Henrikh Mkhitaryan finally makes case as a Manchester United player | Jamie Jackson

Armenia’s captain had not started a league game in almost three months but his performance against Everton shows he deserves more first-team action

Despite performing against Feyenoord and West Ham United, this was the big audition Henrikh Mkhitaryan dare not fluff. Not after what happened in his previous and only Premier League start for Manchester United. Then, José Mourinho named Armenia’s captain in the XI for the derby on 10 September and with Manchester City leading 2-1 at half‑time the manager substituted him and failed to provide him with even an appearance from the bench in the ensuing nine league matches.

Those starts against Feyenoord and West Ham were in the Europa League and EFL Cup respectively, and given the way Mkhitaryan was dropped the 27-year-old may have wondered when another chance in the league would arrive if he disappointed in this game.

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Mkhitaryan had certainly become a finer footballer in his absence from the side, with fans insisting he would have stopped the stuttering form that has caused four consecutive draws at Old Trafford (five in total) and only one win, at Swansea City, since September.

When discussing Mkhitaryan’s selection before the game, Mourinho was in gnomic form. “We are playing so well,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who is playing. I just feel that maybe they are more adapted to the characteristics of this game. Everybody’s playing well. [Juan] Mata, [Anthony] Martial. It’s about the characteristics of the game. I think [Anthony] Martial and Mkhitaryan are faster, transporting the ball into attacking areas and attacking spaces behind defences, so that’s it.”

United began this match 10 points from the Champions League places, a direct result of the lack of matchwinners who might have ensured all three were taken in some of those five draws. In this sense Mkhitaryan was United’s great unknown: a player yet to be given a chance and who, as the Bundesliga footballer of the year and with an eye for goal, might provide a much-needed x-factor after what has been a middling campaign.

If he was to do so against Ronald Koeman’s eighth-placed Everton there was scant sign as the half-hour mark passed. Lining up on the right of a 4‑2‑3‑1, Mkhitaryan won a free-kick, perhaps luckily, when barging into Ramiro Funes Mori, and that was about it. Until then he had been peripheral but in this misfiring team that was hardly his fault. The United on show during the first half was the one which is leaden-footed and without spark: a team short on ideas and which belies the supposed sparkling talents possessed by Paul Pogba, Martial, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and, indeed, Mkhitaryan.

This was the latest outing in which Pogba started as the No10 yet when Mkhitaryan started to drift inside in search of action, there were flashes of the dimension he can add. Twice he zipped a pass off then raced along an inside channel and threatened to open up Everton.

Given what happened against City, Ibrahimovic’s lobbed finish over the onrushing and hapless Maarten Stekelenburg as half-time neared would have improved Mourinho’s mood and surely Mkhitaryan’s hopes of emerging for the second half.

The truth was that after the barnstorming 4-3 between Bournemouth and Liverpool earlier in the day, United and Everton had come close to stinking Goodison Park out before the Swede’s opener.

But if he awaited the dreaded hook from the manager it never arrived and so out trotted Mkhitaryan after the interval and he was to prove far more effective. To begin with there was more of the wandering-around stuff, twice moving across to the left wing to initiate attacks and he even briefly took up the centre-forward position. The fluidity of movement here indicated how the former Borussia Dortmund man was settling more and more into the side’s pattern of play.

United were operating far better now and so was Mkhitaryan. When he received the ball along his right corridor there was a turn of speed and menace that Tom Cleverley scrambled do deal with – in the end he was forced to hack Mkhitaryan down as he skated past.

This, at last, was the form shown in pre‑season and in those starts in the cup competitions. From United’s quickest break Mkhitaryan twisted and turned and then shot: he was unfortunate to see the effort deflected away by Séamus Coleman to safety. It is a stretch to say he had become United’s best performer but the forward had become a consistent threat and there was some surprise when he was replaced on 84 minutes.

This was for Marouane Fellaini, who became United’s villain by giving away the penalty from which Leighton Baines equalised.

Another truism of the game is that attack is the best way to defend and Mkhitaryan was providing a consistent outlet for United each time they took hold of the ball and found him.

Why, then, Mourinho took him off was a mystery, though the manager did offer this: “When you have a player on the bench, with two metres, to play in front of the defensive line to win the match, [you do it].” It means Mkhitaryan is yet to complete 90 minutes in eight run-outs for United. On this showing, that may soon come.

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