Manchester City followed up their Club World Cup win by coming from behind to beat Everton at Goodison Park and move back into the Premier League’s top four.
Jack Harrison, the former City player who never played a senior game for the club, put Everton ahead after 29 minutes and Pep Guardiola’s problems increased before half-time when John Stones limped off after a challenge with Beto.
City equalised when Phil Foden beat Jordan Pickford at his near post from distance on 53 minutes. A Julian Alvarez penalty, after Amadou Onana blocked Nathan Ake’s close-range shot with a raised arm, put City ahead in the 64th minute and Bernardo Silva capitalised on a poor Pickford clearance five minutes before the end to crown the comeback.
Here, Sam Lee analyses the key points from the game.
Should we have seen Foden’s goal coming?
City had started the game very well, doing exactly what they needed to do, but the first issue, as it has been quite a bit this season, was not taking the chances when they came their way. The second issue, also something we’ve seen a lot of this season, was that they then undermined their good work by giving away a very cheap goal thanks to a series of sloppy mistakes.
Everton took the lead on 29 minutes and that was more or less the end of City’s threat until the break. They came out for the second half looking much more like themselves, working the ball from side to side in the Everton half, but there was still a feeling they might need somebody to step up and do something a bit special to ensure their possession and control would bring its rewards.
Phil Foden was that man, slamming in an equaliser out of the blue from a position he likes to score from: during the behind-closed-door matches, he would take up a position just outside the box when City have a corner on the right, wait for the ball to come his way and slam it into the bottom corner. It came after the second phase at Goodison, but the most important thing for City was that it came at all.
Stones the victim of a delayed offside call – how big a problem is his injury?
What a terrible season this is turning out to be for Stones on the injury front. He did not make an appearance in the Premier League until October due to a hip injury and barely a month later, he was out again with a muscle injury. There was an international break in between those two lay-offs, too, meaning he only made four starts when fully fit.
City have eased him back in throughout December (he only started one league game, instead getting minutes in lower-intensity Champions League and Club World Cup matches) but after a collision with Beto during the first half, he was forced off yet again.
Given how crucial he is to City — they currently need a defender to add an extra man in midfield and he is by far the best at it — his absence has really been felt this season.
Pep Guardiola could be seen chastising the referee’s assistant for not raising his flag and many onlookers share his annoyance, but that is exactly what the officials are told to do, to allow the move to play out so VAR can check any tight calls later.
It is another reason to lament the introduction of VAR, but the officials did what they are instructed to do.
Is this City right back in the title race?
There is no guarantee that City start to go on a winning run now, as most people will presume, but the past few weeks have panned out very well for them.
After throwing away a victory to draw 2-2 with Palace only 10 days ago, Guardiola was asked about the prospect of returning to England and being 12 points behind Liverpool before kick-off at Goodison. Fast forward to full-time and they are just five points behind with a game in hand.
They have had their problems in recent weeks and they were, to some extent, on display on Merseyside: play very well but undo that good work with one or more silly errors. Any Stones injury would be a problem, too, but thanks to results elsewhere (like Liverpool drawing twice, including once against Arsenal) and City showing great character here to come back from another sucker-punch, the picture at the top of the table is nowhere near as bad as it might have been.
What did Pep Guardiola say?
On Stones: “Ankle. Sometimes you have seasons like that. Hopefully the damage isn’t big and he can come back soon. December has been really tough with important players injured but we are still there. I had the feeling that the way we are playing is more than good and the mentality is still there. ”
On Haaland and De Bruyne’s continued absence: “He’s training alone and getting better but not with the team yet. Kevin is training with the team but Erling is getting better, it’s a question of when the pain will disappear. Kevin is close but he had fatigue yesterday and we have to be careful. When he was injured for three months, if you don’t handle the timings good you can get injured again.
“The injury was serious so step by step but he’s training with us and he is so positive so soon he will be back. I’d love for ihm to play the next game or Huddersfield but what is important is keeping him fit for a long time, not for one game or another.
“(Haaland) had a stress in the bone in his feet and it’s so painful. He’s not a skinny guy like Phil Foden, he’s huge and tall so it is more difficult sometimes. When he will be fine, he will be back and play.”
On City’s approach: “We played really good the first half but after the goal we were a little bit in chaos, we had to improve a little bit, it was like after we scored the second goal we lost a little bit of control, still we are not mature enough to know exactly what we have to do, because in that type game when they defend with five and defend man to man we have to make a lot of short passes, the people inside have to come close to Ederson, Rodri and Nathan and make short passes.
“Matheus, Bernardo, Phil and Rodri and Manu have this quality to keep the ball, and after that contact with the wingers and run, and the last 10-15 minutes, especially after the third goal, we did it really well.”
What next for Manchester City?
Saturday, December 30: Sheffield United (H), Premier League, 3pm GMT, 10am ET
City have not lost in the league to Sheffield United since January 2000, a nine-game run that includes seven wins.
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(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images))
