Everton vs Manchester City: 5 things to watch against Manchester City

Reigning champions and current league leaders Manchester City come to Goodison Park on Saturday tea-time to face an Everton side in desperate need of points to keep their heads above the relegation zone.

In any circumstance, this would be an extremely difficult game for Frank Lampard and Everton, but the fact that City lost to Spurs last weekend and have seen their lead at the top of the Premier League suddenly drop to three points over Liverpool the need for City to win is very apparent.

While City has their own concerns, these pale into insignificance with Everton and their close proximity to the relegation zone. Results last weekend certainly did not help Everton with only Norwich picking up no points aside from themselves after the defeat at Southampton.

Midweek results were more mixed with Leeds being thrashed at Anfield, Burnley winning again and Watford being easily beaten by Crystal Palace. This all means however that Everton could find themselves in the relegation zone come kick off time against City if Burnley wins earlier in the day.

While Evertonians may well have passed up the points to ensure the neighbours don’t get closer to being top of the table, this has to be null and void as the need for points is critical at Goodison Park.

In this article, we will look at where City are most dangerous, but also, as Spurs proved last weekend, where their vulnerability at the back can be taken advantage of.

From an Everton point of view, it will certainly need some change of personnel and mindset from another away day disappointment, plus Lampard has some options with a couple of injured players back. Surely the midfield will need reinforcing and sharpness in attack is key.

While neither team will have their league position finalised by this game, it certainly feels that whoever gets the three points will take a big step in the right direction after going backwards last week.

Continued on the next page…