Johnny On The Spot: #BATTLE-STATIONS. The heat in the title race kitchen has intensified tonight as head chef Pep Guardiola urged his effective on frantically to what culminated in a fight fire with fire professional away win. This was The Blues 40th competitive fixture of a lung bursting season and how they earned their stripes.
Historically, Goodison Park has always been a tough place to go for Manchester City, especially in the modern era since the day City champion Joleon Lescott signed for The Blues much to the bitter disgust of The Moyesiah and a fanbase who have raised their objections to foaming levels every time City have visited since. For an increasingly agitated Liverpool obsessed media, there was never any danger of The Toffees rolling over tonight. In fact, it was the aforementioned Lescott who scored the crucial only goal at Villa Park 6 years ago next week that went a long way to contributing to our memorable 2012 title win. That is precisely where these games are at in these situations and what is required. It could well be that the City squad’s booming title winning experience is beginning to tell, in spite of an incredibly challenging fixture list. I think that we saw some clear and present fatigue in the champions legs in the latter stages of this bruising encounter and understandably so. I’d further suggest that tired minds also contributed to recent sporadic defeats. However, get over the Chelsea hurdle at a rocking Etihad on Sunday and the players have a rare full week off for rest and recuperation before the quest for silverware across 4 fronts resumes.
No quarter was given throughout this game by an ordinarily beleaguered Everton who had lost 3 of their last 4 matches at home, but in the second half City matched that commitment, if anything ditching the by now world renowned City Way in favour of blood and thunder, Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte leading the fight that sealed City’s first consecutive top-flight away wins at Everton for the first time since 1992.
JB’s Man Of The Match: Fernandinho, midfield general. A canny, combative masterclass.
Goodison Park
FA Premier League
2/06/2019 7:45 pm
Attendance: 39,322
Referee: Craig Pawson of South Yorkshire
| Everton | Manchester City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laporte (45'+2), Gabriel Jesus (90'+7') | |||||||
| 1 Jordan Pickford | 31 Ederson | ||||||
| 43 Jonjoe Kenny | 2 Kyle Walker | ||||||
| 4 Michael Keane | 5 John Stones | ||||||
| 5 Kurt Zouma | 30 Nicolas Otamendi | Gabriel Jesus 80' | |||||
| 12 Lucas Digne | 14 Aymeric Laporte | ||||||
| 17 Idrissa Gueye | 8 Ilkay Gündogan | ||||||
| 8 André Gomes | Sigurdsson 63' | 25 Fernandinho | |||||
| 11 Theo Walcott | Tosun 80' | 21 David Silva | De Bruyne 89' | ||||
| 26 Tom Davies | 20 Bernardo Silva | ||||||
| 20 Bernard | Richarlison 73' | 10 Sergio Agüero | |||||
| 29 Dominic Calvert-Lewin | 19 Leroy Sané | Sterling 59' | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 10 Gylfi Sigurdsson | 3 Danilo | ||||||
| 14 Cenk Tosun | 7 Raheem Sterling | ||||||
| 16 James McCarthy | 17 Kevin De Bruyne | ||||||
| 18 Morgan Schneiderlin | 26 Riyad Mahrez | ||||||
| 22 Maarten Stekelenburg | 33 Gabriel Jesus | ||||||
| 23 Seamus Coleman | 35 Aleks Zinchenko | ||||||
| 30 Richarlison | 49 Aro Muric | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 4 | Goal attempts | 14 |
| 1 | On Target | 3 |
| 5 | Corners | 6 |
| 12 | Fouls | 6 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 39 | % | 61 |