City’s first home match of the season brought them down to earth with a bang as Everton came to town. New season, same old stuff.
Home debuts were handed to Ederson and Walker and there was also a debut for the Tunnel Club, the new plush money-spinner so far not emulated anywhere else in England giving the wealthier fans a chance to experience match day almost side-by-side with the players adding an insight as to what goes on in the tunnel itself. This latter part was not entirely appreciated by referee Bobby Madley, especially after his nightmare efforts.
The teams came out in a blaze of glory, but perhaps the reluctance of the firework smoke to leave the stadium and ruin the broadcaster’s early images were symptomatic of what was to follow. City clearly lost their way in the fog, especially Aguero, handed four clear chances to open and finish the scoring in the first half, but for some reason finding each time that he needed another touch, to beat another man when the pathway to the back of the net was more than ajar.
Everton’s new net minder Pickford continues to stake his England claim for the gloves of ousted Hart with a few neat saves whereas at the other end the somewhat expensive Ederson failed at the first time of asking.
City were effectively steam-rollering the Toffees. Wave after wave of City attacking was repulsed with the usual array of brave blocking and defending, one or two uses of football’s darker arts and a general effort to soak up pressure, but losing the ball on the break. It looked only a matter of time before City would take the lead, but the striking effort was at best off key.
De Bruyne, once again failed in the early stages to find a rhythm, or for that matter to find his colleagues as time and again City’s moves avoided fruition as his passes avoided his own players. Schneiderlin, the Stretford reject, was booked early on but City did not have the nous to trick him into a second yellow. At least not until the end of the match.
Nor did they seem to have the nous nor the keys to unlock Everton’s well-drilled stubborn defence. When the glory chance game it fell to Silva whose screamer hit the foot of a post and fell away to safety. How come when he plays for Spain those efforts hit the back of the net?
Almost immediately thereafter, the game probably went on script as Everton broke away with some conviction with Holgate and Calvert-Lewin interchanging down the right. Sane chased them down in vain lacking the same conviction and Kompany was left in a heap as the ball found its way to Rooney who toe-poked it first time toward City’s goal. Somehow the elegant ball-playing keeper Ederson emulated Lloris by allowing the ball to squirm through his legs allowing Shrek to celebrate his 200th Premier League goal. Where else would he have wanted to celebrate that?
The Etihad was stunned into silence.
City needed to get back on the march and get something done, but the goal invigorated Everton and instead of defending it out, they went in search of an addition. Within seven minutes a frustrated Walker went right through Baines to earn himself a yellow card. Everton milked this almost immediately when within two minutes Walker backed into Calvert-Lewin with his right arm a little too high, but high enough to allow Calvert-Lewin to hit the deck like a sack of spuds, giving Madley his first real challenge of the night.
Incredibly he went to his pocket again and it was hasta la vista Walker. Could it get any worse?
At half time Guardiola decided to replace Sane with Sterling. I couldn’t quite work out what role Sane was fulfilling. A wing back he is not and I feel that however Guardiola was asking him to play not only didn’t work out in terms of his defensive capability but also had a negative effect on his forward play. Nothing which bore fruit came from his wing and with De Bruyne having one of his nights of impotence, just who was loading the gun? Silva seemed to be doing the work of two men, Fernandinho linked whenever he could and even Otamendi made forays up to the front and brought two useful saves out of Pickford.
At first Sterling joined the Sergio Club, making obtuse decisions, shooting from the wrong place, ignoring colleagues in better positions as City even with ten men dominated possession without posing a direct threat to the Everton goal.
That was until seven minutes from time when the newly-introduced Danilo hit a left-foot cross into the box. Holgate finally made a hash of it and the ball fell to Sterling who lashed it into the back of the net to send a ripple of relief around the Etihad.
It wasn’t enough and the Blue Mooners bayed for a winner. Rooney got caught up in the emotion and found his way into Madley’s notebook and almost immediately Schneiderlin made a fairly lean attempt to get the ball, but get the ball he did while at the same time disturbing Aguero who fell like a tree in a coppice. Out came the ex-Stretford’s second yellow and offski he went.
Despite a late rally City couldn’t force themselves a winner, but by now Everton wasted the whole of the rest of the match including four minutes of stoppage time to secure a 1?1 draw.
Once again the evidence is clear to see. Guardiola has hardly a clue about how to play in this league. He selected an experimental team against Brighton and almost came unstuck. The other top teams will whip them by big scores this season but City scrambled to a 2-0 win and one of those goals was an OG.
Here they demonstrated yet again that they may have all the tools to keep the ball, but they don’t have the right ones to open the door of a packed defence, something they will face more than once this season. Sane is not a wing-back. He is an attacking forward, a man with pace, a winger, a game-changer, a goalscorer. Aguero is just not happening. He hasn’t scored against Everton in seven attempts and he must have had seven attempts in this match. The goalkeeper, Ederson looks just as much a nervous entity as Bravo did last year. Purchased for his fancy footwork, how come he couldn’t use it to prevent Shrek’s softish toe-poke going in?
If City have any title aspirations this season they need to collect all three points in a match like this, there is no excuse. But with Guardiola expecting them to play a la Barca, has he forgotten the tribulations of last season, or has he not learned?
Was it wrong to line up with de Jesus on the right against the wily old stick that is Baines and play Sane on the left, when the alternative was to select Sterling and play de Jesus on the left? I think it was. Plus there was nobody effective in behind Aguero who found himself among Jagielka and another Stretford reject in the shape of Keane then with sundry midfielders closing off his routes. It was astonishing that, despite this, he got four clear sights of goal including one of his trade marks, but still couldn’t trouble the scorers.
The one man who must start soon is Bernardo Silva. He truly looks a class operator. When he was introduced he made things happen and I would love to see him give it a go for ninety minutes. I also like the look of Danilo. He also adds a touch of class and has the type of engine Guardiola is looking for. How come, though, he spent all of the match last week on the left, stepping inside on to his right foot, when this week he delivered a pin-point cross with his left, which resulted in City’s goal?
I just hope Guardiola can be trusted to put out a proper team against Bournemouth and not play his La Liga games and show Eddie Howe’s men any disrespect. My dad is well fed up with Pep’s antics. A life-long City fan, but he feels Pep cannot be trusted and that City can forget the title and the Champions League while under his stewardship. Maybe City should get Neil Warnock!
Dear Sue, looking on in anguish at home was hoping City would whack the Blue Noses, but it almost worked out that they whacked City. From her viewpoint City were “rubbish” and at a time when she’s losing faith in Klopp are more City fans than my dad doing likewise with Guardiola?
The domino effect of last minute transfers seems to be hitting the buffers with Sanchez happily ensconced at Arsenal and Coutinho about to make a u-turn at Anfield. I’m not sure where that leaves Van Dijk, but we all know where it leaves the despicable Costa.
Jonny Evans? Well, he hardly ever let the Stretford’s down and he plays quite well for West Brom. Maybe City can trade off someone like Delph in exchange. Evans might be an addition of limited welcome, but unlike City’s other reserve centres is Premier League savvy. Maybe him signing for City is just what United need.
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