Manchester City travelled to the banks of the Mersey intent on underling their title credentials and reaffirming their threat to Arsenal. Instead they found their hopes of another Premier League triumph seconds away from being washed away on a tide of cacophonous Evertonian noise.
Everton left Goodison Park last May but maybe this was the night they well and truly said hello to their new stadium at Bramley-Moore.
Trailing at half-time to a Jeremy Doku goal after 45 minutes of City pressure, David Moyes’ Everton team almost sank City’s season with a second half display of attacking fire and brimstone that earned them three quick goals and brought Pep Guardiola’s players to their knees.
Only Doku’s second goal in the 98th minute – a carbon copy of his first – gave City a point that saved them from complete and utter disaster.
Should the teams even have been playing when Doku curled in a simply superb equaliser from the angle of the penalty area? Referee Michael Oliver had signalled seven minutes of added time and they had already been played. Twice City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had ventured forward for corners and twice nothing had come of it.
But as Everton players appealed for the whistle, Oliver indicated that he was playing the obligatory 30 extra seconds following a substitution by the home team. Tim Iroegbunam had suffered an injury and Moyes had sent on Harrison Armstrong.
It’s advantage Arsenal in the title race after Pep Guardiola’s Man City drew 3-3 at Everton
Jeremy Doku rescued a point with a stunning late strike from distance – his second of the game
Gunners in control: City fans cannot believe their eyes as they suffer a second-half collapse
So Oliver was right and whether any of it really matters in terms of the title race remains to be seen. If Arsenal don’t manage to wrap up what is now theirs to won, they could transpire to be among the most important 30 seconds in English football history.
It was an incredible finish to a remarkable night but still sits as a huge setback to Pep Guardiola and City. They needed to win. Now that they haven’t, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal team know wins against West Ham, Burnley and Crystal Palace brings them the glory.
Strangely, there was a sense of the calamitous about City here. Each of Everton’s three goals involved levels of defensive culpability. City defender Marc Guehi was particularly dreadful.
Earlier in the night, there had been absolutely no sign of it. Such was City’s dominance in the first half that it felt as though Everton may suffocate under the sheer weight of their opponents’ pressure. Guardiola’s team threw a green and grey blanket over the attacking third of the field and attempted to smother their opponents into submission.
Chances were hard to come by. Everton defended diligently and in great number. Jordan Pickford saved an angled shot from Rayan Cherki while Doku and Antoine Semenyo probed away from the flanks. When the breakthrough arrived just before half-time, it carried real quality. Doku appeared on the right for perhaps the first time, jinked inside on to his left foot and curled the ball in to the far top corner from 18 yards.
It was beautiful and it was deserved and it seemed to provide a platform. It didn’t. Everton were a different side in the second half and so, in a different way, were City.
Forced to get on the front foot, Everton found City surprisingly compliant. The home team could have lost defender Michael Keane after a poor tackle on Doku but their aggression was channelled in the right way thereafter and twice Iliman Ndiaye may have scored when breaking through.
Donnarumma saved brilliantly on the second occasion but was exposed when Guehi played the ball straight to Everton substitute Thierno Barry in the 68th minute. Barry could hardly miss and didn’t.
Erling Haaland looks to the sky in disbelief after Everton’s third goal in just 13 costly minutes
Thierno Barry capitalised on a huge error from Marc Guehi to equalise for the Toffees
Minutes later, Jake O’Brien headed Everton in front from a corner – before Barry scored again
What should have been a flesh wound to City was soon an awful lot more serious. A corner was delivered to the near post five minutes later and Jake O’Brien rose between Guehi and Nico Gonzalez to head in.
The noise levels in the stadium were now such they surely would have heard it across the water. Everton have enjoyed their new home but hitherto had only won six times here in the Premier League. This felt like lift-off and as City buckled, Mateo Kovavic coughed up the ball in his own half with nine minutes left and watched Merlin Rohl run away from him to set Barry up for his second at the far post with a shot that seemed to deflect off Abdukodir Khusanov.
City are a champion team and it’s unwise to write them off. Here, though, they seemed done for. They had simply been blow away – by Everton’s energy and their own mistakes – in a second half that flattened them like a blue tidal wave.
Read More
How Arsenal can beat Atletico Madrid – and the ‘brave’ players Arteta needs to believe in
Erling Haaland had been largely invisible but when he was presented with a run on goal almost immediately following Barry’s second goal, he didn’t flinch. His lifted finish above Pickford was clever and calmly done. Still there was time. Eight minutes plus those added. City’s season was on the line while Everton sensed a proper scalp.
City pressed hard and with desperation. Everton threw themselves in to tackles and blocked everything that came their way. Donnarumma’s first foray at a corner saw him arrive in a blaze of pink only to retreat again twice as quickly once Everton cleared the ball and threatened to run it all the way into his goal at the other end.
It did seem as though Everton had held out. City seemed out of ideas. The injury to Iroegbunam by the hoardings was unfortunate and Moyes certainly didn’t take half a minute to send young Armstrong on. The 19-year-old was only on the field for 90 seconds but it was long enough to witness Doku’s moment of magic. This time it was the right foot but the arc of the ball and the outcome was exactly the same. What a goal. What nerve. What a finish.
A goal to save a title challenge? We will see.
