Маркус Рэшфорд Манчестер Юнайтед дахь хуучин шилдэг формдоо эргэн ирж байна уу

It was a moment to get you off your seat and provoke a flicker of a thought: is Marcus Rashford really back?

It had been 20 months between Rashford’s 426th appearance for Manchester United and his 427th, but you’d have to rewind further in his career at Old Trafford to find an expression of his talent such as he displayed in the 21st minute of their game against Everton on Sunday.

It was then that he received a floated pass from Bryan Mbeumo out on the left.

Rashford controlled the ball instantly with the outside of his right boot, then in one motion touched it again to glide past Merlin Rohl, leaving the Everton right-back grasping at his shirt. Rashford drew Rohl in, so he could move beyond him before the German had time to think about doing any proper defending.

He then had the calmness of mind to place his cutback into a dangerous area. Diogo Dalot (No 2, near the penalty spot below) missed the initial shot before Matheus Cunha arrived in the right place — having run from deep, as you can see at the bottom of the same picture — to send his effort over the crossbar.

It felt like a return of the Rashford who blitzed 30 goals across all competitions in the 2022-23 season, a player who could bully opponents with his skill and speed.

That guy wasn’t seen as often in the following season, albeit he scored a stunner away to Manchester City in March 2024 and then pulled off a sharp finish against Liverpool in the sensational 4-3 FA Cup win a couple of weeks later. His pass to Alejandro Garnacho in the build-up to Kobbie Mainoo’s winning goal in the all-Manchester FA Cup final was sumptuous, too.

But by that December, amid faltering form, he was gone; at that stage, it felt like, never to return. He was loaned first to Aston Villa until the following summer, then Barcelona for all of last season.

Circumstances have shifted, so he is back in the red of United. But more than that, he looks revitalised.

That move at Hill Dickinson Stadium crystallised two characteristics from his start to his season.

The dribble past Rohl was one of six he has completed after three appearances, putting him behind only five other players in the Premier League — Tottenham Hotspur’s Mathys Tel (10) and his team-mate Omar Marmoush (seven), Ipswich Town pair Julio Enciso and Abdul Fatawu and Everton’s Tyrique George (all seven).

The chance was one of eight he has created, which only three players in the division can better — Morgan Rogers of Chelsea, City’s Rayan Cherki (both 10) and Nottingham Forest’s James McAtee (nine). He is level with his United captain Bruno Fernandes — a creator of extraordinary frequency — for that metric, despite only coming on at half-time of the opening match at Hull City.

Rashford has not yet registered a goal or an assist, and three games is a small sample size to make a judgement. But the confidence and thoughtfulness with which he is playing suggest the form that saw him scoring so freely four seasons ago is within him still. Certainly, as shown by his dribbling success, he has retained, at age 28, his acceleration.

He enjoyed himself against Everton, in the 36th minute doing to Vitalii Mykolenko what he had done to Rohl earlier.

Mykolenko was filling in as the right-back because of a move Rashford started. It was his well-weighted pass down the line to Cunha — again with the outside of his right boot — that forced Brennan Johnson into a foul on the Brazilian just outside the penalty area.

From that Fernandes free kick, Everton were forced into forming a reshuffled back four when the ball broke a minute or so later, allowing Rashford to size up Mykolenko, a man far away from his given spot at left-back.

Rashford enticed the Ukrainian, then drove past him on the outside, further beating Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the area, forcing James Tarkowski to slide in to concede a corner.

In the second half, Rashford beat Rohl to fire in a left-foot cross that was blocked by Harrison Armstrong and then, after gaining possession from a Luke Shaw pass through a crowd of players, drove between James Garner and Tarkowski with quick feet to backheel the ball to Cunha in the six-yard box. Tarkowski slid in from behind to stop a certain goal, with United’s penalty appeals waved away.

Neither of those movements were recorded as dribbles by Opta, but his final flourish past Rohl in the 64th minute did get classed as one. Rashford’s smooth shimmy, going inside this time, bamboozled his opponent, who had to pull him down, earning a booking.

The point is Rashford’s dribbles have not been ornamental. They have served a purpose.

Against Ipswich a week earlier, his nutmeg to get past Marcelino Nunez, after collecting a high ball, allowed him to fire in a shot that was on target but got deflected into Kjell Scherpen’s hands. Later, he pulled off a dragback in the box that put Darnell Furlong on the floor. Only desperate defending snuffed out another shooting chance.

After coming on in Hull, he sprinted past Cody Drameh before checking back to avoid the sliding block, dancing away from his opponent to pick out Mainoo for an effort that was blocked.

Another key element to Rashford’s return has been his understanding with Shaw. The pair had played 213 matches together, dating back to the 2016-17 season, before this campaign kicked off, and in their three games since they have shown a connection that has given United one of their best routes to unlocking defences.

At Everton, this was shown in the eighth minute, when Rashford received from Shaw, who then took off down the inside channel behind Rohl and Johnson. Rashford controlled the ball with his left foot, waited, then released it with his right at the perfect moment to put Shaw in space.

His cross found Mbeumo, whose header back into the middle was volleyed against the bar by Fernandes.

Rashford and Shaw have passed to each other 57 times this season, the second-highest total among all United’s players. They are only behind Fernandes and Youri Tielemans (59), who have spent 59 more minutes on the pitch together.

Often, Rashford’s passes have been penetrating. He has made five progressive passes (these are defined by Opta as a completed pass in the attacking two-thirds of the pitch that moves the ball at least 25 per cent closer to goal) to Shaw. Shaw has also made five to Rashford.

Only three other players have made more progressive passes to a team-mate in the Premier League after the opening three rounds of games – Crystal Palace’s Anan Khalaili to Jorgen Strand Larsen, Antonee Robinson of Fulham to Gonzalo Garcia (both seven) and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk to Cody Gakpo (six). No other United team-mates match the five each by Rashford and Shaw.

This pass map shows the dangerous positions Rashford has put Shaw into with the ball (yellow arrows) — three are in the box and two are on the edge of it. Those actions demonstrate trust and timing.

It is only three games so far, but the signs are encouraging for Rashford with the ball at his feet, in more ways than one.