That’s your lot. Andy Hunter was at Goodison to witness City stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League to ten points. Here’s his report; thanks for reading this one. Stay safe and warm, everyone. Nighty night!
Carlo Ancelotti’s turn. “We started to believe ... the game for an hour was really difficult but we were in the game ... we worked hard ... the second goal was the tipping point of the game and we could not get back ... they found a fantastic combination and it was a fantastic shot ... there was nothing to say, nothing to do.” Did they face the champions-elect tonight? “I think so, it’s difficult to say another name ... they have fantastic quality, belief, they are strong.” Are they the best side they’ve played this season? “Absolutely, yes, congratulations to them ... they are able to play really well with the ball, and work hard without it as well ... the regrets were against Fulham, not tonight ... the derby is a special game, and away we are on a really good run, so we hope for this!” He adds that Yerry Mina is unlikely to make the Liverpool game.
Pep seems happy enough. “It was a really tough game ... not perfect conditions in the winter ... so physical ... a solid performance, the guys ran like you have to do ... we have the quality up front ... we needed more patience in the final third ... Everton is a team that can make chances, they scored three at Old Trafford, so we did well.” And is he thinking about the title now City are ten points ahead? “[cough] Arsenal ... is the next game.” It’d be nice to think Pep was dropping in an Eric Morecambe reference there.
Managerial verdicts still to come ... but Andy Hunter was at Goodison tonight and his report has landed. Here it is!
The man-of-the-match Riyad Mahrez speaks to Amazon Prime. “It was a good performance ... I think we played good all the game ... it’s a shame to concede the goal in the first half but we didn’t concede much to be fair ... we made the difference in the second half ... we tried to pass and move a lot, to find the right space to score a goal ... we [Mahrez and Silva] don’t need to scream or speak to each other, we know where each other will be ... we train so good, so we don’t need to speak ... when you keep winning the confidence grows ... we are in a very good moment but have to keep going ... I don’t know about the title, but we have to think about the next game, and the next game is Arsenal so we have to play the same way.”
City are all smiles, and who can blame them, another job completed in impressive fashion. The second-half goals scored by Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva were right out of the top drawer, though Jordan Pickford could have done better for Silva’s. City’s serene procession to the Premier League title continues apace. Everton stay three points behind Liverpool, in seventh place. Their only consolation: City didn’t inflict such a big defeat on them as they did on the folk across Stanley Park a couple of weeks ago. It’s not much, but ahead of Saturday’s Merseyside derby, it’s better than nothing.
FULL TIME: Everton 1-3 Manchester City
There’s just enough time for Mahrez to go close, threading one towards the bottom left but just wide, and that’s it. City are deserving winners, for the 17th time in a row in all competitions. What a run! What a team. They’re ten clear of Manchester United and Leicester City at the top.
90 min +3: James nearly takes Cancelo’s kneecap clean off with an accidental and thoroughly inept fresh-air swipe. Happily the City player, having taken a sore one, is up again quickly enough.
90 min +2: A long pass down the left. Jesus is denied a rush on goal by Pickford, who comes haring out of his box at full speed to blooter into the stand.
90 min +1: Fernandinho replaces Rodri.
90 min: There will be three minutes of added torture for Everton, who are struggling to get a touch.
89 min: Amazon co-commentator and new national treasure Ally McCoist gives the man-of-the-match award to Riyad Mahrez. No complaints here.
87 min: Foden reaches the byline out on the left and floats a cross into the centre, forcing Digne to head behind for City’s umpteenth corner of the evening. Everton clear. The clock ticks on.
85 min: Everton can’t get out. Cancelo drifts in from the left, the Everton defence threatening to open up comically for a second or two. Cancelo helps them out by hesitating, allowing Keane and Holgate to frantically shut the door. Cancelo should have either shot earlier, or laid off to set up De Bruyne.
84 min: ... so City slow it down, the clock their friend. Everton chase some shadows.
82 min: Keane creams a long pass down the left. It’s helped on by Digne, and King nearly gets on the end of it, but Ederson is off his line quickly to claim. Everton come back again, Doucoure trying to sort his feet out just inside the City box, but he’s robbed by Foden. Everton have upped the tempo, fully aware they need something very quickly if they’re to do another 3-3 number on a team from Manchester.
80 min: De Bruyne’s first act is to find Jesus down the left with a threaded diagonal ball. Nothing comes of the move, but some sub to bring on, huh?
