Carlo Ancelotti tasted defeat for the first time as Everton manager after a 2-1 defeat away at champions Manchester City, with Gabriel Jesus getting a brace before Richarlison scored late on.
Everton made five changes to the team that won at Newcastle on the weekend, with Lucas Digne, Seamus Coleman, Yerry Mina, Fabian Delph, and Bernard all coming into the starting XI. However, Bernard was replaced in the warm-up by Tom Davies after sustained an injury while going through his pre-match paces following a clash with Yerry Mina.
Everton started off comfortable in possession and after some great play in midfield, Gylfi Sigurdsson picked out Seamus Coleman who had gotten in behind the Man City defence, the Everton captain brought the ball under control and with his left foot lifted the ball over Claudio Bravo, but the Chilean was equal to Coleman’s effort and tipped it over the bar.
Moments later and Man City had the ball in the net. Joao Cancelo played a one-two with Riyad Mahrez down the right side. Cancelo raced to the by-line and drilled the ball low across the area to an unmarked Phil Foden to tap in at the far post. However, it was ruled out by VAR after Mahrez was offside in the build-up.
Six minutes later and VAR was called upon again for some reason. Fernandinho played a delightful ball over the Everton defence for Mahrez, the Algerian looked to have controlled the ball with his arm and was then brought down in the area. However, the linesman who failed to flag him offside in the disallowed goal this time raised his flag and referee Andre Marriner had blown for offside as he entered the Everton area.
VAR was brought in and it was shown that Mahrez was, in fact, onside, so it was now being checked for a possible penalty after Mahrez was brought down in the area. No handball was checked, and after a few minutes, it was given as offside, despite replays showing he was onside. Very confusing for everyone watching, luckily for Everton they got a bit of luck.
City continued to push for the lead, with Ilkay Gundogan and Mahrez both wasting good chances against an Everton side that didn’t look like they even wanted to try and attack City.
Everton came out for the second half and continued to sit back, and five minutes after the restart they were punished. Gundogan played the ball into the path of Jesus, who controlled the ball with the outside of his right foot, sending Mason Holgate one way and then bent the ball into the far corner with Jordan Pickford only getting his fingertips to the ball.
Jesus then got his and City’s second of the game seven minutes later after some wonderful football from City’s midfield trio of Kevin De Bruyne, Foden and Mahrez. Jesus was played in onto his left foot and drilled the ball low past Pickford into the bottom corner.
Ancelotti was furious with what he was seeing from his Everton side and introduced Theo Walcott and Moise Kean for Seamus Coleman and Gylfi Sigurdsson and with twenty minutes to go Everton got themselves back into the game.
Bravo, who likes to play around on the ball, invited Calvert-Lewin to close him down and did a Cruyff turn inside his own area, he then needed to get rid of the ball to the wing, but instead tried to play the ball into midfield. Richarlison intercepted the pall and played it to Kean, who tried to dribble in between the City defenders, but Eric Garcia got his foot to the ball, kindly falling to Theo Walcott, he smashed the ball across goal to Richarlison to tap in from close range.
This gave Everton some belief that they could snatch something from the game and Moise Kean almost levelled with a spectacular effort after he was picked out by Djibril Sidibe. But the Italian sent his effort wide of the post.
With fifteen minutes to play, Man City believed they should’ve had a penalty. Foden burst through the challenges of Holgate and Sidibe, the City midfielder entered the Everton area and as he was about to get his strike away, Sidibe got his toe to the ball with a last ditch tackle.
With just over ten minutes to go, Jesus had the opportunity to kill the game and get his and City’s third. Mahrez played a one-two on the edge of the Everton box with Gundogan, Mahrez then picked out the run of Jesus, Mina missed the ball and the Brazilian tried to catch Pickford out at his near post, and that he did. Fortunately for Pickford, the post was his saviour as it denied Jesus his third of the game.
The game fizzled out for the remaining ten minutes, however, Calvert-Lewin should count himself very lucky after he lunged in on Fernandinho in the corner. Despite winning the ball, replays showed the Everton striker had left the ground and caught Fernandinho with a scissor motion challenge.
A very disappointing performance from Everton, who really should have given Man City a tougher game considering the players missing for City, and they will need to perform a lot better on the weekend in the FA Cup when they travel to Anfield once again.
