Cristiano Ronaldo kept his nerve to nudge United within a point of leaders Arsenal when he stepped up to score a late winner from the penalty spot.

It was Ronaldo's sixteenth goal of the season and his second of the game, having fired the Reds in front midway through the first half when he cut inside to unleash a left-foot rocket past Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard.

The in-form visitors drew level just five minutes after Ronaldo's opener as Tim Cahill firmly headed home Steven Pienaar's left-wing cross, only for the South African to needlessly foul Ryan Giggs with two minutes remaining and give Ronaldo the chance to seal victory.

The result was deserved and hard-fought for a United side bereft of Edwin van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves through injury.

They were replaced by Tomasz Kuszczak, Danny Simpson and Michael Carrick respectively, with Wes Brown moving into the centre of defence and Simpson occupying the right-back berth.

Despite the enforced reshuffle, it was United who settled quicker in a fraught opening. Although the Reds were applying plenty of pressure, the main story of the opening 15 minutes was referee Howard Webb's decision  to dish out four bookings.

Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra entered Webb's notebook for clumsy fouls, while Cahill and Tony Hibbert were both cautioned within a minute for the visitors.

Carlos Tevez then saw a shot deflected wide before Ronaldo opened the scoring