By Will Strachan
Pre-match Context
The arrival of May saw the league campaign reach its conclusion for many clubs across England, but the Premier League is yet to be decided with Arsenal and Manchester City continuing to push each other to the limit.
With Arsenal comfortably dispatching of Fulham 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon, focus travelled north once more as Manchester City made the short trip to Liverpool for a first meeting with Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Back-to-back victories for Arteta’s side flipped the pressure right back to Manchester City, with Guardiola’s side six points behind Arsenal despite having five games to Arsenal’s three.
Everton approach the season climax with ambitions of their own, as they look to secure a place in the table which would secure European football for next season – nine years after they featured in the Europa League under Ronald Koeman.
Moyes acknowledged that possibility, following a disappointing loss to West Ham last weekend: “We’re well aware if we can win tonight, it would keep us in the hunt for it [European football], but we’ve got a difficult opponent.”
Manchester City are undefeated against Everton in their previous 18 meetings in all competitions – 17 of those being league fixtures.
An early Champions League exit has allowed for a less relentless period than Manchester City might have faced, something which Guardiola has fully capitalised on as he made eight changes from the side which faced Southampton nine days prior.
Only Matheus Nunes, Nico Gonzalez and Rayan Cherki started both games, with the usual first team suspects, including Erling Haaland, back in the starting lineup to face Everton.
David Moyes made changes of his own, with Tim Iroegbunam and Beto brought in from the side which faced West Ham, as well as a rare start for Merlin Rohl.
The Match
The opening ten minutes saw little in the way of chances, with Manchester City dominating the ball while Everton looked to absorb pressure and break on the counter-attack.
By the 15-minute mark, Manchester City had completed 128 passes to Everton’s 17, although still hadn’t manufactured anything of note, with the Toffees’ unit remaining compact.
In the following minutes, Doku twice received the ball on the left flank and used his pace to get the better of his man before his attempt at a cut back was blocked.
Semenyo then danced through several bodies and into the box before firing wide of Pickford’s goal.
Those two then combined minutes later, with Doku re-emerging on the left wing and opting to loft a cross in this time, which Semenyo found on the volley but fired over the crossbar.
In the 24th minute, Everton managed a shot of their own as Ndiaye shuffled a ball across to Dewsbury-Hall on the transition, with the Englishman attempting a long-range attempt outside the box which was blocked by Khusanov.
Just before the half hour mark, Khusanov appeared to go down off the ball following brief contact with Beto – although the 22-year-old managed to walk-off the visible discomfort.
Following the early spell of City pressure, Everton were beginning to enjoy more of the ball and created a real chance 31 minutes in as Rohl raced down the right wing and drilled a low cross towards Donnarumma, who managed enough on it to put the waiting Beto off.
Manchester City’s next decent chance came when Doku cut the ball back from the left flank once more, finding Cherki this time, who couldn’t keep his effort below the crossbar.
The breakthrough finally came during the 43rd minute with a moment of magic from the man who had been most involved up to that point – Jeremy Doku.
Guardiola’s side continued to float the ball around the Everton box, as Cherki pulled it back to Doku, who was waiting centrally just inside. The 23-year-old took one touch to control, before curling an absolute beauty from his left foot into the top left corner, leaving Jordan Pickford with no chance.
Merely a minute later, Doku was once again involved as he chased a stray ball and got clattered into by Keane, resulting in Michael Oliver brandishing his first card of the game.
Keane completely missed the ball, and VAR did look at the challenge before confirming the referee’s on-field decision of a yellow card.
An ineffective City free-kick saw the referee bring an end to the first-half shortly after, with Manchester City leading 1-0 and on their way to a crucial 3 points.
The half-time statistics showed City in control, with 76% of the ball and 31 touches in the Toffee’s box.
Everton managed chances of their own on the counter, but had so far failed to convert and would likely need to be more clinical in the second half, if they were to salvage anything from the game.
With the Premier League title being decided by goal difference if Manchester City and Arsenal were to win their remaining games, finding a second would surely be the aim for Guardiola’s side while holding on to their hard-earned lead.
Minutes into the action resuming, a lazy, late shove from Beto on Guehi prompted Michael Oliver into issuing a second Everton yellow card of the match.
