Manchester City turned in an edgy performance against Everton at the Etihad but their 2-0 win kept up the momentum in the Premier League.
This was not a performance Manchester City will look back on fondly, but when the final reckoning comes in May it might just be the kind of game that proves to be vital.
At the time, nobody knows when the decisive moments in a 38-game season are upon us, but as the clock ticked into the final 20 minutes at the Etihad on Saturday, an afternoon that should have been routine for City had turned decidedly edgy. The Blues had gradually awoken from their slumber but Jordan Pickford’s goal remained fairly untroubled until Erling Haaland settled nerves with an unstoppable strike.
The ecstasy in Haaland’s celebration of his first goal since November 28 spoke volumes about how important this win was. Not only did it return City to the top of the table for the first time in three months, but it kept the momentum that had started at Goodison Park on December 27 going. Six successive wins in the league have made Pep Guardiola’s side favourites for the title once again.
But with Liverpool and Arsenal in the picture as well, this is shaping up to be a title race like no other for City. They have bettered both teams previously, but in the Guardiola era they are yet to go toe-to-toe with two rivals down the stretch. It could change the narrative and it might make it harder to shake both off over time.
City have the experience, however. It was a point Guardiola touched on during his pre-match press conference on Friday. Alongside the pride that his side are “there” once again, competing for three trophies, was talk about how his players often come alive at this stage of the season, when vital fixtures in the league, Europe and FA Cup flow into each other every few days.
It takes a certain resolve to handle that and City showed they can do it last season, but there was an undeniable sense of nervousness on show against Everton and it might be that there are more matches to come like this between now and the end of the season.
Guardiola suddenly didn’t hide his own frustration. He had agreed with the premise that Saturday lunchtime kick-offs were ‘dangerous’ for teams expected to win like City and his side spent a good chunk of the early afternoon proving him right.
The first half was as forgettable as it gets at the Etihad. Jeremy Doku occasionally woke everyone from their slumber, but other than that City’s play was slow and it led to a quiet atmosphere. On several occasions Guardiola waved his hands at his coterie of centre-backs as they took too many touches to move the ball forward, allowing one of the Premier League’s most organised teams to become even more organised.
It was too slow and too static for Guardiola, who disposed of his coat at half-time and went down to a blue polo neck jumper, warming himself up by patrolling his technical area and generally looking agitated.
It felt like the game needed a spark and it gradually began to come to life early in the second half, mostly thanks to Everton’s delaying tactics and a couple of injury delays for Ben Godfrey. City were so frustrated that Bernardo Silva collared fourth official Graham Scott about it, while Guardiola took a different approach, calling back Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne to try and change the pace of the game
The introduction of De Bruyne and the anger at Everton’s tactics did awaken the Etihad, along with the sense that the game was just beginning to slip from City’s control, on an afternoon when they had expected to return to the top of the table for the first time since mid-November.
But when Erling Haaland is in the team goals can arrive from nowhere. City had struggled to turn territory into chances, but the Norwegian snaffled the only two chances he had in the game.
Not that the win entirely calmed Guardiola, who reacted with fury in injury-time when Ruben Dias again turned backwards, passing to Ederson rather than looking to move the ball forward. He spent the final few minutes shouting audible instructions to his players, micro-managing them into position to see out the game. That summed up Guardiola’s frustration at the performance, if not the result.