Home   >   MOTDs   >   MOTD- Everton 2-3 Manchester City

MOTD- Everton 2-3 Manchester City

By on May 3, 2014

After today’s result, it is hard to think anything but that Manchester City is well on track to regain the Premier League title that was taken away from them by Manchester United last season.  With just two matches left in the league run-in, all Manuel Pellegrini’s side now need to seal the title, barring a highly improbable situation in which Liverpool close the eleven goal differential in their final matches of the season, are home wins for City over Aston Villa and West Ham United.  Today they passed the biggest challenge of their run-in by holding off Everton to scrape out a narrow win at Goodison Park.

And, while City now control their destiny in the Premier League title race, a disastrous start to this match saw them momentarily risk ceding that control.  Although the Citizens dominated the opening stages, five minutes in they almost went down as Steven Naismith curled a low effort wide from edge of the box first-time via a low cut-back from the left.

Yet the fast-paced start soon slowed, and Everton began to keep some possession for themselves.  While City looked quite dangerous on the break, with Javi Garcia, who had found himself a pocket of space, heading an Everton corner straight at Tim Howard, Everton eventually made them pay for sitting back.  Naismith laid it off to Ross Barkley ten minutes in, and from twenty-five yards out, to the left of goal, the English starlet curled an fabulous first-time effort that just dipped into the top right corner of the net, leaving Joe Hart no chance at stopping Everton from taking the lead.

City, though, responded well, making sure not to panic – plenty of time for an equalizer and more was left.  In fact, Yaya Toure threatened to score just six minutes later when he romped in from the left before curling a shot inches over the crossbar.  So, it was no surprise when Toure slipped Sergio Aguero in down the right side of the box, and the Argentine forward’s low finish beat Howard at his near post.  Aguero was soon forced to come off for Fernandinho due to injury, yet even that couldn’t stop City’s momentum.  Thirty-six minutes in Nasri curled a great chance over from an open position twenty yards out from goal, and three minutes before the half Pellegrini’s men completed the comeback. Dzeko was slipped in down right of box, and although he took too long to get away shot from a tight angle to the right of goal, ending up with Howard kicking it away, James Milner collected the rebound on the right wing and floated a cross into the box which Dzeko rose up to snap into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal with a header.  City had the lead coming into the half.

Yet Everton came out stronger in the second half, and just seconds into the period Naismith was slipped in on goal, and only a fantastic save from Hart, who had come charging out of his goal, stopped the midfielder from poking a low shot into the bottom corner.  Roberto Martinez’s side could have recovered to equalize, possibly then going to to win, but in the forty-eighth minute Dzeko made it three for City as Nasri turned John Stones on the left side of the box in and out, before cutting a low ball across goal to the feet of Dzeko.  The Bosnian forward had the simplest of tap-ins to score what gave Everton a mountain to climb.

Romelu Lukaku got one back for Everton sixty-five minutes in with a diving header to send Leighton Baines’ cross from the left in off the inside of the left-hand post, and Barkley then found the side-netting following a brilliant run four minutes from the end of relegation time, but it proved to be too tall a task for Everton to make a comeback – City hung onto a win that leaves the title race in the Sky Blues’ hands and Everton’s fading Champions League hopes in Arsenal’s hands.
Man of the Match: Yaya Toure

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.