Manchester City welcomed Everton to the Etihad Stadium to open the 17th round of the 2018/19 Premier League season, in the middle of the hectic festive period. The league champions needed to win in order to leap over title challengers Liverpool in the table, though the Merseysiders would have a chance to regain the top spot if they beat arch-rivals Manchester United on the next day. Regardless of the fact that any result bar defeat would do their neighbours a favour, Everton also need every point they can possibly get for the rest of the season if they are to hope for European qualification.
Team News
City manager Pep Guradiola was finally able to count on Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero, but he decided not to risk them without need and he placed them on the bench, where they were joined by Raheem Sterling and John Stones, purely for the purpose of rotation.
Ederson Moraes was in goal. Kyle Walker on the right, Fabian Delph on the left, and the duo of Nicolas Otamendi and Aymeric Laporte in the heart of defence formed the back line. Fernandinho sat in front of them as usual, but this time he was flanked by Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan. Riyad Mahrez and Leroy Sane flanked Gabriel Jesus in attack.
Marco Silva in the Everton dugout had no fresh injury concerns.
Jordan Pickford stood between the posts. Yerry Mina, Michael Keane and Kourt Zouma formed the three-man defence. Andre Gomes and Gylfi Sigurdsson were tasked with holding the middle of the park, flanked by Lucas Digne and Seamus Coleman as the wing-backs. Dominic Calvert-Lewin played as the furthest one upfront, supported by Richarlison and Bernard.
The First Half
City pushed forward from the start, but the first exiting moment of the game happened in front of their goal as Calvert-Lewin got into a good position inside the box and took a shot, but the flag had been raised for offside.
The home side mostly held the ball in the opposition half and kept trying to enter the box from the flanks. All of their attacking players were very active in the early period, but Everton defenders stood fast and dealt with everything that was thrown at them. City occasionally switched to long passes looking for runners in behind, but that wasn’t working very well either.
It took Everton 12 minutes to finally succeed in keeping the ball in City’s half for longer than a few seconds, and they conducted a long attack at the end of which Digne made Walker look very poor and whipped a good cross towards the unmarked Richarlison on the far post, but the Brazilian volleyed it high over the bar.
City hit back in the 19th minute as Fernandihno’s long pass enabled Mahrez to trick Digne and get past him, leaving the fullback with no alternative but to bring him down wide on the edge of the box and get into referee Craig Pawson’s book. After the free-kick was taken, Fernandinho hit a rocket just over the bar.
But City came very close three minutes later as a cross from the left side got Keane and Mina confused, and Keane almost beat his own ‘keeper, but Pickford made a great save. But a minute later, the champions were in the lead.
Mina cleared his box only as far as Gundogan just inside Everton’s half, Gundogan gave it to Sane who sent Jesus through with a good pass. Pickford came out to cut the angle, but Jesus made no mistake.
1-0.
Everton tried to hit back immediately but failed, and City were cruising. They were in control now, while the visitors looked more nervous by the minute and their mistakes became frequent for a while.
Calvert-Lewin and Bernard had to do some hard work under pressure to get their team further up the pitch just after the half-hour mark, and after Richarlison and Coleman did some fine work of their own on the right flank, Ederson was forced into action to cut a dangerous cross off.
In the 40th minute, a dangerous City attack gave Mahrez a chance to shoot from 10 yards, but Pickford was outstanding again. Jesus later managed to put the ball in the net again after the former Leicester City player set him up, but he was rightly flagged for offside.
The Second Half
The champions’ plan was obviously to increase the lead as soon as possible and knock out any potential game-plan Everton might have devised during the break, and they attacked forcefully from the start. Everton held out for four minutes before Sane’s cross found the forehead of Jesus between Keane and Mina, and the Brazil international slammed it past the helpless Pickford, straight under the bar.
2-0.
Two minutes later, Sigurdsson gave Guardiola a scare as he bumped a shoulder into the head of Laporte, who needed help from his medical team before he could continue.
The positions where the battles between the wide players of the two teams were being fought at this point were a good indication of how things stood in the game, especially on City’s right side, Everton’s left. Even though Digne had the comfort of three centre-backs behind him and was supposed to push further up as a wing-back, it was Walker who was spending a lot of time high in the opposition half.
