Can anybody tell me in simple terms precisely what we have witnessed at Goodison Park today? City were not just beaten by Everton, they were destroyed. Destroyed by a team with limitations but a team who plays to those limitations and uses them to their advantage. And today they did that so effectively.
With the exception of the Pedamchine’s hero, Bravo, Guardiola fielded the same team that took West Ham apart 9 days ago. The difference here is that Everton are playing for their manager whereas I suspect certain elements within the West Ham fold are not.
Guardiola and Koeman went to great lengths to make sure we knew about their friendship in days gone by, but there was nothing friendly about the way Everton initially rode their luck and simply dismantled City with the skill of a demolition expert. Some of it was self-inflicted but the truth is that they were direct and when they saw the whites of the posts, they knew where to put the ball.
City, by comparison, might have drawn pretty pictures, but pretty pictures don’t win football matches. Goals do.
The portents were there as early as the eleventh minute when a typical Everton move had City’s defence in tatters before Mirallas turned the ball home only to be flagged offside.
There was perhaps a turning point in the 14th minute when Sterling was double-teamed by a combination of Baines and Robles and his penalty claim, an easy one to give, was refused by the world’s best referee, Mr Clattenburg.
City tried in vain to carve out openings in an organised defence, heavy in numbers on most occasions, but whatever came the way of Sterling, Aguero and Silva was dealt with easily and unfussily by Robles and Williams and Funes Mori.
Davies, the hero of the match for Everton got away with four lean looking tackles, but provided a kind of steel that nobody in the maroon shirts could muster.
Koeman’s formation didn’t really let City off the hook and despite them finding several goal chances falling their way we saw the benefit of having centre backs who are Premier League savvy, who play to orders to defend, rather than Otamendi, who I thought had a good game but who still looks vulnerable and Stones who despite his own protestations almost refuses to improve to the levels that his manager wants.
But by the same token, Guardiola himself refuses to rise to the standards set here by Mancini and Pellegrini. The early season might well have taken our breath away, but that same breath is now leaking from us in terms of belief. Indeed he cut a very forlorn figure, head bowed in the dugout and not showing the kind of passion that has fed belief in Chelsea and Liverpool this season.
The scoring started in all too familiar fashion as Clichy gave the ball away in the final third to Davies who quickly fed Mirallas in the space Clichy had vacated. He just as quickly found the unattended Lukaku who did the rest. First shot for Everton, 100% return.
City scorned another two chances ahead of the break, one by Sterling who hit the top of the bar with a left-footed drive and one from Aguero, who having tugged and turned Funes Mori, couldn’t get to the ball quickly enough to tap home an equaliser.
Surely the start of the second half would see City continue in this vein and maybe get level. But no, nothing could be further from the truth. Only two minutes into the second half Yaya gave the ball away to Lukaku who moved it on to Barkley who in turn played in Mirallas who steered it past Bravo, who just never looked comfortable with proceedings.
That was effectively that. Everton now smelt blood whereas Guardiola wasn’t even smelling the coffee.
City needed a change or two but it was a while coming before Zabaleta was sacrificed for Iheanacho, largely because Sagna and De Bruyne insisted in playing high balls into the middle giving Williams and Funes Mori an easy afternoon of it. Kelechi had precisely no impact being asked to play in behind Aguero who was once again having one of his non-contributory off days. There were long passages of unproductive play from City where almost on every occasion they were so slow in their build up that Everton had no problems in getting their men behind the ball and creating the kind of stranglehold from which City have found it impossible to benefit this season.
By contrast, when Everton moved forward it was in typical fashion and in Lukaku they had the most willing of front-runners who could also hold up play until reinforcements came. Yes, they went through a period where they were maybe too eager and City got the ball back, but there was always time for them to regroup knowing City didn’t have the keys to the castle.
And then with ten minutes left Davies robbed Clichy, again in the final third and sprinted out of defence in determined fashion. He drove himself between Silva and Yaya neither of which made a serious attempt to tackle him and played a longish one-two with Barkley. Lukaku did try to steal his glory by getting on the end of his shot but TV images showed it was Davies’ goal and a well-deserved one at that. For me Bravo should have done more, but hey, he hardly stops anything so why would he want to start today?