A third Everton yellow followed in the 53rd minute as Haaland made a darting run past Tarkowski before being tugged back – both Everton centre-backs now finding themselves in the book early into the second half.
Just before the hour-mark, Cherki lost the ball on the Everton box, allowing an Everton surge forward following an advantage by Michael Oliver. Ndiaye and Beto exchanged the ball before Ndiaye drove towards the edge of the City box and unleashed a shot which lacked enough power to truly trouble Donnarumma.
Everton made the first change of the game after 63 minutes, with a lone swap of strikers, as Beto was replaced by Thierno Barry.
Almost instantly after, Ndiaye found himself in a one-on-one after latching on to a ball which missed several heads, but the Senegalese international was unable to place the ball past the commanding body of Donnarumma, who called upon all his experience to put his huge frame in the way.
Barry found himself in an offside position as a through-ball was attempted, but Guehi collected it and attempted a weak pass to his goalkeeper which Barry charged on to and slotted past Donnarumma.
The flag silenced the crowd reaction before the goal was given due to Guehi finding himself in temporary control of the ball before giving Everton an absolute gift.
City suddenly looked a shadow of their first half dominance, as Everton found another chance through Ndiaye who dribbled into the City box before a big block from a likely guilty-feeling Guehi.
City failed to deal with the corner, as Everton’s O’Brien rose and nodded in Dewsbury-Hall’s resulting corner, glancing past a watching Donnarumma as the Hill Dickinson erupted, as any Arsenal fans watching likely did.
Donnarumma earned a first Manchester City yellow card amongst the chaos for displaying his dissatisfaction in the aftermath of the goal.
Guardiola turned to his bench following the corner, promptly bringing on Phil Foden and Mateo Kovacic in place of Antoine Semenyo and Nico Gonzalez.
Ndiaye even found himself bombing towards the City defence again with support before attempting a shot which Donnarumma collected comfortably. In hindsight, passing was probably the smarter option.
Just five minutes separated Barry’s 68th minute equaliser and O’Brien’s 73rd minute goal which had completely flipped the game on its head.
The game had become a mess for Manchester City, as Guardiola’s in-control side were leaking chances in attempt to rescue their title hopes.
81 minutes in, Rohl latched on to another through-ball down the right and attempted what looked like an inaccurate shot which landed at Barry’s feet who had a chunk of the open net to aim for and slotted Everton’s third of the half in.
Before celebrations could even finish ringing out around the stadium, Kovacic threaded a ball forward which Haaland charged down, and using his stature to muscle away defenders, cleverly dinked the ball over Pickford to score his 25th league goal of the season.
Doku found himself wriggling away down the left again, before being dragged down by goalscorer O’Brien who took a fourth Everton booking.
Further late substitutions saw Guardiola bring Marmoush on for Silva, while Moyes turned to three reinforcements of his own as Alcaraz, Patterson and Armstrong entered for Dewsbury-Hall, Rohl and Iroegbunam.
Deep into stoppage time, a desperate Donnarumma found himself in the Everton box twice attacking corners, and on the second occasion, Guehi brought down the ball for Doku, who curled in his second of the match in the eighth minute of stoppage time.
Two superb finishes from Jeremy Doku on either foot, yet it seemed as though the three points had evaded City.
Guardiola’s side raced back to try and find time for a fourth, but Michael Oliver pulled the curtain on a spectacular show – one which might not be enough for either side come the end of the season.
A game where the two halves could not be more different – Everton created just 0.22xG in the first half, before an abundance of chances in the second saw them score three times and end the match with an xG figure of 2.77, far superior to City’s of 1.44.
Guardiola reflected on the result post-match: “In general we were good in our process, and we arrive, Jeremy was outstanding on the left side. We create a lot, we arrive a lot and unfortunately we could not capitalise on the first half.”
No team in the Premier League is likely to be happier with this result than Arsenal, who crucially now have it all in their hands to decide the fate of the title.
Manchester City climb to 71 points, but find themselves 5 points behind an Arsenal side who are potentially three matches away from a first Premier League trophy since 2004.
Meanwhile for Everton, despite a performance to be proud of, it’s just 2 points collected from a possible 12, and leaves their chances of finishing in a place which would guarantee European football next season slimmer than rival teams.
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