Your Everton evening headlines for Sunday, January 1.
Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne make mockery of Manchester City 'crying' over Everton tactics
Like Al Pacino’s character Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part III, Evertonians could be forgiven for uttering the words: “Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in” following the Blues’ dogged but deserved draw away to Premier League champions Manchester City. One of the most-pleasing aspects of the result was the way the visitors got under the skin of many in the home camp, who promptly behaved like spoilt children who didn’t get their way.
Despite spending prolonged periods on the touchline flailing around, manager Pep Guardiola was at least smart enough in public to deny that he was frustrated by Everton’s approach, stating: “It’s Premier League. Listen, it’s a strategy for the opponent and if the referees do not intervene, I cannot do anything.” Centre-back John Stones was less diplomatic, accusing his previous employers of “time-wasting.”
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The reaction of some of City’s fans was even more damning, as they accused Everton of deploying a whole host of supposed ‘dark arts’ to snatch a point. While we all must be aware that the knee-jerk tirades of keyboard warriors on social media aren’t necessarily a fair reflection of the populace as a whole and we will all view matches through the different prisms of our individual standpoints, frankly this correspondent sees such sour grapes as laughable given there was nothing out of the ordinary in the tactics of the visiting players.
Read Chris Beesley's full talking point HERE.
Alan Shearer gives verdict on Everton's 'physical' Erling Haaland plan and Ben Godfrey battle
Alan Shearer has praised Everton's physical approach to handling Erling Haaland and believes further teams may now follow suit in a bid to thwart the Norwegian.
Haaland opened the scoring on Saturday afternoon against Frank Lampard's side, but was uncharacteristically hot-headed throughout the game and was unable to find a way past the Blues' resilient backline during the second half.
Going head-to-head with Ben Godfrey at the Etihad Stadium, the Premier League top scorer was seen wildly celebrating his goal in the face of the Everton centre-back and was not shy of pushing Godfrey around during the contest. Haaland ended the first half by putting in a late challenge on Vitalii Mykolenko, resulting in a yellow card.
Read the full story HERE
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