Manchester City Ease Past the Sticky Toffees
By David Crook
T’is the season to be jolly, and thanks to Manchester City we all have a smile back on our faces as we return to winning ways in the Premier League
Pep Guardiola has picked this Manchester City team today focussed solely on the task in hand in the Premier League. No immediate concerns have been given to the tricky looking away tie in the Carabao Cup in Leicester on Tuesday night. Instead Guardiola has selected the fit players he has available and the only surprise was Raheem Sterling was starting on the bench. We will come back to Sterling later on.
It was absolutely freezing at the Etihad today, with a cold wind seemingly blowing the tears of Manchester United fans straight into our faces. It was one of those days where the rain actually hurt and gradually large parts of the crowd moved away from the front of the stands, which were most exposed, leaving the sheltered concourses busy as fans huddled by the television screens.
I think Guardiola must have told his team that the only way to keep warm was to keep moving. From the off we saw movement all over the pitch, in possession and recovery phases. Whether it was the wind or the conditions at pitch level in the driving rain, but today many of the final passes went astray and we were not quite at our cutting best.
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When Everton saw our team sheet they would have realised two things. Firstly, we had many of the best players in the league – Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling – on the bench. Secondly, that we were starting with Leroy Sane and Riyad Mahrez – both of whom have been in blistering form in respect of assists.
For large parts of the game, Everton struggled to contain us. It was another game where Ilkay Gundogan exercised some midfield control, selecting passes at will. The breakthrough came from a mistake by Everton trying to play out from the back. Gundogan fed Leroy Sane who slotted a pass through to Gabriel Jesus who thundered in his effort. It was difficult to tell who was more pleased – Gabriel Jesus or all the Manchester City fans.
In the second half Jesus doubled his scoring, this time by powerfully heading past Jordan Pickford from a cross by Sane. Rather than seeing the game out, City allowed Everton to force their way back when Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored. Calvert-Lewin is a player who last season feigned injury at the Etihad and got Kyle Walker sent off. This time he got himself involved in a needless spat with Fabian Delph.
Yerry Mina then dived in the penalty area and was hauled to his feet by the annoyed Ederson. It would be better if Everton invested less time in these dark arts of cheating and more time practising football. If there is any justice in the world Mina will face some retrospective action from the FA next week.
Luckily City still carved open some further opportunities to score and make the game safe. The breakthrough came when Raheem Sterling came on the pitch. He scored with his first touch of the ball, from a cross by Fernandinho, in what was an extremely rare foray into the opposing penalty area. This was a rare headed goal by Sterling and it said a lot for the quality of the cross, that he did not even have to leap to make the header.
There was even time to bring on De Bruyne and give him some valuable game time. He needs minutes to begin to operate as a quarterback again, but thankfully today there were some flashes of brilliance.
City are back at the Etihad next Saturday to face Crystal Palace, in what will be a similar game of attrition. But if all goes according to plan they will be able to call upon the returning Aguero and De Bruyne and hopefully may find a victory somewhat easier.