Full-time: Everton 0-2 Manchester City
That’s it! Manchester City are top of the league and they are going to stay there for a while based on this evidence. Thanks for reading. Bye.
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90 min: There will be four minutes of stoppage time.
89 min: Fabian Delph replaces David silva.
GOAL! Everton 0-2 Manchester City (Nasri, 88 min)
This is gorgeous. Nasri darts inside from the right and exchanges pass with Toure, whose insouciant pass back to the Frenchman carves open the bewildered Everton defence. Nasri skips clear on goal and comes up with a sublime finish, a deft little lob over Howard sealing the points for Manchester City.
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88 min: City pick Everton off on the break. Toure slides Navas through on the right and his drive is beaten away by Howard. But...
86 min: Everton make their final change, Gerard Deulofeu replacing Tom Cleverley.
85 min: “Coleman - or the Irish dani alves - has been superb defensively and going forward on this game,” says Dante Danger. “It’s amazing that a bigger club hasn’t gone in for him.”
84 min: Cleverley’s driven corner is headed away by Kolarov, who was under pressure from Jagielka.
83 min: Coleman has freedom to attack now. He wins another corner. Everton are pushing.
81 min: City make their second change, Wilfried Bony replacing Sergio Aguero, who takes his sweet time leaving the pitch.
79 min: City are having to defend now and they don’t look very convincing. A cross from the left is met by Barry at the far post and his header is booted off the line by Kompany!
78 min: Sterling goes off, Coleman throws the shackles off. He raids down the right and wins a corner. It’s floated into the area and Hart makes an awful mess of it at the far post. Somehow City survive the ensuing scramble.
76 min: Samir Nasri replaces Raheem Sterling.
75 min: A lull.
72 min: The effervescent Navas skedaddles down the right again. His cross flicks off Naismith and lands on the top of Howard’s net. City take the corner short again, but Silva overcooks his cross.
70 min: City are taking their time with a free-kick. Frustration builds around Goodison Park.
67 min: This is better from Everton, who are beginning to build some pressure. Naismith dodges a couple of challenges and sees his shot deflected wide. Another corner. It’s sliced behind for another corner. The ball loops into the air and in his haste, Toure knees Jagielka in the back as he heads clear. That could have been a penalty!
66 min: Barkley tries to inject some urgency into the Everton attack and has a shot from the left. The ball flicks off Kompany and whizzes off for a corner, which City get away.
63 min: Jesus Navas should put the game out of reach for Manchester City; instead Tim Howard keeps Everton in contention. City break and Silva looked for Navas on the right, but the pass wasn’t right. However two Everton defenders get themselves into a tangle, fall over each other and Navas emerges with the ball and makes his way towards goal. But he can’t make up his mind. Should he set up Aguero or shoot? He delays and delays and delays. Eventually he decides to shoot, but he lacks conviction and Howard stays big and saves. Will City regret that miss? Steven Naismith is on for Everton, Arona Kone the man to make way.
GOAL! Everton 0-1 Manchester City (Kolarov, 60 min)
Manchester City take the lead and your trustworthy MBM reporter claims the assist. Just when it seemed that City were losing their way, they strike! Raheem Sterling wriggles inside from the left and a few Everton players converge upon him. Yet Sterling retains his composure and slips an eye-of-the-needle pass through to the onrushing Kolarov. The angle is tight but he spots a gap at Howard’s near post and superbly threads a powerful shot past the Everton goalkeeper with his left foot!
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57 min: Everton are frustrating City at the moment. Not much is happening for City in the final third. They should be winning, but the longer this goes on, the more Everton will fancy their chances of nicking a goal.
55 min: Cleverley whips a fine ball into the City area from the right, but the City back four keep a good line, ensuring that Everton’s forwards can’t attack the cross.
52 min: Navas jabs a sharp pass into Silva’s feet. Silva’s touch is heavy and he falls over Barry’s leg. Anthony Taylor doesn’t award a penalty but he doesn’t book Silva for diving either.
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51 min: Navas takes on Browning and wins a corner. He takes it shortly, but Navas wastes a promising position with a poor cross.
48 min: Sterling speeds into the area from the left. He cuts back inside and tumbles. The City fans appeal for a penalty, but it looks like Sterling slipped.
47 min: David Silva hits the post! Raheem Sterling dribbles inside from the left and then slides a brilliant reverse pass through to Silva, who takes a touch before spanking his shot against Tim Howard’s near post. The ball rebounds to safety.
46 min: Off we go again. How will young Ty Browning fare against the speed of Jesus Navas? It could be crucial. “I’m glad Ivor Smïth has cleared up that diacritical mess,” says Matt Dony. “I was wondering who this Aguero figure you keep writing about is, but now I understand that you meant Agüero. This game is too stressful. I’m going to send half time listening to Motorhead and Motley Crue.”
