English FA Premiership/ Manchester Utd 0; Everton 0: The last time Manchester United made such a bad start to the season, they went on to win the league.
But even with Wayne Rooney in their midst, it is increasingly difficult - some would say nigh impossible - to see how they can emulate the class of 1993, or even get close.
Sixteen days into the new Premiership campaign Alex Ferguson's team are already seven points behind Arsenal and Chelsea, and the deposed champions were so desperately unimaginative here, so torpid in attack and unaccomplished in midfield, there was nothing to suggest the gap will not become a chasm.
Not only have United won only one of their opening four league games, three of them against teams expected to clutter up the Premiership's lower reaches, they have managed three goals compared with Arsenal's 16.
Rooney's arrival might offer Ferguson an attacking quartet rivalled only by Real Madrid's, but there are so many deficiencies elsewhere in the team the impending £25 million transfer will be regarded at Highbury and Stamford Bridge with only passing interest.
Why, for instance, should Arsenal or Chelsea be fearful when there are tell-tale signs Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are no longer the force they once were, that Mikael Silvestre has brought his wretched Euro 2004 form to Old Trafford and, most tellingly, that ordinary teams such as Everton can now go to the home of England's biggest club believing their opponents to be at their most vulnerable there since Ferguson's early days in office?
Everton might even have made the inquest more painful had the referee Dermot Gallagher punished Silvestre for handling the ball in a congested penalty area rather than awarding the home side a very dubious free-kick, apparently for a push by Duncan Ferguson. David Moyes shook his head sadly as he reflected on Gallagher's decision, but he will be equally aggrieved his attackers did not profit from one of the three occasions Silvestre gave the ball away 30 yards from goal.
This was Everton's first point at Old Trafford since 1996, when a 10-year-old Rooney sat in the away enclosure wearing a Junior Blues T-shirt.
As for Ferguson, the United manager refused, as usual, to share his views with the text media, but his mood was clear when he blanked the club's in-house television and radio stations.
There were few mitigating factors, even if Ferguson could point out they struck the post twice in the second half, through Cristiano Ronaldo and Alan Smith, and that Louis Saha's mistimed header squandered the best opportunity of the first half.
But the near misses did not disguise the fact their performance lacked any fluency. Where were the Manchester United who once backed themselves to outpass any other team in the country?
But perhaps the most alarming aspect for Ferguson was his players did not have the nous to appreciate Alessandro Pistone's shortcomings at left back or Nigel Martyn's hesitance in goal. Moyes said: "They ended up playing long balls, which suited us."
Even the arrival of England's most exciting player cannot lift Mancunian melancholy at the knowledge his first season at the club is unlikely to finish with a championship winner's medal.
Guardian Service
MAN UTD: Howard, Gary Neville, Silvestre, O'Shea, Spector, Fletcher (Giggs 64), Scholes, Kleberson (Djemba-Djemba 64), Ronaldo (Bellion 81), Smith, Saha. Subs Not Used: Phil Neville, Carroll.
EVERTON: Martyn, Hibbert, Weir, Stubbs, Pistone, Osman, Watson, Carsley, Kilbane, Cahill (Naysmith 70), Bent (Ferguson 54). Subs Not Used: Wright, Campbell, McFadden. Booked: Osman, Cahill.
Referee: D Gallagher (Oxfordshire).
