Manchester United held off Everton's strong challenge to win 1-0 Saturday and move on from its derby-day humiliation against Manchester City.
Javier Hernandez's close-range finish in the 19th minute was enough to earn the Premier League champions their first victory at Goodison Park since 2007.
Alex Ferguson's side kept up the pressure on Manchester City at the top of the league and also went some way to erasing the memory of the 6-1 humiliation a week ago.
''It's an important result to come away from home and win,'' Ferguson said. ''Everton is never an easy game and they put everything they could into the game. In the first half we played some fantastic football and scored a good goal. We have worked hard for this result. It was what we wanted and we battled hard for this. The goal was a brilliant goal by Hernandez, he did what he does best.''
If Ferguson was looking for a response from his players, in the wake of the heaviest loss of his long rule at Old Trafford, then he got that here.
The Manchester United manager's decision to make wholesale changes paid off, with the recalled Hernandez scoring the early winner.
The Mexican finished off a well-worked four-man move to tap in Patrice Evra's cross at the far post for his fourth goal of the season.
United appeared headed for a comfortable victory but, despite controlling large periods, its inability to finish off Everton kept the game competitive.
Everton, who lost in a League Cup tie against Chelsea that went into extra time less than 72 hours ago, looked sluggish at times as United dominated without ever really testing home goalkeeper Tim Howard.
But Everton grew in confidence as Leon Osman drove straight at goalkeeper David De Gea in the 38th before Jack Rodwell could only shoot wide when well placed less than 60 seconds later.
Chances continued to fall for Everton, with Leighton Baines coming the closest to an equaliser as his 41st minute free kick bounced back off the crossbar and to safety.
Within minutes of the restart Rodwell had forced De Gea into another smart save from his 25-meter (yard) shot.
Manchester United was content to soak up the pressure and a swift counterattack saw Danny Welbeck's shot sting the finger tips of Howard on the hour mark.
But while the visitors were forced to defend deeper and deeper, they survived few scares late with Louis Saha's wayward shot the closest Everton came to snatching a point.
Ferguson said fit-again captain Nemanja Vidic could prove critical during the next few months after recovering from a calf strain.
''It was a fantastic performance by Vidic,'' Ferguson said. ''Every ball that came into our box he got clear and that's his speciality ... The fact there have been so many chances against us recently, we had to reduce that if we are going to win the league. It was no coincidence we didn't have any problems here.''
Everton manager David Moyes insisted his players deserved more reward.
''I think we were unlucky not to get a point,'' Moyes said. ''We can take confidence from the way we played here and against Chelsea in midweek. We've had a tough run of games, but we have done a good job. Manchester United were resilient and deserve credit for that and it just wasn't to be.''