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Half-time: Everton 0-0 Manchester City
That was entertaining and, surprisingly, it’s still goalless.
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45 min+4: This is a much better effort from Lukaku than the one from Barkley. He bends it round the wall and Hart can only stand, watch and pray as the ball flies past him, kisses the top of the bar and goes over.
45 min+3: The game has become far more even in the past 15 minutes or so and now Cleverley charges through the middle and towards the City area. He’s chopped down from behind by Fernandinho just before he gets into the area! Fernandinho is booked and Everton have another free-kick in a dangerous position.
45 min+2: One youngster replaces another, Ty Browning coming on for Brendan Galloway.
45 min: Galloway has gone down again. There will be four minutes of stoppage time.
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43 min: Barkley sends his free-kick into orbit. That was distinctly unimpressive. “So is Raheem Sterling the “new best friend” that the City lads brought back home with them from this year-long sabbatical that you speak of, Jacob?” says Justin Kavanagh. “Where did they meet him? Sulking in a hookah bar perhaps, complaining that his guardians wouldn’t send him out more money?”
42 min: Everton attack! Barkley drifts beautifully past Toure in the middle, then skips past Mangala just outside the D. Managala sticks out his leg and brings him down. He picks up a booking. Is worse to follow? Barkley fancies this.
41 min: “Why is it that whenever there is a corner in a Premier League game there is invariable a shout of “away”?” wonders Richard Armitage. “I’d expect that at a kids game or a kick about in the park but doesn’t the concept of getting the ball away belong in the category of what Basil Fawlty might call the bleeding’ obvious? Do professional footballers really need reminding of this every time the ball goes into the penalty area?”
Footballers are essentially children.
40 min: Play finally resumes. Galloway is beckoned back on. His knee lives on!
39 min: “It’s Touré and Agüero, not Toure and Aguero,” says Ivor Smith, who is making good use of his Sunday.
37 min: City still have the ball. Aguero tries to trick his way past Jagielka on the edge of the area. Jagielka takes ball and man. Aguero felt that and stays down. But City still have the ball and here they come again. Sagna breaks into the area, Galloway momentarily switching off, but the young Everton left-back recovers just in time. However he appears to have hurt his knee making that challenge on Sagna.
36 min: Silva’s free-kick is headed away. But City still have the ball.
35 min: Aguero slips past Stones on the left. Stones sticks out a leg and brings him down. City have a chance to send the ball into the Everton box again.
34 min: Toure boulders into the area on the right, holding off Cleverley with ease, almost dragging him along with him, Cleverley looking like a man who’s been tied to the outside of a moving train, but Toure’s angled cross-shot zips across the face of goal and away to safety.
32 min: Everton win a somewhat fortunate corner on the right, an aimless pass skimming off Mangala’s bonce and flying behind. Can they do anything of any use with it? Almost! Cleverley drives the corner to the edge of the area and Jagielka bullets a header towards goal. It flies just over, though Hart probably had it covered from that distance.
31 min: Navas escapes down the right again. Everton just about deal with his dangerous low centre.
28 min: Here comes Sterling. He goes left. He goes right. Coleman is confused. Sterling shoots. Howard plunges down to his left and shovels the ball behind for a corner.
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26 min: Everton are settling down a little. Coleman drives inside from the right and realises that he doesn’t have much support, so he has a shot from 20 yards. It dribbles just past Hart’s left post.
24 min: Toure opens up his body and attempts to shape one past Howard from 25 yards. There’s not nearly enough power behind it.
23 min: Everton have the ball in the back of the City net, but the flag was up for offside against Romelu Lukaku. He was just offside. That’s a good decision.
20 min: Lukaku has lost the ball every time he’s had it. He needs to do more. City attack again, but this move ends with a whiff of farce when Kolarov slices a ludicrous volley high and wide from 30 yards.
19 min: Everton have their first shot. Inevitably it comes from Ross Barkley. It’s straight at Hart from 25 yards, although there’s a brief moment of worry for City when he pats Barkley’s fierce effort down. Hart reacts quickly before the ball gets away from him.
17 min: When David Silva plays well, you are screwed. He is playing well. Everton could well be screwed. It is going to take an almighty effort from them to keep City at bay.
15 min: City are going to score at some point. Kone loses the ball outside the on the right and Silva wriggles into the area. He’s toying with Everton, working at his own pace, taking his time, waiting for the right moment before releasing the ball. He could shoot; instead he drops a shoulder, spots something that no one else has and slides a gorgeous ball across the face of goal. The sliding Sterling would have a tap-in at the far post, if only his legs were an inch or two longer. What an escape for Everton!
