After 83 minutes of action, the commentators were criticising Manchester United for allowing themselves to get stuck in a precarious position.
Having taken an early leave courtesy of a stunning golazo from right back Antonio Valencia, United took their foot off the accelerator for quite a large portion of the game when they hosted Everton on Sunday afternoon.
1-0 had the Old Trafford faithful nervously biting their nails as they entered the final 10 minutes.
We now know that United scored three goals in the final ten minutes to deliver them their fourth victory of the Premier League season as Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial allowed their supporters to enjoy the rest of the game without any anxiety.
The late surge just so happened to coincide with the substitution of Wayne Rooney, the Everton forward who was making his return to the Theatre of Dreams.
Rooney had a number of efforts at goal but failed to beat David De Gea and it’s been suggested that his former club waited until he was off the pitch before turning up the heat on the visitors.
Very decent of @ManUtd to wait until @WayneRooney left the pitch before demolishing Everton.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) September 17, 2017
Just moments after Rooney was replaced by Kevin Mirallas, United switched on the style and turned a shaky 1-0 lead into a 4-0 rout.
Lineker praised the Red Devils for the respect shown to their ex-captain and top scorer of all time.
But he wasn’t the only one to think of the joke.
Is it just me or did we wait till Rooney was substututed to maul Everton?
— No One (@C00lstan) September 17, 2017
We had to wait for Rooney to out before scoring the last 3 goals so that we won't embarrass our legend #MUFC #MUNEVE #GGMU 🔴🔴🔴🔴
— S.O (@Lorde_seb) September 17, 2017
Nice of Manchester United to wait until Wayne Rooney left the pitch before they ran riot and humiliated Everton. Class.
— Liam Canning (@LiamPaulCanning) September 17, 2017
Awesome for United to wait for Rooney to go off before flogging Everton , Respect!!
— UGO (@ugonnaugo) September 17, 2017
We love and respect Rooney, we had to wait until he off to run riot.
— Baba Kyrah (@Jackso_Zlatan) September 17, 2017
United had to wait for Wayne Rooney to be substituted before they could unleash their top drawer performance
— Leakey Nelson (@ItsLeakeyNelson) September 17, 2017
