Manchester City have had to wait 52 days to remind themselves what it is like to look down on the rest of the Premier League and, having played that game of catchup for so long, it is fair to assume they must be happily enjoying the view from the top. True, Liverpool have a game in hand to add into the equation. Yet City are entitled to feel invigorated when there was a seven-point deficit at one point and the possibility, as Pep Guardiola has acknowledged, that the champions looked done.
Only a small possibility, mind, and more fool anyone for believing that a team with City’s assorted gifts would relinquish their title without a heck of a struggle. City look primed for battle and their latest triumph was precisely the kind of victory, to borrow the old cliche, that every successful team requires in a championship season. Not at their most fluent, perhaps, but talented enough for that not to matter, scoring in the final seconds of the first period and then repeating the trick in the second half.
Nerves? City, like Liverpool, have not been immune recently but there was nothing fretful about this performance and that, more than anything, must worry the team who are now second in the league.
There are times when City blitz their opponents, when they attack from every angle and just about everything clicks. This was another type of victory and, if we were to be generous, an improvement for Everton bearing in mind in the corresponding match last season the away side had 82% of the possession. This time the split was a relatively moderate 61-39 in City’s favour and for a long time it looked as though they might win through a set-play goal off the head of one of their defenders.
City could not relax properly until the second goal arrived via Gabriel Jesus, one of their substitutes. That was not until the seventh minute of added time, but the bottom line is they were always superior to the team in the darker shade of blue.
All of which should probably be no surprise given Everton had won three of their previous 12 league fixtures, losing seven times in the process, and came into this match on the back of a downward spiral that meant only two other clubs, Huddersfield and Fulham, had gathered fewer points since the beginning of December.
This was Everton’s fifth home defeat of the season, as many as the last campaign in its entirety, and Marco Silva will have to expect scrutiny even if his players could not be accused of a lack of effort. It was the imbalance in talent that counted.
Silva had tried to shake up his team by leaving out four established and, in some cases, highly expensive players – Richarlison, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Cenk Tosun and Seamus Coleman – and adjusting the shape of his team to a 4-3-2-1 formation.
They also had the backing of a crowd that, contrary to rumour, did not show any outward signs of rooting for City, aka Anyone But Liverpool. And unlike Arsenal and Newcastle, City’s previous two opponents, they did at least stop Sergio Agüero opening the scoring inside the first minute. Indeed, they held off their opponents for longer than many might have anticipated.
Not that Everton should be too pleased with themselves when they did not manage a single attempt on target and it was difficult to remember Ederson, City’s goalkeeper, being in any real danger.
Silva talked about it being an improvement on their recent performances but it will not help his cause that Aymeric Laporte’s goal came from a familiar route. No other team in the top division have let in more goals from set pieces this season.
This was the 12th time Everton have conceded from a free-kick or a corner and nobody could say they were not warned about Laporte’s threat in the air. He had already headed one chance wide from a corner and he made amends for the goal and, on both occasions, he was completely unchallenged.
At this level, no side can expect to get away with defending so generously. That, however, has been one of the regular flaws of Everton: a lack of defensive organisation. David Silva swung over the free-kick from the left and Laporte had found space between Kurt Zouma and André Gomis. It was a more difficult chance than his first one, but Laporte adjusted his body position to beat Jordan Pickford with a twisting header.
On the balance of play, it was fully merited towards the end of an opening period in which Ilkay Gündogan had flicked a shot against the crossbar and Everton, to give them their due, had threatened sporadically, but rarely with conviction.
As long as there was a solitary goal between the sides, Everton still had the opportunity to find a way back. Still, though, they could not create a clear opening during the second half and the game was finally sealed when two of City’s substitutes linked up.
Kevin de Bruyne’s pass put Jesus through the middle and when the Brazilian’s first effort spun into the air, having been blocked by Pickford, his follow-up header looped into the net for a goal that would have sent reverberations all the way across Stanley Park.
[Guardian UK]