14 min: The battle between Sterling and Coleman promises to be fascinating. Coleman is snapping away at him whenever Sterling gets the ball, but the City winger is facing up well to the Everton right-back, showing good strength here to hold him off and keep the ball. It comes to Silva. He’s given space for a shot from 25 yards but it zaps straight at Howard.
12 min: Barkley’s vicious corner from the left is headed away by Fernandinho.
11 min: With Sagna winded after an aerial collision with Gareth Barry, Tom Cleverley continues playing and wins a corner for Everton on the left. City aren’t too impressed with Everton for not sticking the ball out of play. Sagna needs a spot of treatment and City will defend the corner with 10 men.
10 min: City are in the mood. Navas and Silva combine brilliantly down the right flan. Navas speeds behind Galloway and his clever cutback is met by Aguero and again his low drive clatters against Howard’s feet. Aguero had a similar start against Asmir Begovic in the end, but he got there in the end and Everton should probably stop allowing him sights of goal. “Everton will be in a spot of bother if they lose any defenders today,” says Doremus Schafer. “The only defender on their bench is Ty Browning, who has a grand total of six first-team appearances in his career, only three of them (all as a substitute) in the Premier League. Not the best preparation for facing off against the likes of Aguero and Sterling.”
7 min: Everton are passing the ball crisply in midfield, Barkley the chief conductor, but they can’t come up with a telling final ball. City’s shape is good. They eventually step in and break. John Stones stops them with a rollocking tackle on the right. Who says he can’t do the dirty stuff?
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5 min: Sterling is being booed every time he gets on the ball, which strikes me as odd. Shouldn’t Everton fans have enjoyed the manner of his departure from Liverpool? They should be treating him like a king. There should be a statue of Raheem Sterling outside Goodison Park.
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3 min: There are worrying scenes behind the goal when players from both sides immediately beckon for the medical staff to come and help someone who appears to have fallen ill in the crowd. The medics are there in a flash. However it seems that it’s a false alarm: after a brief delay, play resumes and Everton deal comfortably with Silva’s corner. Let’s hope that the fan is okay.
2 min: A loose pass in midfield from Lukaku sets up City’s first attack. They speed through the middle and the ball is worked out to Navas on the right. He pulls it back to Silva, who ducks inside from the right and shoots. His shot is deflected but the ball spins through to Aguero, who’s onside. He rattles the ball goalwards, forcing Tim Howard to divert it behind for a corner.
And we’re off! Everton, in blue shirts and white shorts, get the game underway, kicking from right to left in the first half. Manchester City are decked out entirely in light blue. There’s an early touch for Raheem Sterling on the left. There are boos for the former Liverpool winger.
Here come the teams! Strike up the Z Cars theme tune!
The teams
Everton: Howard; Coleman, Stones, Jagielka, Galloway; McCarthy, Barry; Kone, Barkley, Cleverley; Lukaku. Subs: Robles, Mirallas, Naismith, Besic, Deulofeu, Osman, Browning.
Man City: Hart; Sagna, Kompany, Mangala, Kolarov; Toure, Fernandinho; Jesus Navas, Silva, Sterling; Aguero. Subs: Nasri, Caballero, Bony, Delph, Demichelis, Denayer, Iheanacho.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire)
Preamble
After deciding to take a year off, Manchester City appear to be back. They’ve had a nice sabbatical, they’ve seen the world, Yaya Toure has taken a few pottery classes, Vincent Kompany has learnt another language, Jesus Navas has made his eyes even bluer, but it’s time for them to get back to the day job. And what a start they’ve made! After a spectacularly lame defence of their title last season, City have come storming out of the blocks like, er, Usain Bolt at the start of this one, determined to reassert themselves as the finest side in the country and show that there is no reason to think that they are inferior to Chelsea.
Manuel Pellegrini has kept his job, Raheem Sterling is settling in nicely and City have looked ominously good in their first two matches. West Bromwich Albion were steamrollered by Toure and cut to shreds by David Silva two weeks ago, and last week Chelsea felt the full force of City’s attacking might, Sergio Aguero doing bad things to John Terry and Gary Cahill, Silva exhilarating, Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala gobbling up Diego Costa. It was quite the statement. The message was received loud and clear: City want their title back.
On the evidence of their first two games, City are going to take some stopping. Their performance against Chelsea was perhaps their finest and most complete in a big game since the 4-1 win over Manchester United in September 2013, though the 6-3 win over Arsenal in December 2013 comes close. But here comes a test! Everton will be raring to go after their 3-0 thumping of Southampton last weekend. City don’t have a hugely encouraging record at Goodison Park and Romelu Lukaku was on fire against Southampton. This should be good. We will know a great deal more about Chelsea in a few hours.
Kick-off: 4pm BST.
