On a day when Everton surfed the passion of an emotional day at Goodison Park, and Manchester City huffed and puffed, Phil Foden delivered a winning goal that could prove crucial in the title race.
It looked like the Blues were heading for more dropped points until the 21-year-old pounced on a mistake by an exhausted Everton defence.
With Liverpool fans relishing the thought that their neighbours from across Stanley Park might inflict another big dent in City’s previously impregnable armour, Foden ’s goal could be a turning point.
It puts six points of daylight between them and Jurgen Klopp’s side again, as Liverpool prepare for the Carabao Cup final tomorrow.
Until that late moment, Everton looked like clinging on after expending a huge amount of energy in negating the Blues in the first half, and ten defended doggedly as the inevitable Blue surge happened - none too convincingly - after the break.
The build-up to the game was overflowing with emotion, not surprisingly as both teams have a Ukrainian in their ranks, and fellow players and fans of both teams were keen to show solidarity.
When City’s Aleks Zinchenko emerged and made a bee-line for his countryman Vitali Mykolenko during the warm-up, the two men shared a hug and had a quick heart-to-heart as fans applauded, and the away support waved Ukraine flags and a less-than-complimentary message for Russian premier Vladimir Putin.
The two teams emerged with their own display of support for the beleaguered country, subject to a fierce assault by Russian forces for the last two days.
City players wore t-shirts bearing the blue-and-yellow Ukraine flag, while Everton’s team all wrapped themselves in the same symbol of defiance.
As the two sets of players lined up, there were tears streaming down the cheeks of both Zinchenko and Mykolenko as they reflected on events.
Everton declined to use the air-raid siren that normally precedes the playing of the Z cars theme as the two teams came out, another spot-on decision, out of respect for people who have been suffering the terror of the real thing in Kyiv and the other Ukrainian cities.
Zinchenko and Mykolenko were both on the subs’ bench but that did not prevent the raw emotion generated by the moment from spilling over.
With Everton needing a result to stop an alarming slide down the table, just as the relegation candidates seem to be stirring themselves for one last push away from the bottom, they were in an aggressive mood from the off.
City’s need was no less great, with Liverpool now snapping at their heels after a big midweek win over Leeds.
But while Everton fed off the passion, City were trying to settle into their normal, calm rhythm, and that was not happening.
They ended up being drawn into a scrappy, snap-and-chase contest in which neither side had a genuine goal attempt until 29 minutes had elapsed - when Kevin De Bruyne’s borderline desperate shot from 25 yards was easily smothered by keeper Jordan Pickford.
That roused Everton into greater efforts, and when Allan slid a ball around the outside of John Stones, full-back Jonjoe Kenny raced onto it and slammed a shot high into the side netting, with half of the Everton fans celebrating what looked like a goal from some angles.
Stones, picked ahead of Kyle Walker, was clearly targeted by Everton youngster Anthony Gordon, whose pace was a serious test for him.
Walker seems to have paid the price for failing to put in a serious challenge when Harry Kane rose at the far post to secure the points for Spurs last week.
Pep Guardiola broke his usual rule of not publicly criticising his players after that game, although he did not name Walker.
Encouraged by that Kenny near-miss, the Toffees continued to make life difficult for the Blues, and when Richarlison lunged in to snap in a shot when City failed to clear their lines, Ederson was sharp enough to block.
City looked like a team waiting for the storm to subside, and whenever there was a lull, they looked dangerous.
Bernardo Silva carved in from the right flank and as players queued up for the angled ball into the middle, he subtly slid it behind them all to Phil Foden on the left side of the box - and his first-time shot was beaten away by Pickford.
The longer the game wore on, the more Everton wilted and the stronger City became.
When De Bruyne found some rare space on the edge of the box his low drive was beaten away, but the home and held their breath as the ball fell into the path of Bernardo’s left foot. He lashed it for the far corner, but Pickford somehow flung up an arm to produce another big save.
It had all been way below City’s normal level of performance, and the mystery was why Guardiola took 77 minutes before deciding to change things, replacing the malfunctioning Raheem Sterling with Gabriel Jesus and Ilkay Gundogan with Riyad Mahrez.
City still looked like huffing their way to a goalless draw, but that all changed as the game moved into the final ten minutes.
Bernardo trundled in another hopeful cross but with tired legs in the Everton defence, Mason Holgate’s prod at the ball deflected it towards a wrong-footed Michale Keane, and he could only knock it into the path of Foden who gleefully finished.
City had to survive some late VAR drama as the ball struck Rodri on his upper arm and the video refs had a long, hard look before deciding it was borderline enough not to overrule the referee's decision not to give it.
The final whistle brought serious celebrations from the sky blue shirts - they recognised the importance of these three points.
