Akanji: Premier League title no longer Man City´s aim

Manchester City’s season is not yet a write-off according to Manuel Akanji, but he has given up hope of winning the Premier League title.

City were held to a 1-1 draw by Everton at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday, with Iliman Ndiaye cancelling out Bernardo Silva’s deflected opener.

Erling Haaland saw a second-half penalty saved by Jordan Pickford, and Pep Guardiola’s team have now won just one game across their last 13 in all competitions.

City have also dropped 12 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, already more than they did in the entirety of last season (10).

12 – Manchester City have dropped 12 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, already more than they did in the entirety of last season (10). Slip. pic.twitter.com/A5X0QI8lHC

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 26, 2024

With City 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool ahead of the Reds’ Boxing Day clash with Leicester City, Akanji says retaining the Premier League title for a fifth straight season is out of reach, though he stressed Guardiola’s side do still have other targets.

Speaking to Amazon Prime, Akanji said: “The season is not finished but [the title] is not a target for us at the moment.

“We need to focus game by game and the next game against Leicester will not be easy as well now, in the shape we are in.

“We need to focus on the positives. We did a lot of things great. We defended well and we attacked well, but were not able to finish as well as we wanted to, or we could have scored three or four goals.”

City had 24 shots against Everton, getting five of those on target and creating chances worthy of 2.0 expected goals, albeit Haaland’s spot-kick alone was worth 0.78 xG.

The hosts had 49 touches in the opposition box, creating four big chances, defined by Opta as an opportunity from which a player would reasonably be expected to score.

Yet for all their dominance, City might have been punished late on had Everton capitalised on some promising counter-attacks.

“I think we did way more for the game. We created lots of chances, unfortunately we were only able to score one goal, and we conceded one out of nothing but that is how football is,” added Akanji.

Guardiola, meanwhile, saw City as deserved victors.

“We played really good, but we are in a period right now where we create, but then we concede [from the opponent’s first attack,” he told Amazon Prime.

“Confidence will come with results, but the performance was really good offensively and defensively but we could not get the result we wanted.”

53′ ENGLAND’S NUMBER ONE SAVES HAALAND’S SPOT KICK!!

[1-1] #MCIEVE pic.twitter.com/9C9N2UtGp1

— Everton (@Everton) December 26, 2024

Everton captain Seamus Coleman received a booking for attempting to put Haaland off in the build-up to the penalty that was saved by Pickford, who has now kept out seven Premier League spot-kicks during his time at Everton.

In the history of the competition, only Brad Friedel at Blackburn Rovers (10) and Jussi Jaaskelainen with Bolton Wanderers (nine) have more penalty saves with one club.

Asked by Amazon Prime what he had said to Haaland, Coleman quipped: “Merry Christmas!”

He added: “We came here wanting to get a point and we do everything we can sometimes to win. There was no swearing!”