Foden pounces on error to give Manchester City win at Everton | premier league

Manchester City have had more emphatic wins but should they retain their Premier League crown the eventual verdict may be that few were more valuable than this. With 10 minutes to go, stalemate beckoned as Everton looked unbending in their resistance. The momentum seemed to be swinging towards Merseyside, and Liverpool, in the title race. Then Phil Foden pounced on Everton’s one defensive error and City’s lead stretched to six points.

Frank Lampard’s season in the City midfield was the coda to 13 years at Chelsea and during a brief managerial career he had already shown a defiance towards former employers. City’s defeat to his Chelsea in June 2020 ended their reign as champions, something the red half of Merseyside savoured. As Everton began hovering perilously above the relegation zone, their obduracy stemmed from necessity. While there were hints of urgency, with Goodison roused when Everton snapped into challenges, they were otherwise content to let City have possession.

Everton had numbers behind the ball. Deprived of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has a calf injury, Lampard recalled a fit-again Abdoulaye Doucouré to bolster his midfield but his choice of 4-3-3 meant he has started with three formations in his five-match reign.

The latest at least promised solidity. Everton began in disciplined fashion, getting bodies around the edge of their area as neither goalkeeper was required for 29 minutes. Then Kevin De Bruyne tried his luck from distance and Jordan Pickford held his shot.

Everton’s counterattacks tended to stem from the direct running of Anthony Gordon, who showed the fearlessness to take on City. Perhaps the winger was encouraged by the sight of a makeshift right-back, with John Stones preferred to Kyle Walker. Gordon ended the first half by whipping a free-kick on to the roof of the net, with Ederson relieved it had gone over. The surprise was that when a break on their left resulted in a shot a section of the Everton support thought had gone in, it didn’t come from him.

Otherwise occupied by Foden, Jonjoe Kenny surged forwards to meet Allan’s pass and unleash an effort that nestled in the side-netting. A second chance followed in quick succession, Alex Iwobi supplying a first-time pass and Richarlison a snap-shot that Ederson stopped.

Pep Guardiola had rearranged his forward line in a quest to find them space. Bernardo Silva had begun as the false nine. Relocated to the right, he cut in and shot but at Pickford. Arguably, however, their first-half impotence stemmed more from De Bruyne and Ilkay Gündogan’s inability to create anything of note as Allan felt the dominant figure in midfield.

City began the second half probing for an opening. As they played at a greater pace, they got Silva more involved in the game and he started to embark on meandering but threatening runs infield. When he bent a low pass into the path of the other winger, Foden drilled a shot that Pickford parried. He had looked the brightest of City’s front three before the interval and carried on where he left off. As De Bruyne also spent more time on the right flank, it looked as though City were targeting Kenny. The third member of their right-sided trio seemed the least likely to provide the breakthrough and Stones is scarcely renowned for his long-range shooting, but Pickford had to push his 20-yard effort over the bar.

As City’s pressure became relentless, Pickford was required to excel. A brilliant double save from De Bruyne and Silva, picking himself off the turf to turn the Portuguese’s follow-up away, presumably impressed the watching Gareth Southgate. Foden inadvertently helped preserve parity, too, heading over when he should have scored from De Bruyne’s cross.

Guardiola summoned Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez and gave Silva a third position of the evening as he dropped into midfield. It proved a case of third time lucky. The Portuguese’s low cross from the left was unconvincing, but Mason Holgate deflected into the path of his central-defensive partner, Michael Keane took a swing at thin air and a predatory Foden poked a shot past Pickford.

That was not quite the end of it. The ball bounced up on to Rodri’s arm and, during a VAR review, Richarlison took up residence on the penalty spot, so convinced he was of the forthcoming verdict. Instead, no penalty was awarded, courtesy of an offside in the build-up, and City survived.