions in front of goal by us, well.
Fair play to Everton for keeping going and they deserved the point, probably a bit more. Got a taste of our own medicine today, which is okay. Just not good enough at the moment, however there were a lot of plus points, and after all it is early doors!
Furious - absolutely furious - the lot want sacking !
not good inuf to win enithing this year.......
big reconstruction must hapen....
Shocking, shocking, shocking......
For the second away game in a row we again surrendered 2pts from a winning position meekly. Everton away is a tough game but our record there speaks for itself, we can trot out a point gained at fulham and everton are a pt gained from last season, but do we really believe that chelsea are going to be beat 6 times again this season,it's now our teams turn dealing with the personal issues this season so far as well.
Fergie is the best manager ever but he's kidding hiself with the strength in depth in our squad, starting a game with scholes,neville,giggs and vds away from home (all great players, but should all be technically bit part players in the late stages of there careers), o'shea in MIDFIELD, if this doesn't highlight our problems nothing else does.
And the bench was awful two untried players,one who is permanatly injured, and the rest of the back up incapable of ever changing a game.
The team played okay but defensively was awful, evans again was bullied out the game,fletcher goal apart was non excistent,o'shea didnt even know he was on the pitch bar his shot. Chelsea 1-0 up already so thats a 5pt gap already.
Early days I know but frustrating viewing and for the 2nd season no improvements to the team being made, what excuses will we have next season to recruitment when we realistacally have to replace owen,hargreaves,vds,giggs,scholes,neville,brown and probably anderson, are we just going to drift in all the youngsters at once on little playing time, worrying times ahead, though didnt give us much of a chance last season if being honest and we almost reached previous heights.
well done to everton on there fight back, the first half united didn't really play that well, but the second half was a much better performance apart from the 2 goals in the last few minutes but that's what happens in football, all we have to do now is go into tuesdays champions league game win that then start thinking about upping the performace against liverpool. It's also nice to see why we paid all that money for berbatov.
With the patheic side Fergie put out it was well expected United failed as usual to do waht Chelsea do and that is once they have the advantage they increase the pace of the game and hammer their opponents unlike United who soft pedal thats down to Fergie his poor tactics and his poor team selection.
Rooney should have played in midfield today with three up front so what does he do drops the wife betrayer and puts a donkey in midfield.United will never catch Chelsea he has blown it already bring back the babes !
Yup, this one is two points dropped. Especially when for 88 minutes we outclassed Everton. Ultimately, we were done in by what to me has been apparent since the Community Shield; weakness in central defence, inability to deal with balls played in from the wings.
A real positive was the display up front. Berbatov is really beginning to turn things around. Hope we put this behind us with a good, commanding display against Rangers and Liverpool.
Ridiculous team selection from SAF. Everton were all over us in the first half, O'Shea was non existent and we were very very lucky to be even at half time. Then having gone 3-1 up with the average age on the pitch at 30+ where the hell were the fresh legs when Scholes and Giggs were obviously finished at the 55min mark. At that point speed on the break was the thing. Instead when Everton started obviously to gte on top late in the game, leave those people on ......... ridiculousI am beginning to agree with Danny.
I said it once and I will say it again, Evans is not the center back for United. Once again he did not win a header all day. Opposing teams target him for a reason and it is tell SAF gave up on the battle in to making him a main stay in the side. Just another poor performance by him. Other than the slack late defending like what I say even though we rode our luck at times. SAF cannot be happy with that defending.
Complete cop out not playing Rooney today. If he did not play because of the crap about his private life then he is a very poor professional.
2 away games 5 conceded. can anyone truly say they have a clue who will play and in what formation from week to week? never get a solid defensive unit with this random and bizarre selection process. when everton scored 2nd phelan sat there shaking his burnley barm. he should be up on his feet organising.this guy was sacked by stockportfor having no initiative or personality. it is beyond beleif that he is stealing a living as uniteds coach. fergie said at start of season united are all about young players. what??? bring back querioz or we are in freefall. anyone who cannott understand how badly organised this team is dont waste your time watching football.
Leaving Rooney out was a ridiculous decision. Is SAF going to leave him out for all the away games this season? If he thinks Goodison Park will be any different than Anfield, Wastelands or The Emirates he is fooling himself.
I know it's only 4 games in, but we have already dropped 4 points - this season isn't going to get any easier & regardless of our 'new' players our squad is no stronger than last year. Giggs & Scholes cannot play week in week out & I don't think they have enough left to play a full 90 minutes, the question is - does SAF know that? If anyone has the answer please let me know why Gary Neville is still playing.
off F should have taken Oshea and Nivelle out in the last 15 min after Everton went from 5 in the middle to 4 and he should have sent Rafeal(could not get red carded in 15 min, could he?) and Gibson in, we simply could not track back anymore and could have exploited Everton more. He will also come to regret not Rio to start and not having Hernandes on the bench, our bench was very defensive. Having said all of that, i still think its not that bad
after all, we dropped all points against Fulham and Everton last season !..
unbelievable.
i'm still in a state of shock!!!!
this is horrendous and reminds me of losing 2 pts at anfield years ago when fat ruddock got the equaliser for the scousers.
its going to be a long long season me thinks.
Fergie get the chequebook out in January.
I guess I have calmed down now. Complete lack of focus marred a decent performance away from home. Hard to believe we gave away 2 goals in injury time. That twice this year already, it's time to drop the guilty parties.
you have to question the great man fergie his team selection had defeat written all over it i was surprised they managed to get get 3 1 ahead, but then to take evra off was a big mistake no one should lose that lead with two mins to go its disgusting shows that united are so very weak and vunerable not helped by fergies team selection and mad changes,oshea in midfield neville fergie carries on like that we are doomed but even so they should of held on to 3 2 at least think its early days but tonite we will be four points a drift with Liverpool to come next and another stupid team selection by fergie and bad decision making during that game will seal our downfall to the scousers, cant see united doing much this season top six maybe if there lucky credit to berba tho great goal
I AM ASHAMED FOR THIS TEAM
When I heard the team I thought we'd be lucky to get a point, suprised to be winning, not really suprised we let it slip after wasting too many chances.
Think Fergie needs to have the talk with some & stop selecting them.