As the game headed to its conclusion there was a minor skirmish or two especially when Lukaku pushed Otamendi over. Obviously, the rules have been rewritten since Fernandinho did likewise to Fabregas, but it wouldn’t have made much difference. The incident did seem to shake Guardiola out of his slumber and he showed more passion at that moment than he had all afternoon.
So, Everton sent on a young player, Lookman, to get himself a taste of life at the top. A bit of keystone cops defending saw the young man get open and slide the ball between the legs of Bravo to send Goodison, quite rightly into raptures and to herald Guardiola with “You’re getting sacked in the morning”.
It appears you don’t have to be a great team to beat City, you just have to play in Royal Blue. Including the 1-1 draw with Everton earlier this season City have now allowed 12 goals against these teams namely Chelsea, Leicester and Everton.
It is impossible to defend how City played today. Statistics can say what they like but when the key one says Everton 4 City 0, it is that one that says it all.
Despite an eight-day rest this performance was not acceptable. Once again it was too predictable and the build-ups could be easily defended. Everton were happy to concede possession to a team who did not know what to do with it. Out to the left, back, out to the right, back to Yaya, back to Stones, back to Coco. It is one big yawn. We have a game plan designed to take no risks and we get pasted 4-0.
As I said, much of this was City’s own doing. After a couple of reasonable matches Clichy ploughed his more usual furrow, twice losing out in tackles lacking determination and twice finding the ball ending up in the back of the City net. Behind that was another day when almost every shot on target by the opposition went in. That’s 12 in 20 now for the masterclass that is Bravo. Once again I would suggest that some of you think I’m over-critical of him but Sue just about summed it up when she said “And you let Joe go for him? He’s s***e!”. Sadly I agree with her. If ever a goalkeeper was not meant to play in the Barclays Premier League Bravo is that man.
What has happened to De Bruyne? His performance today was the poorest I’ve seen from him and that includes the odd outing he got at Chelsea. His decision-making seems to have gone wrong and I’m not sure he is being played in his best place. Today I would have replaced him with Sane who is not that well known and might have given the Everton defenders something to think about.
Silva did a lot without doing much, scorning a chance as he changed feet and hitting too many balls into the wrong channels. Aguero didn’t seem to have the appetite and Sterling also made some poor decisions, although I did think it was a penalty.
A scoreline like this tells us one thing loud and clear. The defence is not good enough and whereas less well-off teams give youth a chance it is not something that appears to be on Pep’s agenda. With a range of full backs looking like the cast of Dad’s Army it is time to look at some of these footballers. I keep saying it but one thing they will have is hunger, desire and determination. They will want to prove a point. What point do the likes of Sagna, Kolarov and Clichy have to prove? I leave Zabaleta out of it because he has been with us 9 years and has never really let us down. But even his years are advancing now.
The scoreline also tells us that City have been sussed. Like the sea, blue waves are less dangerous on the fringes of the rocks and that is exactly where Everton steered City today and having four or five neat passers is nothing if none of them can produce the kind of straight pass that sets Aguero on his way to goal. That just didn’t happen today.
For their part, Everton stuck to their work and their instructions well. They didn’t give in when they were under threat and had the belief in their system to see themselves easily over the line and well done to them. Some of their players who have been under scrutiny put in a shift for their manager and the older heads were there to steer the ship. Davies deserved the man-of-the-match nomination. I can’t think of one City player I could have nominated.
I am one very disappointed City fan tonight. Not only are City outside the top four but a big win for the Stretfords over Liverpool could have put them in front of us after what seems an eternity. And next up for City is Spurs. After Chelsea they are probably the team of the season and look a very powerful outfit from front to back. The cynic in me suggests City could be on the end of another embarrassing result.
As Sue is doing the ironing in the bedroom unable to watch her team who ultimately drew in Salford, I’m going to pack my suitcase ready for our trip to Paris tomorrow. So JB if you’re reading this make sure tomorrow evening’s EasyJet gets through to Roissy safely.
If Liverpool had come up empty today Sue and I had decided to go and support Marine FC in Crosby, so make way for a new page?Vital Marine!!
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