Everton succumbed to a 3-0 defeat against Manchester City
It was like going into a gun battle with a knife, it was like mere mortals facing extra terrestrials, it was men against the boys. Manchester City hosted Everton at Etihad and by the end of 90 minutes, left the Toffees in a deplorable state.
Everton lost 3-0 away, which meant that they have only collected two points out of a possible 18 in the last six Premier League games. Out of the three goals scored, Rodri and Raheem Sterling’s strikes were scrumptious goals of the highest order that could even be applauded by the Everton fans. After a point it looked like Pep Guardiola’s men were just coasting around and moving with the ball for fun.
Everton remain 11th in the table with 15 points but more alarmingly are without a win since 25th September. This is surely piling up pressure on Rafa Benitez even though he cannot be blamed for the flurry of injuries that disrupted the team’s rhythm.
Rafa Benitez named an unchanged eleven from last time as Richarlison spearheaded the attack. Benitez had very little room for rotation and he lined up the best possible team. The cards were heavily stacked in City’s favour and history also suggested that the hosts were the favourites as they had won the last eight games against the Toffees. The streak stretched to nine wins today.
Here are the Everton player ratings vs Manchester City:
Jordan Pickford pulled off some incredible saves
Jordan Pickford – 5
Jordan Pickford started his 300th game for Everton. Pickford was expected to be a very busy man and the prophecy turned out to be true as the Englishman had nervy moments throughout the first 45 minutes. The Englishman did pull off superb saves especially getting the better of Sterling in a one-on-one situation but there was nothing he could do in stopping the three goals. The 27 year old even spilt a cross early on which raced a few fan heartbeats.
Seamus Coleman – 4
Seamus Coleman was often outrun and couldn’t deal with the threat of City’s attack coming from the right side. Joao Cancelo’s marauding runs didn’t aid Coleman’s case either. To make his evening worse, he misplaced passes and was dispossessed twice.
Michael Keane – 5
Michael Keane almost conceded a penalty which was rightfully overturned after VAR intervention. Keane was constantly under pressure and had to make clearances one after the other. He made four headed clearances, one interception and won three duels. It was simply a tale of massive difference of quality in Keane and City attackers and there simply wasn’t much that the 28 year old could have done.
Ben Godfrey – 6
Ben Godfrey was the better centre back out of the two and was involved heavily in interceptions and clearances. He did seem out of position and couldn’t stay with City players around but it could have gotten far worse for the former Norwich City man.
Lucas Digne – 4
Lucas Digne’s slump continues as his attacking output was nowhere to be seen. He was outclassed by Sterling and Riyad Mahrez on several occasions. With the Toffees trying to soak up the pressure, Digne could barely do anything and was simply a passenger.
Demarai Gray’s injury further hurts Everton in this tough period
Midfield:
Allan – 5
Allan was doing an almost perfect job early in the game when the game was tied at 0-0 as the Brazilian sat deep and broke the play on several occasions or forced City to look for another path to penetrate. As the game progressed and Guardiola’s men took further control, Allan lost his combative edge and his levels dropped massively.
Fabian Delph – 5
Fabian Delph started his second consecutive game Premier League game for the first time since February 2020. The 32 year old was fairly decent against his former side and guarded the back four with aplomb in the opening half. His effectiveness waned and was taken off for Salomon Rondon as Everton were trying to make a comeback, at least theoretically.
Demarai Gray – 5
Demarai Gray showcased his smooth trickery against Kyle Walker after which he went down picking up an injury. Gray’s flair had been propelling Everton in attack although it had gone a bit quiet in the last month or so. From the way Gray signalled he would be unable to continue, it seems that he could be out for a significant amount of time. Everton’s injury luck keeps on getting worse and worse.
Anthony Gordon – 5
Anthony Gordon saw his effort blocked in the infant stages of the game. After that, there were no clear cut chances for the 20 year old who started two back to back games for the first time in his Everton career. Gordon was defensively committed and put in a lot of hard work. Goal scoring chances of half chances were rare for him.
Andros Townsend was the silver lining for Everton in today’s game
Attack:
Richarlison – 5
Richarlison was starved of service throughout the game. He didn’t have any sort of supplies which frustrated him to an extent that he made a rash foul and got penalized with a yellow card, his fifth of the season, earning him a one match suspension. With the Brazilian set to miss the Brentford game, Everton has an extremely slim attack.
Andros Townsend – 6.5
Andros Townsend operated centrally behind Richarlison. He was by far the brightest player for the Toffees and put in a lot of hard work throughout the 90 minutes. There was very little he could do in the final third as Everton didn’t manage to get in City’s final third on many occasions.
Substitutions:
Alex Iwobi – 4
Alex Iwobi came on for Gray as the Englishman limped off after picking up an early injury. Iwobi was far too inconsistent, gave away the ball but let himself down almost everytime. His poor displays continue to haunt the fans.
Salomon Rondon – 5
Salomon Rondon came on for Delph to add an attacking threat but there wasn’t any meaningful contribution as he didn’t see much of the ball.
Tyler Onyango – N.A
Tyler Onyango made his Premier League debut, coming on for Allan at the stroke of 90 minutes.
How would you assess Everton’s performance against Manchester City?