79 min: A lovely City move, that, though Pickford should have done much better. And if that wasn’t bad enough for Everton, on comes De Bruyne. Sterling makes way.
GOAL! Everton 1-3 Manchester City (Silva 77)
This is another beautiful flowing move. Walker, Mahrez and Jesus combine down the inside-right channel. Jesus slips the ball infield for Silva, gliding imperiously. Silva takes a touch inside, drops the shoulder, and fizzes low and hard into the bottom left. Pickford can’t keep it out, pawing it into the net.
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75 min: Everton see a little bit more of the ball, but do very little with it. City are totally comfortable right now.
73 min: Manchester City misplace a pass!
71 min: City play keep-ball for a couple of minutes. Breaking news: they’re in-form and making everything look very easy right now.
69 min: Everton make a double change. James and King come on for Iwobi and Davies.
67 min: Cancelo curls deep from the left. Pickford plucks it from the sky under pressure from Jesus. Everton try to counter, but Coleman is cynically tugged back by Sterling, who goes into the book for his cheek.
65 min: That was an absolute screamer. Nothing Everton could do about that. As things stand, the leaders are going ten points clear at the top.
GOAL! Everton 1-2 Manchester City (Mahrez 63)
So having said that, City score a pearler! Silva wanders into the Everton box down the right. He’s faced with two blue shirts, so rolls inside a little for Mahrez, running just behind. Mahrez opens his body and curls an unstoppable screamer towards the top left, pinging off the woodwork and into the net in satisfying style. What a goal!
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61 min: City win yet another corner on the right. Foden delivers a dangerous inswinger, and Rodri climbs highest, but he sends his header harmlessly wide left. City’s accuracy has been a bit off this evening. Penny for Aguero’s thoughts as he sits on the bench.
60 min: Some neat work between Richarlison, Iwobi and Sigurdsson down the inside right. City are on the back foot. Digne is in acres on the left, and found by Richarlison’s clever switch. Digne panics and hits a first-time cross that balloons out for a goal kick. What a waste.
59 min: The first sign that City might be getting a little frustrated, as Rodri hoicks a godawful ball forward and deep into the Park End.
57 min: A stat flashed up on Amazon: Jesus has scored seven goals against Everton, three more than any other side, and he’s never failed to find the net here at Goodison. Well, he’s had his chances to keep that run going.
55 min: Sterling floats a pinpoint cross, left to right, for Mahrez, who brings the ball down elegantly before rolling it harmlessly towards Pickford from a tight angle. City are soon coming at Everton again, Jesus sent scampering into space down the inside-left by Walker. Jesus aims a screamer towards the top left, but it’s too high. Pep’s fume suggests the City boss thinks Jesus should have forced a save at the very least.
53 min: Iwobi strides in from the right and finds Sigurdsson on the edge of the box with a forensic pass. Sigurdsson spins and takes a snapshot that’s blocked and balloons into Ederson’s arms. That was a decent chance, though Laporte closed him down well.
51 min: Cancelo swings one in from the left. Jesus chests down. The ball breaks to Silva, on the right. Silva creams a first-time volley towards the bottom right. It’s beaten away brilliantly by Pickford. A fine save.
50 min: Some sterile possession for Everton, who will be happy enough at the minute.
48 min: Silva earns a corner off Davies down the right. It’ll be City’s eighth of the evening. Everton haven’t had one yet. Pickford punches this one clear.
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47 min: City probe patiently down both flanks. Suddenly Cancelo and Foden combine down the left. For a second it opens up for Cancelo, but he hesitates while an opportunity to curl towards the top right presents itself, and the chance is gone.
Everton get the ball rolling for the second half. No further changes.
Half-time entertainment.
HALF TIME: Everton 1-1 Manchester City
A decent half of football, that. City have dominated, but Everton stuck to their guns after falling behind and battled back impressively. The second half promises to be good fun. Don’t go anywhere!
45 min: The permanently furious Richarlison is booked for stupidly walloping the ball away in reaction to a garden-variety free kick in midfield.
44 min: It’s getting a little feisty, too. Richarlison clatters into Laporte, Foden barges Davies. The second half could be entertaining.
43 min: Everton are pressing with more ferocity now. City aren’t quite the dominant force of earlier.
41 min: Everton suddenly look reborn. Digne romps down the left and crosses deep for Doucoure, who doesn’t have the opportunity to shoot this time, and can’t pull back for a team-mate either.
