Good riddance: Finally, the axe falls on Rio

NONE of you will have been too surprised by the way Goodison turned out, I daresay: after an apocalypse like City, defensive caution and an overall sense of non-event were only to be expected.

Only two features are even worth noting, in fact: the oh-so-welcome return of Cleverley, and the omission of Rio, of which more later.

Before kick-off, Fergie had allowed one more comment to be extracted from him about City: “We can analyse it as much as you want but it won’t do us any good. My attitude is to completely forget it – it never happened. It won’t do us any good looking back on that game.”