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MOTD: Everton 1-1 Manchester City

By on January 10, 2015

As much as Everton have been in incredibly poor form of late, Manchester City have been inconsistent. Joe Hart was a critical last line of defense on multiple occasions – City were perhaps lucky to come away with a point despite dominating possession. Even so, perhaps the most relevant line is that as much as Chelsea’s title bid has slowed in the past few weeks City keep cutting The Blues breaks. Even Manchester United now have a chance to approach City as outsiders should they beat Southampton tomorrow. In short, it was a must win match for City which they drew.

Everton played a more direct style of football as expected, which proved tough to handle for a City side lacking Vincent Kompany. Sergio Aguero returned from injury as a substitute but looked rusty and failed to make much of an impact at all. Samir Nasri and David Silva were once again at the heart of most of City’s attacks, but lacked critical finishing and their only goal was quite scrappy.

Thirteen minutes in their only chance of note in the first half came directly from an Everton mistake; the ball bounced off Phil Jagielka’s knee right to Silva, putting him and Jesus Navas two on one with Jagielka. Silva slid it wide right to Navas, only for the Spaniard to drag his low effort wide of the far post. Everton’s defense was surprisingly resolute in a season in which it has struggled otherwise, leaving Navas’ miss all the more important.

On the brink of the half Romelu Lukaku nearly punished City for it, forcing Hart into a kick save after finding himself in on goal down the right side of the box. On the other side of the half he was given space to run at the Eliaquim Mangala and again forced Hart into a brilliant save to just barely dip wide his far post effort after jinxing down the left side of the box. City still dominated possession, ending the match having seen 62% of the ball, but in the second half Everton pushed out of their half much more often and did end up with the ball in City’s net, only to see it chalked off for a earlier foul which saw Hart spill the ball.

Just four minutes later in the seventy-fourth minute City did score, however, with Navas cutting it back to Silva inside Everton’s penalty area on the break. Silva found space for a shot through the myriad of Everton defenders blocking his path, and despite a deflection Fernandinho’s header proved enough to put it past Seamus Coleman on the post. It wasn’t undeserved, but Everton had been much more creative when going forward, especially as the match was stretched in the run-in. In fact, though from a set-piece, Everton’s equalizer came just three minutes later as Steven Naismith got to Leighton Baines’ near post corner ahead of Hart and flicked it into the bottom right corner. That goal proved to decide the match, and while it gives Everton a break from their poor form offers City another unwelcome interruption from their bid for the title.
Man of the Match: Romelu Lukaku

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.