40 min: City try to reclaim the lead in short order, Foden hitting a volley from an ambitious angle out on the left. It’s on target, but an easy enough claim for Pickford.
GOAL! Everton 1-1 Manchester City (Richarlison 38)
A little bit of space for Coleman out on the right. He shovels across towards Digne, haring into the box from the left. Digne sends a first time shot towards the bottom right. The ball clanks off the post, onto the thigh of the loitering Richarlison, and in! A bit of luck at the end, but a lovely move, and City’s parsimonious defence has been breached!
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36 min: Everton try to respond, but Doucoure’s cross from the right is way too deep. City counter, and Mahrez is this close to dropping a perfect cross onto Foden’s head from the right. Just too high, and it skims off the top of his team-mate’s noggin and out for a goal kick.
34 min: Jesus, on the edge of the box, nearly brings a ball down from the heavens with an exquisite cushioned touch. Not quite; it clanks off the nearby Keane and away. Then a long ball is headed back to Pickford by Coleman. It’s all perfectly executed, but at high speed, and any little mistake would have seen Jesus walking the ball into the empty net.
GOAL! Everton 0-1 Manchester City (Foden 32)
The corner’s worked around to the right. Mahrez crosses again. The ball’s half cleared. Foden, just to the left of centre, 12 yards out, volleys towards the bottom left. The ball takes a huge deflection off Coleman and flies into the centre of the goal, past Pickford who was heading in the other direction.
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31 min: Mahrez teases Godfrey down the right. It’s cat versus ball of wool. He scoops to the far post. Jesus prepares to head home, but Keane eyebrows out for a corner. And from that ...
30 min: City stroke it around thoughtfully. They don’t appear to be in any sort of panic. No desire to force things. A 16-match winning run will help instil that sort of mindset.
28 min: Jesus bursts down the middle and is upended in the basic style by Doucoure, who cuts across the striker crudely. It’s a no-brainer booking, in both senses of the word.
26 min: Now Pickford cleans out his own man Godfrey, as he comes to claim a high ball in his box. This weekend’s Merseyside derby is going to be eventful, isn’t it.
25 min: Mahrez spins off after a long pass down the right, and nearly breaks into the box. Pickford is across to claim in his usual take-no-prisoners style. Mahrez thinks better of going in for the 51-49.
23 min: Some space for Walker, who earns yet another City corner down the right. The set piece is worked all the way out to the other flank, where Sterling scoops into the mixer. Coleman slams clear. City haven’t found the killer pass yet, but everything else is running pretty smoothly.
21 min: Sterling, Rodri and Foden draw some pretty triangles down the left. A lovely smooth move, but Foden’s final ball infield is too close to Pickford, who claims without fuss.
19 min: Confirmation that Mina can’t continue, as Coleman is finally sent on.
18 min: Davies faffs about in the midfield and is robbed by Rodri, who sends Jesus zipping clear down the middle with a fine first-time prod. Jesus has to score, surely. He’s got to hit the target at least. But sensing Keane right on his shoulder, he leans back and hoicks it over the bar. Very poor.
16 min: Mina limps around the touchline, and it’s not clear whether he’s throwing in the towel quite yet. Everton are down to ten as they assess the situation in further detail. There is some good news for the home side, though: turns out it wasn’t a City corner, so Everton restart with a goal kick.
15 min: Before it can be taken, Mina requires some treatment on his calf. Not sure if he’ll be able to continue. On the bench, Coleman rushes to get stripped and ready for action.
14 min: Silva swans past a lumbering Keane, entering the box on the right. He’s skating along the byline and falls under pressure from Keane, trying to catch up. He wants a penalty but he’s only getting the corner.
12 min: A little relief for Everton as City power down for a couple of minutes. Some calm, sterile possession at the back. “So Doucouré didn’t fancy his chances of being the next van Basten?” asks Gary Naylor. “Who knew?”
10 min: Sterling’s first involvement of the evening wins a corner down the left. Everton half clear. Jesus drops a shoulder down the other flank, leaving Holgate for dead. He reaches the touchline and wins a corner on the right this time. One corner leads to another, and that one’s cleared by Keane. City are applying some serious pressure here.
8 min: Everton counter, Digne crossing from the left. Doucoure has an opportunity to volley, haring in from the other flank, but opts to take a touch. Bad decision. City clear.
