Man City (h) Running up that hill
Back to a back 4 of Centre backs in front of the returning Pickford & Digne at left wing, Richarlison up front with Sigurdsson just behind him. The minimum requirement was to do the badge on the shirt far more justice than the previous home game, & by & large it was achieved. Sadly Everton’s opponents on the night are so far ahead in every footballing aspect, that an improvement in attitude, commitment & responsibility wasn’t enough.
In Carlo’s post match interview once Gabriel Clarke had stopped asking the Everton manager non Everton related questions... he asked if he was disappointed with the performance & Carlo said “no, he was disappointed with the Fulham performance”. It’s understandable that he, like us still feel that way about that game, because if the players showed the attitude, commitment & responsibility for that game, along with Newcastle & West Ham, this game would have been a free hit. To that I have no doubts.
As you’d expect if you watched anything of City since December, they were at us immediately from kick off. City play with 2 centre backs & 7 forward players when they have the ball, it was a credit to the shape & discipline of Everton’s midfield & back line that City didn’t get anymore than 1 guilt edged chance all game, and that once Mina was replaced with Coleman it was a lucky deflection that gave them the lead.
A ball bouncing around the box found Foden and on his wrong foot he hit a ball on the rise into the floor & it took a deflection off Coleman’s calf & passed an already diving Pickford. 0-1. The manner of the goal was harsh, but it was a deserved lead for City.
What happened for the remainder of the half is what infuriated us & the manager Sunday & in the previous games mentioned, Everton rolled their sleeves up, stuck together & got themselves back in the game by showing attacking intent & energy. Let’s be honest, they were second best all night but if they’re only one goal behind, even 2 this season, a switched on motivated version of this team can comeback.
And come back it did, 5 mins after Foden opened the scoring Iwobi played in Coleman who’s cross was cleared to Digne & his cross/shot cannoned back off the inside of the post, hit Richarlison & went in. You earn your luck sometimes (unless you’re LFC) 1-1, game on!! It was an equaliser that owed a bit to bravery, not that it was Everton at their swashbuckling best in any sense, but it was the instinct to have a go back & not settle at a 0-1 deficit at halftime.
Although City had dominated, Everton had played well this half, Davies & Doucoure were upwardly mobile in shielding Holgate & Keane, Digne was dropping into cover Godfrey & Richarlison was battling hard against 2 of the leagues best defenders. It was heartening to see. Jesus blazed over when he should have done a lot, lot better. HT 1-1.
All the halftime talk from the Amazon panel was about City, which was semi understandable, a backhanded complement from Lee Dixon about how Everton had done better than he’d expected, Eddie Howe the token Evertonian not allowed to say a lot about Everton & then there was some incoherent nonsense from a Michael Owen that is morphing into Steve McDonald from Coronation St. And I thought BT Sport couldn’t be beaten for pound shop analysts.. Michael Owen...wow!!
Second half followed the same pattern as the first, attack vs defence with an occasional moment of bother from Everton for City to deal with. Lots of warming up substitutes but no changes. On 63 mins Mahrez scored the most predictable of goals, bending a shot into Pickford’s far corner, almost from the same spot he scored a freekick passed Pickford last season. The movement of Mahrez & Bernardo Silva shuffled Digne & Godfrey into a line & Mahrez underlapped Silva & around Tom Davies to bend it into the far corner from the edge of the area. 1-2 class goal, albeit you knew where it was going as soon as Mahrez shaped to strike the ball.
Changes made, King & James on, the hard working Davies & Iwobi off. I’d hoped King would start, but perhaps he’s just not quite there yet, but he offered an outlet when he came on. You can see he is a powerful runner, hopefully he’ll play a bigger part against far less capable defenders on Saturday.
Sigurdsson had dropped back into a more defensive midfield role & James behind Richarlison, Coleman right wing. Everton were staying with City, a class goal apart. Sterling had been quiet all game, Jesus uncharacteristically not scoring against us. Everton still retained hope up until 77 mins when Sigurdsson gave up chasing Bernardo Silva half way in Everton’s half & he glided to the edge of the area & a fully sighted Pickford made a shocking attempt at palming the ball away, showing Hugo Lloris like weak wrists, he pushed the ball into Mahrez’s favourite corner. 1-3 game over.
A Kevin De Bruyne cameo just to emphasise City’s strength in depth, a squad that will waltz it’s way to a league title & it’s likely that only Bayern Munich or PSG will stop them from winning the European Cup. FT 1-3.
A marked improvement from Everton, they stuck to the game plan, they’ll have to do it again on Saturday. Just for once, I’d love to see us go to Anfield being able to select our first 11, hopefully that’ll see Allan & DCL available. If they aren’t, they will be for Southampton after a 9 day break. I personally think that top 4 is likely beyond us now, but Europa league is certainly achievable & that was the aim, Europe whichever route, cup win or league position.
A crumb of comfort when I think about how far City have come & how far away Everton are from them at the moment. When the money arrived at City, they went through a phase of ridiculous spending on average players, not recognising the talent in their academy & failing to developing it. Then they got their act together, sound familiar?
Please God, Buddha, Allah, Yoda, The tooth fairy, Santa, let us party like it’s 1999 on Saturday night ..socially distant like.
COYB UTFT 💙
