Manchester United's misery continues with a 4-0 loss to Everton

Reeling Manchester United’s six-week-long slump morphed into a full-blown crisis on Easter Sunday as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side was humiliated, 4-0, at Everton —United’s sixth loss in its last eight games.

The lopsided score line was no fluke. Five days after United was eliminated from Champions League contention with a 3-0 midweek defeat in Barcelona, Everton thoroughly dominated the Red Devils at Goodison Park. The Toffees badly outshot, out-passed, out-possessed and even out-fouled the visitors, who were unable to manage a single shot on target.

Brazilian forward Richarlison de Andrade contorted his body to open the scoring with an impressive goal less than 13 minutes into the match:

Midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson then took advantage of the visitors’ passive defending to double Everton’s advantage before the half-hour mark. Sigurdsson’s long range blast bounced once before beating David de Gea to the near post:

It says plenty about United’s current run of form that even at that early stage of the contest, a comeback like the one the Red Devils produced to upset Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League’s round of 16 seemed impossible. Since that famous 3-1 victory in France last month — one that resulted in Solskjaer’s interim tag being removed and club legend given the manager’s job full-time — the previously streaking club has looked a shadow of itself.

The club’s displays away from Old Trafford has been particularly concerning. Sunday’s loss comes on the heels of defeats at Barca and Arsenal but also Wolverhampton (twice). So it was no real shock when Lucas Digne made it 3-0 just 10 minutes into the second half:

Theo Walcott would complete the rout with more than 25 minutes still to play.

United returns home on Wednesday, but it wont be a walk in the park. City rival Manchester City, coming off its win over Tottenham on Saturday, is now hell-bent on repeating as Premier League champions after Spurs knocked them out of the Champions League in spectacular fashion last week, and a win would make it all but impossible for Liverpool to catch them for the title.

Unless Solskjaer and Co. can somehow rediscover the form they showed in two months after the Norwegian replaced Jose Mourinho in December, Manchester United will likely be staring at yet another defeat.