7 min: Mahrez powers down the right but his attempted cross is blocked by Holgate. The ball breaks to Silva, just inside the box. He spins through 180 degrees and looks for the bottom right, but doesn’t catch it and it’s an easy gather for Pickford.
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5 min: City go straight up the other end and win their second corner of the game, Walker and Mahrez doing the business down the right. They take it short, and over-elaborate. A breezy start to this game.
4 min: However they’re not infallible, and they ship possession after overplaying out from the back. A bit of space for Holgate on the right. He crosses. Laporte takes a fresh-air swipe when trying to clear, but gets it right with take two.
3 min: Everton deal with the corner easily enough. But it’s fair to say City have begun in dominant fashion.
2 min: City are kicking towards the Gwladys Street end in this first half. They don’t appear to be in any rush to get down there, stroking it around the back awhile with trademark swagger. It’s one minute and 28 seconds before Everton get a touch. City get it back by the one minute 35 second mark. Seven seconds later, Cancelo has a dig from distance, forcing Pickford to turn it out before it nestles into the bottom left.
City get the ball rolling ... but only after everyone takes a knee of solidarity, equality and love. There’s no room for racism. Kick it out.
Here come the players! Everton out of the tunnel in royal blue, City traipse in from the car park in second-choice black. We’ll be off in a minute, after a quick blast of Johnny Todd.
Pep’s not in a particularly chatty mood. “We have to focus. Everton are a team with a lot of quality. They can play four or five at the back, we will see, and try to impose our game. If you see the schedule we had in December and January, and the one we have in the end of February, we don’t have one week off. So everyone is going to play.”
A relaxed-looking Carlo Ancelotti speaks to Amazon Prime. “It is a big challenge but usually we do well in this kind of game, when it is tough. We did really well against all the top teams. We will do the same tonight. We have to play with confidence and belief. We need Pickford’s ability in the goal, he had an injury that took time to recover but now he is fit. Olsen replaced him really well but now he is back and I hope everything is going well. We play with a back four with Digne in midfield. We need to focus defensively because they are going to have more possession, but with a good attitude we can have our opportunities. This season is difficult to predict. I don’t know what is going on! But I know we will have good spirit and attitude.”
Pre-match entertainment. Manchester City are on an 11-game winning run in the Premier League, hot favourites to become champions as a result. But a warning from history explains why City supporters won’t be hanging up the bunting just yet.
Everton make four changes to the side that didn’t turn up for the Fulham game. Seamus Coleman, James Rodriguez, Andre Gomes and Robin Olsen are replaced by Yerry Mina, Michael Keane, Alex Iwobi and - returning from injury - Jordan Pickford. Hamstring issues continue to affect Dominic Calvert-Lewin, while Allan also misses out altogether.
City make three changes to the XI named for the breeze against Tottenham. Riyad Mahrez, Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias replace Oleksandr Zinchenko, John Stones and goal machine Ilkay Gundogan, the latter missing with a groin injury. Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero are both among the substitutes.
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The teams
Everton: Pickford, Mina, Keane, Holgate, Godfrey, Davies, Doucoure, Digne, Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Richarlison.
Subs: Delph, King, Nkounkou, Rodriguez, Bernard, Andre Gomes, Coleman, Olsen, Onyango.
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Foden, Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling.
Subs: Stones, Aguero, Zinchenko, Steffen, De Bruyne, Torres, Mendy, Fernandinho, Garcia.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).
Preamble
Everton don’t have a great record against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. But then again, who does? City are looking to make it 17 wins in a row in all competitions tonight. If they manage it, they’ll go ten points clear of Manchester United and Leicester City, and the title will, barring an unlikely collapse, surely be theirs when it all comes down.
Everton, on the other hand, are coming off the back of a miserable defeat at home to relegation-haunted Fulham. They’ll have to do without Dominic Calvert-Lewin, whose hamstring won’t be risked ahead of the weekend’s Merseyside derby. They’ve lost their last five matches against City, who have won on their past three visits to Goodison by an aggregate score of 8-2. They’ve only kept one clean sheet in their last 15 games at home. And of the 41 times they’ve played against the leaders of the Premier League, they’ve won just three. All signs point to City, then ... but this is football, and one of the wilder seasons to boot. So you never know.
Kick off is at the not-particularly-traditional time of 8.15pm GMT. It’s on!
