LONDON, Sept 19: When Romelu Lukaku slotted the ball into the Everton net, the Manchester United striker had no intention of holding back on the celebrations.

Far from it. Especially after being jeered during Sunday’s Premier League game by the Everton fans who revered him before an offseason transfer across northern England. The Belgian, who cost 75 million pounds (then $97 million), cupped his right ear to those supporters.

“The celebration was just a bit of banter,” Lukaku said after scoring the third goal in a 4-0 drubbing of Everton. “I missed the free kick and they jeered me but I scored the rebound.”

It compounded the miserable run for his former club. It’s now four consecutive losses in all competitions, three in the league, with Everton conceding 12 goals without reply in the process.

So early in the season, it’s looking bleak for Ronald Koeman’s side which demonstrated such ambition in the summer when it spent 140 million pounds ($190 million) on talent. That doesn’t even take into account the free transfer of former United captain Wayne Rooney, who experienced a depressing return to Old Trafford on the pitch.

At least he received a warm reception, perhaps out of sympathy for the predicament he’s facing at his new team. The poor run of form started with a 2-0 loss last month to Chelsea, which was held 0-0 by Arsenal in Sunday’s other game.

UNITED GOAL FLURRY

Only alphabetical order is separating Manchester United and neighbor City at the top of the standings. After five games they have identical records. It is 4 wins and a draw each. Both have scored 16 times and only conceded twice.

Yet it was only Antonio Valencia’s half-volley in the fourth minute separating United and Everton until the 83rd minute when Henrikh Mkhitaryan slotted in a second. Lukaku struck in the 89th minute and a handball by Morgan Schneiderlin allowed Anthony Martial to slot in a penalty in the second minute of stoppage time.

At the end of a week when fellow Dutchman Frank de Boer lost his job after only four games at Crystal Palace, Koeman is feeling the heat at Everton.

“We need to win, if you don’t win then it is better to stop,” Koeman said. “Every manager in life has doubts. There is nobody who doesn’t have doubts as a manager. And if you don’t win you know you have a big number of players in your squad, and you have doubts about what system to play. This is normal. Of course I ask myself the question ‘Why?’ Why?”

It’s time, though to be “realistic,” according to the former Southampton manager in his second season at Everton.

“Fans, press, we need time,” Koeman said. “But it is difficult in football.”

Not so for United, which has won its three home matches and scored 12 goals without conceding.

RED MIST FOR BLUES

For the fifth time in eight matches, Chelsea had a player sent off. But David Luiz’s dismissal in the 87th minute for a high, sliding challenge on Sead Kolasinac came too late for Arsenal to produce a winner.

Still, a draw against the champions gave Arsenal its first point at Stamford Bridge in six years and provided a psychological reset after losses to Stoke and Liverpool in its last two away games.

“There was a battle all over the pitch and we responded well in domains where we were questioned,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “I like it when the team shows that kind of response. So overall I feel it’s a deserved point and with a bit more freedom and less inhibition I feel we could have won this game with one or two goals difference.

“Overall, first it was important at least not to lose today and you could feel that in the team. In the last 20 minutes we played with that in our minds.” –AP

LONDON, July 10: Wayne Rooney no longer has to hide his nighttime secret.

Although the striker left Everton in 2004 in pursuit of glory with Manchester United, the affection for his boyhood club never truly diminished — even while winning every major honor in European soccer with United and becoming the all-time leading scorer for English soccer’s biggest club.

A reunion with Everton was mooted for years and it finally came on Sunday. The 31-year-old Rooney completed an emotional return across northwest England by signing a two-year contract at Goodison Park.

“I’ve kept it quiet for the last 13 years,” Rooney said, “but I’ve actually been wearing Everton pyjamas at home with my kids. I had to keep that a bit quiet.

“It’s a great feeling to be back. I’m excited, I cannot wait to meet the lads, get on the training pitch and then get on the pitch to play. I’m ecstatic.”

Rooney always maintained that Everton was the only other Premier League club he could contemplate playing for after United.

Everton, though, is not welcoming back a player as energetic and dangerous in front as goal as the precocious teenager who left in 2004. In the twilight of his career, Rooney is only available after dropping out of both the United and England teams he captained.

Rooney’s hunger for the game, however, has never diminished. And after having to accept a reduced status over the last year for club and country, a return to Everton signals a fresh start. It could even help Rooney regain his England place in time for the World Cup next June and extend his England goal record of 53.

Rooney will now be a central figure once again in an Everton team that is looking to break the Premier League’s elite under coach Ronald Koeman.

“I have come back to Everton because I believe Ronald Koeman is building a team that can win something,” Rooney said, “and I look forward to playing my part in making that a reality for the club I have supported since a boy.”

Everton is on the verge of selling Romelu Lukaku to United but has signed goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, center back Michael Keane, midfielder Davy Klaassen and striker Sandro Ramirez this offseason.

Everton’s majority shareholder since February 2016, Iranian-British businessman Farhad Moshiri, wants to take the team higher than last season’s sixth place. Silverware is the target for a club whose last major trophy came with the 1995 FA Cup and won the ninth of its topflight titles in 1987.

“Wayne has shown me that ambition that we need and that winning mentality,” Koeman said. “He knows how to win titles and I’m really happy he’s decided to come home. He loves Everton and he was desperate to come back. He is still only 31 and I don’t have any doubts about his qualities. It’s fantastic he’s here.”

Rooney scored a record 253 goals for United after moving from Everton for 27 million pounds as an 18-year-old in 2004, winning the Premier League title five times, the FA Cup once, the League Cup three times, the Champions League once and the Europa League last season.

“Thirteen years ago I went to United with the intention of winning trophies,” Rooney said, “and I have been fortunate to be a part of one of the most successful periods in the club’s history.”

In Rooney’s final season — Jose Mourinho’s first in charge — the United captain only started 15 league games.

“He has been a model professional throughout his time at the club and will remain in the history books for many years to come,” Mourinho said. “It is never easy to see a great player playing less football than he would like and I could not stand in his way when he asked to go back to Everton. His experience, focus and determination will be missed and I wish him well for the future.”

Rooney did not quite reach the heights expected of him when he was arguably at the top of his game in the 2009-10 season, at that time playing at a level comparable to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Rooney’s spell at United was also tarnished among sections of fans when he sought to leave the club in 2010 and again at the end of the 2012-13 season, clashing with then-manager Alex Ferguson both times.

Rooney was convinced to stay in 2013 by Ferguson’s immediate successor, David Moyes, at a time when the forward was still in big demand. Rooney departs United as a peripheral figure but he will still go down as one of the club’s greatest players of the modern era. And he has a chance now to cement his status in Everton folklore.

“(Goodison) has always been a special place, even when I’ve been on the opposing team,” Rooney said. “You always get that feeling when you walk out of the tunnel so to actually do it again in an Everton shirt will be a special moment for me.”