A Dramatic Night at Goodison Park
Manchester City traveled to the banks of the Mersey with a clear objective: to underline their title credentials and reaffirm their threat to Arsenal. Instead, they found themselves on the brink of a catastrophic defeat in a match that will be remembered for years to come.
Everton, who left Goodison Park last May, might have officially said goodbye to their old stadium that night. The atmosphere was electric, with the cacophony of Evertonian noise creating an almost insurmountable challenge for City. Trailing at half-time to a Jeremy Doku goal, City struggled to find their rhythm, but it was in the second half that the true drama unfolded.
David Moyes’ Everton team delivered a display of attacking fire and brimstone that nearly sank City’s season. They scored three quick goals, leaving Pep Guardiola’s players reeling. Only Doku’s second goal in the 98th minute, a carbon copy of his first, managed to salvage a point for City, preventing what could have been a disastrous outcome.
Should the teams even have been playing when Doku curled in a simply superb equalizer from the angle of the penalty area? Referee Michael Oliver had signaled seven minutes of added time, and the game had already been played. Twice, City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had ventured forward for corners, but nothing came of it. However, 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.
Match Facts
EVERTON (4-4-1-1):
Pickford 7; O’Brien 7.5, Tarkowski 7, Keane 5.5, Mykolenko 6; Rohl 8 (Patterson 90min), Iroegbunam 8, Garner 7.5, Ndiaye 7; Dewsbury-Hall 7 (Alcaraz 90); Beto 6 (Barry 64, 8.5).
Scorers: Barry 68, 81, O’Brien 73.
Booked: Keane, Beto, Tarkowski, O’Brien.
Manager: David Moyes 8.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-2-3-1):
Donnarumma 7; Nunes 4.5, Khusanov 5, Guehi 4, O’Reilly 6; Silva 5.5 (Marmoush 87), Gonzalez 5 (Kovacic 75, 6); Semenyo 5.5 (Foden 75, 6), Cherki 6.5, Doku 8; Haaland 7.
Scorers: Doku 43, 90+7, Haaland 83.
Booked: Donnarumma.
Manager: Pep Guardiola 6.
Referee: Michael Oliver 6.
Attendance: Not provided.
A Game of Two Halves
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 win, 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 it still sits as a huge setback for Pep Guardiola and City. They needed to win. Now that they haven’t, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal team know that wins against West Ham, Burnley, and Crystal Palace bring 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.
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 Kovacic 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 blown away—by Everton’s energy and their own mistakes—in a second half that flattened them like a blue tidal wave.
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 into 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.
