Man City 1-1 Everton: different ideals

Sterling levels – bitterandblue.sbnation.com

Manchester City’s draw with Everton on Monday night, which saw Wayne Rooney’s opener cancelled out by Raheem Sterling’s late strike, staged two teams with different ideals.

City favoured fluid, passing football which saw them create numerous openings and be the more prominent side, despite playing half the match with a man disadvantage. Everton’s attacks revolved almost entirely around the individuality of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, with the youngster’s teammates spending much of the time in their own half.

There was a yawning chasm though between Leroy Sane – who struggled to get beyond Mason Holgate – and Nicolas Otamendi. Calvert-Lewin exploited that to get beat the latter for pace but his work in the final third was made difficult due to a shortage of numbers breaking forward. On one occasion, the young forward dragged wide a speculative effort and on another, he laid the ball off, but only for Tom Davies to do the same.

Aside from those fleeting breakaway moments, Man City had a promising start. They used Gabriel Jesus’ pace to pressurize Everton’s centre-backs as David Silva switched play expertly in the middle third. Kevin De Bruyne’s free-kick was deflected to Jordan Pickford while Sergio Aguero had space to shoot on nine minutes, but his shot swerved wide.

City found it difficult to pick the final ball in the first half but they created passing angles with enough confidence to suggest that their moment would come. Morgan Schneiderlin marked De Bruyne while Silva was closed down by Idrissa Gana Gueye. When the latter deviated from his brief to pressurize elsewhere though, there was space for Silva to play in De Bruyne, but his shot was hit straight at Pickford.

Everton were level but it was largely down to their sturdy centre-backs, the outstanding Phil Jagielka, who made two excellent challenges on Aguero. The Argentine produced the home side’s closest moment but was thwarted by some brave goalkeeping from Pickford, who forced him to chip the ball, giving Jagielka enough time to clear off the line.

Silva then hit the post on 34 minutes, which a pivotal point in the game. It was followed, seconds later, by Rooney’s opener, tucking the ball between Ederson Moraes’ legs after some good work from Calvert-Lewin. Before half-time, Kyle Walker was booked for a second yellow, handing the Merseyside visitors a big opportunity to claim a win.

Man City’s 10 men started the second half on the front foot, with Fernandinho calling the shots, but they struggled to get in behind as Everton dropped deeper. On the hour mark, Ronald Koeman introduced Davy Klaassen and Gylfi Sigurdsson, in hope of using the ball better and getting further up the pitch. We saw a brief improvement in that regard from the Toffees, who pinned City back in their own half for a 10-minute spell, but Pep Guardiola reacted well with his substitutions.

He put on Bernardo Silva, who added a sprinkling of class to proceedings and Danilo, who injected a burst of pace down City’s right flank. The full-back was key to the best openings they created and forced a stop from Pickford, a few minutes after Sterling blazed over from close range.

Sterling though atoned for his miss with nine minutes to go, when Holgate misjudged his defensive header and the England winger was alert to lash the ball home. The hosts’ attacking play in the second half was excellent and Everton retreated with a man advantage, though numbers were evened in the closing minutes. Schneiderlin was shown a second yellow for his late foul on Sergio Aguero, so Muhamed Besic took his role when he replaced Wayne Rooney in injury-time.

On paper, this is a better result for Everton than it is for Man City. However, the Toffees may in part rue a missed opportunity while their opponents can take pride from the creativity and intent their team showed, even when the odds were against them.