The Manchester City crisis continues to haunt Pep Guardiola. The Ciryzens were the superior team against Everton in a Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium last Thursday, December 26, judging by all parameters and in an ideal world, should have won the match.
Even in the real world, they could have won the match had Erling Haaland not missed a penalty in the second half. The Cityzens ultimately drew the match 1-1 and have now won only one of their last 13 matches across all competitions in what has been a catastrophic run of results.
Everton followed the same formula to prolong the Manchester City crisis
The Toffees followed the tried and tested formula of putting all 11 men behind the ball against Manchester City and relying on counter-attacks. It certainly worked for them as far as the end result was concerned, but it cannot be denied that the Cityzens had around 25 attempts at the goal. Savinho, playing on the right flank, accounted for a quite a few of those attempts.
Despite being refreshingly good, the Brazilian winger exhibited an extra eagerness to take shots at the opposition goal even when it appeared to be more judicious to play a pass to one of his teammates.
Both Savinho and Jérémy Doku were involved a lot in Manchester City’s attacks, as balls were played to them on a regular basis from the deep- midfield, thereby bypassing the first line if Everton’s defence. The central attacking midfielders, veterans Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden, stayed in close proximity with the wingers to make life difficult for the Everton defenders.
Joško Gvardiol also joined attacks frequently to make the Cityzens play with a 2-2-6, which was their preferred formation for the majority of last season while in possession. However, with Nathan Aké and Manuel Akanji being the only two players who stayed back inside City’s half, Everton frequently made forays with their counter-attacks. Everton even got their equalizer that way to ensure a point finally.
Haaland’s poor form, which seems to have coincided with his team’s, meant that the Cityzens missed a golden opportunity to go 2-1 ahead. The English champions thus dropped two more points to stay on 28 points after 18 matches, putting them after AFC Bournemouth in the seventh position in the league table.
The Manchester City crisis has escalated during the past weeks, that catching Liverpool seems to be a distant dream now. Huge upsets can still possibly happen, but it is probably safe now to say that Pep Guardiola’s men are not going to win their fifth Premier League title in a row.
Manchester City have a few easier matches ahead
The Cityzens will take on Leicester City, West Ham United and Brentford in their next three league matches, with the former two having a pretty ordinary season. However, given the Cityzens’ current form, even those matches could turn out to be difficult ones for them.
There have been a few positives from the Everton match nevertheless. Both Bernardo and Foden seemed to have restored some of the good form one would associate with them. Moreover, Savinho also seems to have made his dribbling runs work. Still, the three points continued to elude Guardiola’s men in yet another match.
Leave a Reply