Home   >   MOTDs   >   MOTD: Manchester City 1-0 Everton

MOTD: Manchester City 1-0 Everton

By on December 6, 2014

When Chelsea drew at Sunderland last weekend and Manchester City pulled back within six points of the league leaders, everybody knew that the title race was back on. This morning, when Chelsea lost to Newcastle in the early game, hopes were as high as ever for Manchester City fans. However, despite their win, City didn’t do that much to reinforce those hopes. In fact, City might have lost some.

However strong Everton are on paper, their poor form of late should have at least given City some room for comfort, but on the contrary, Manuel Pellegrini’s side hardly looked convincing winners. In the end their only goal came via a dubious penalty, and Joe Hart was forced into perhaps the save of the season to keep City’s lead. Furthermore, Sergio Aguero hobbled off injured barely two minutes into the fixture, leaving him, Vincent Kompany, and David Silva all injured during a very important part of their season. Yaya Toure, who caps off City’s quartet of star players, also went down in the first half but recovered to finish the game. Overall, though, City’s hopes have been slightly diminished despite coming within three points of the club that were just a few weeks ago eight points ahead of them and gaining ground. Perhaps they have paid the price.

Now the time for talking and musing has passed. City need to get down to work, which was one of the few reasons why they managed to hold onto the three points today despite being off-pace. There wasn’t as much of the nice fancy football from City. After Aguero went down, that aspect of their game quickly faded. Their one goal of the match came shortly after, when James Milner found himself bundled over by Phil Jagielka down the left side of Everton’s penalty area, a challenge that City were lucky Andre Marriner deemed a penalty. Toure made no mistake, and City took the lead. But they weren’t dominant. The match was wide open, and thirty-eight minutes in Kevin Mirallas saw his deflected volley loop just wide of the post. On the other side of the half Jose Pozo really should have doubled City’s lead, and in fact thought he had, only for Tim Howard to somehow kick-save save his six yard effort from Milner’s cut-back as Pozo was already wheeling away to celebrate.

The balance swung in Everton’s direction from there, as they realized they had held on with the clock ticking down. Samuel Eto’o tested Hart from the edge of the D, and eighty-two minutes in, the England goalkeeper made full use of that practice as he somehow, somehow, got his fingertips on a Romelu Lukaku volley from the left side of the area enough to tip the ball wide. That save just made the difference in City holding onto the win.

Otherwise, there are some positives for City to take. After their crucial UEFA Champions League decider against Roma midweek, their upcoming run of Premier League fixtures gives them breathing room to regain composure and return key men back from injury. Even the weakened side they fielded today is one that most teams would envy. Samir Nasri was all over the pitch, and should Toure maintain his fitness, by all means the title race is still very much on.
Man of the Match: Samir Nasri

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.