Man City 1-1 Everton (B Silva 14′ | Ndiaye 36′)
Just to prove that there is not one aspect of Manchester City’s play that has been immune to their recent precipitous decline, even Erling Haaland’s penalty taking skills have been blunted, as he showed against Everton.
For just the second time in 17 attempts from the spot in his Premier League career, the City striker missed – or, more accurately, was denied by Jordan Pickford – as his side made it one win from 13 and were booed off.
The drop off from the champions has long been analysed and picked apart but when Haaland’s form shows this sort of collapse, then it really is difficult to see how an increasingly beleaguered Pep Guardiola can right his sinking ship in the New Year.
The moment came after 52 minutes, when Vitalii Mykolenko conceded the penalty, taking out Savinho around the knee and finding himself fortunate not to receive what would have been a second yellow card in the process.
It did not help Haaland that Everton skipper Seamus Coleman and Pickford both engaged in some good old-fashioned mind games in the wait for the kick.
But his poor effort was well saved by Pickford and, although the City striker headed in the rebound from Josko Gvardiol’s touch, he was clearly offside.
It left the Golden Boot holder with one goal from his last seven Premier League games and, while he cannot be held solely responsible for City’s spectacular collapse, he is clearly a contributing factor.
“Of course we are not happy with the result but the performance, that was not the case,” said Guardiola.
“We didn’t score goals but we created chances against a team that Arsenal and Chelsea couldn’t score against. There were days I don’t see many things I like but today was not one of those days.”
Yet it had the makings of a routine day at the office for City when they took a deserved lead after 14 minutes through Bernardo Silva, as Everton conceded for the first time in 310 minutes in the league.
Gvardiol’s pass to Jeremy Doku was moved on for Silva to dart towards the by-line, with his shot taking a fortunate deflection off Jarrad Branthwaite on its way past Pickford into the far corner of the Everton goal.
It had been all City to that point, with Gvardiol heading against a post early, and Silva should have doubled the lead on 33 minutes, missing a chance that looked easier than the one he had just scored.
Phil Foden’s lay-off found the Portuguese star in space, just inside the area, but Silva tried to force in an effort, with the outside of his boot, rather than settle for a routine shot and the result was an attempt that flew wide.
Before long that miss had proven even more costly as Everton capitalised on some poor City defending to snatch an equaliser.
Doku failed to clear an attack with Coleman latching onto a loose ball and finding Abdoulaye Doucoure, whose far-post cross should have been cut out by Manuel Akanji.
The City defender failed to clear, with Rico Lewis also missing the ball, to allow Iliman Ndiaye a controlling touch before he buried a lethal finish past Stefan Ortega. It was precisely the finish Silva should have come up with a few minutes earlier.
City had their moments in the second half although they could quite easily have fallen to another home loss. Doucoure’s volley was deflected behind, Orel Mangala’s shot did the same with Ortega stranded, and the visitors even missed a four-on-two fast break in injury time.
“We have to bounce back mentally from these situations,” said Guardiola. “It’s not easy when these things happen but there were still a lot of minutes to play after the penalty.
“I think we were very patient but that’s the momentum of the season, the momentum of our situation, that everything takes more time to make it work.”
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/RIbCcYl
Post a Comment