Marco Silva chose to react in the 57th minute, and he took out Bernard and Coleman to make way for Theo Walcott and Ademola Lookman. His team’s formation had now changed to a 4-4-2, with Zouma playing as the right-back, Lookman and Walcott flanking Sigurdsson and Gomes in midfield, and Calvert-Lewin joined upfront by Richarlison.
In the 62nd minute, Jesus made a run to the right and sent an inviting pass into the space vacated in the middle. Gundogan took up the invitation and just missed the target from close range.
But three minutes later, good work from Sigurdsson and Richarlison enabled Digne to whip in a cross from the left, and with some luck, Calvert-Lewin beat Delph in the air to give Everton some hope.
2-1.
Guardiola took the chance to make the substitution he had previously prepared, and Raheem Sterling replaced Sane and got his name on the scoresheet another three minutes later. Zouma did very poorly as he allowed Fernandinho an easy cross from the left, and the rest of Everton’s defence were no better as they in turn left Sterling alone at five yards from the goal.
3-1.
Everton almost struck back again immediately. A nice combination between Richarlison and Lookman created a good moment for the Brazilian to shoot from the edge of the box, but he just missed the target. Then Lookman gave Walker some hell on the flank and whipped a low cross in, and Walcott couldn’t hit the target either.
It was time for Guardiola to react again, and Kevin De Bruyne stepped onto the pitch to replace Mahrez.
There was a bit of a tussle 15 minutes from time. Calvert-Lewin had committed a foul on Gundogan and the referee had given it, but Delph found himself called upon to take the Everton striker out after the whistle, which didn’t go down too well with him. Both Delph and Calvert-Lewin picked up a yellow card for their troubles.
Then Silva took off Sigurdsson and sent in Tom Davies.
With nothing to lose Everton decided to attack, and though they did manage to enter City’s box a few times, they were leaving quite enough space for the hosts to exploit with quick counterattacks. Davies was very good in the middle however, and he made a number of vital interceptions that thwarted City a lot.
In the 87th minute, Gundogan got caught in possession in his own half and Richarlison charged forward, only to see his shot from the edge of the box blocked.
Both teams tried to attack in the stoppage time, but with no real conviction. The game had been long settled.
The Afterthought
It’s fair to say that Manchester City weren’t at their best in this game, but they did enough and deserved the win. At times they were still brilliant, but it took Everton to make mistakes for them not only to take the lead, but also create anything of real note throughout the contest. Fortunately for them, such mistakes came quite frequently after the opening goal and they were undoubtedly on a different level to Everton, who simply weren’t up to the task in crucial moments of the game.
The only mystery this game highlighted, and it wasn’t the first, was the reason for Marco Silva continuously leaving Ademola Lookman out of his starting XI. The 21-year-old was the only player in an Everton shirt with whom City players, not just Walker but others too, simply didn’t know what to do. His superb individual skill was too much for them a number of times, but he couldn’t play the Premier League champions all on his own.
These three points now take Manchester City back to the top of the table; it remains to be seen for how long. As for Everton, they probably weren’t even counting on getting anything at the Etihad, and they likely won’t be too hard on themselves for this result. They remain in seventh place, but that part of the table is set to reshape itself over the next day or two as the full league round unfolds.
Match Report
MANCHESTER CITY: Ederson 6.5, Otamendi 6.5, Laporte 7, Walker 6, Delph 6, Fernandinho 8.5, Gundogan 7, B. Silva 7, Sane 7.5 (66′ Sterling 7), Mahrez 8 (75′ De Bruyne 7), Jesus 8.
EVERTON: Pickford 8, Keane 8, Mina 6, Zouma 6.5, Coleman 7 (67′ Walcott 7), Digne 7.5, Gomes 8, Sigurdsson 5.5 (81′ Davies 7), Bernard 7.5 (57′ Lookman 8.5), Richarlison 7, Calvert-Lewin 7.5.
GOALS: Jesus 22′ & 50′, Calvert-Lewin 65′, Sterling 69′.
YELLOW CARDS: Digne 19′, Calvert-Lewin 76′, Delph 76′.
REFEREE: Craig Pawson.
DATE & VENUE: December 15, 2018, the Etihad Stadium.
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