His new celebration may poke fun at his love of a nap but it feels Cristiano Ronaldo’s season is finally waking up.
Many fans feared the 37-year-old had lost that yard of pace that has made him so devastating over the last 20 years and it was the root cause of his lacklustre displays this season.
But when his former Real Madrid mate Casemiro played him through on goal at Everton on Sunday night, there was never any doubt about the outcome.
Cristiano Ronaldo (left) marked his 700th career club goal at Everton with a new celebration that poked fun at his fondness for taking a nap
The Portuguese star looks match sharp again and ready to kick on to help United’s season
Ronaldo’s 700th club goal was a classic of the genre, an emphatic low finish, and it felt in that moment he was back in business.
Those sluggish performances in the early weeks could be ascribed to a disrupted pre-season and now Ronaldo’s season was beginning in earnest.
Rather than performing his hallmark ‘Siu’ celebration at Goodison Park, Ronaldo instead clasped his hands over his chest and closed his eye, pretending he was asleep.
Manchester United’s website explained the new celebration ‘was a self-deprecating in-joke’ about the fact he naps several times a day.
‘CR7’s celebration at Everton was amusingly a nod to the position in which he sleeps when travelling with the squad, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by his team-mates,’ they wrote.
So as United prepare for an Old Trafford double-header – against Omonia Nicosia in the Europa League on Thursday night and Newcastle in the Premier League on Sunday – manager Erik ten Hag has a decision to make.
There seemed to be absolutely no doubt Ronaldo would score when he raced through
The 37-year-old looked far closer to match sharpness than at any stage of the season
Is it time to restore Ronaldo to his first-choice weekend XI or keep him among Ten Hag’s Thursday nighters?
It feels like an important call that will signal what happens with the Portuguese star in the months ahead.
Ten Hag dropped Ronaldo to the bench for Premier League games after the 4-0 humiliation at Brentford in August and there he has remained.
But when Anthony Martial went off injured at Everton, he wasted little time in issuing a reminder that class is permanent with that landmark goal.
All the while Ronaldo has been starting United’s Thursday night Europa League games and picked up his first of the season from the penalty spot away to Sheriff Tiraspol in Moldova.
But such a world-class player was never likely to be satisfied with only that and his frustration was only too evident in last week’s unconvincing win over Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus.
It had been a frustrating season to date for Ronaldo, forced to warm the bench for United
But Anthony Martial’s unfortunate injury at Goodison Park presented an opportunity he took
Though Ronaldo teed up Marcus Rashford for what proved to be a crucial third goal for United, he also stuck the post with the type of sitter you’d back him to put away 99 times out of 100.
Ten Hag acknowledged that Ronaldo was ‘p***ed off’ with sitting on the bench for the bigger games and it didn’t take long for fresh speculation to materialise about a January move away.
So with Martial sidelined for the time being, the teamsheets that drop at around 6.30pm on Thursday night will be instructive.
If Ronaldo is named among the substitutes, it suggests Ten Hag will start him against Newcastle and he’s won his place back in the strongest XI.
But if Ronaldo is in the starting line-up to play Omonia, it could be more of the same frustration. It’s quite unlikely that, at 37, he’ll be playing twice in the space of three days.
If he can’t reclaim the centre-forward position with Martial out injured, it really doesn’t bode well for the longevity of Ronaldo’s Old Trafford career.
There will be further speculation about how much he truly desires to be at a club where he isn’t even involved in the biggest matches.
But if he does start against Newcastle, who will offer United a stern test, then Ronaldo can kick on and work towards replicating his return of 24 goals last season.
Ten Hag’s team selection for Thursday’s match against Omonia Nicosia will be instructive
Ronaldo has cut a frustrated figure at times in the early weeks of the season
He will also be much sharper for Portugal when the World Cup rolls around next month.
You have to feel sympathy for Martial. A United outcast last season, he worked incredibly hard in pre-season and rediscovered his scoring touch, only to be afflicted by an achilles injury.
Only just back to fitness, he scored two consolation goals in the 6-3 drubbing by Manchester City and took his goal nicely against Omonia last week, only to then suffer another setback.
It’s also true that Rashford, who looks a lot more confident since Ten Hag came in, could play up top but he also has the versatility to play out wide and accommodate Ronaldo.
With £85million summer signing Antony also hitting the ground running, United have the makings of a very effective forward line, especially on the counter.
Martial scored a well-taken goal against Omonia in Cyprus last week before his injury
Rashford celebrates with Ronaldo after scoring in the 3-2 win in Nicosia last Thursday
Rashford and Martial are younger and can handle the rigours of playing Thursday and then Sunday, meaning a back-in-form Ronaldo can be saved for weekends.
Beat Omonia this Thursday and then Sheriff at home on October 27 and United will be safely through to the Europa League knockouts with a game to spare anyway.
If Ronaldo is now back to optimal match fitness – and it certainly looked that way at Everton – he deserves a run of Premier League games.
For all the negativity after the Manchester derby, United aren’t doing at all badly. They’re fifth in the table and look improved in so many ways to last season.
But they have Newcastle, Tottenham and Chelsea coming up next, matches they need to be winning in order to seriously challenge for the top four.
Ronaldo, naturally, will want to have a say in that.
