London, Aug 21 (IANS): Marouane Fellaini towered over Michael Carrick to nod home a corner kick to stun Manchester United and steer Everton to a 1-0 victory in their opening match of the English Premier League football season at Goodison Park.

The 57th minute goal Monday night proved an inauspicious start for United, who narrowly missed extending their record to a 20th title last season by Manchester City on goal difference.

"I don't think anybody considered Everton tonight at all, a lot of people forgot we aren't a bad team, and Goodison is a difficult place to come and win."

It was the only the fourth time in 21 meetings that United were beaten at Goodison Park and for the first time in a league opener since 2004.

United boss Alex Ferguson sent in Robin Van Persie, who left Arsenal to sign with him Friday, only as a 68th-minute substitute.

Ferguson felt United had a good game, though said David de Gea had quite some work to do in the goal.

"It was a pretty good game and there wasn't anything between the two teams," adding "we were the better team, they had eight shots on target and David de Gea did very well for us in that way. But we had the possession and made some great openings without actually finishing it.

"We were a wee bit disappointed in terms of finishing off the approach play we had. We played around Robin too much, we didn't show enough penetration."