Manchester City 0, Everton 2 - post match analysis

Feb 26 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

SO sick must Manchester City be of the sight of Everton, the last thing they want to hear is that the Goodison Park outfit could be back before the end of the season.

As the venue of this season’s UEFA Cup final, the Eastlands venue has assumed iconic status for supporters entranced by a campaign of such encouragement for David Moyes’s side. But their team’s performance at City last night demonstrated why Everton harbour hopes of making an impact on an even greater European stage.

Emphatic victory against Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side didn’t just move the visitors back above Liverpool into fourth place and a Champions League qualification berth.

It sent a clear message out to their neighbours, along with fellow top-four challengers City, Aston Villa and Portsmouth, that Everton refuse to give up their hard-earned position without an almighty fight.

Yet it was the superior class and poise of Moyes’s side that underlined the gulf between the two sides last night.

And with a clinical marksman such as Yakubu among their number, Everton possess the ingredient that may well make the difference in that scrap for the Champions League.

The Nigerian carried on where he left off with his hat-trick against SK Brann last Thursday by side-footing the visitors into a 30th-minute lead that, given their outstand-ing defensive form since the turn of the year, they never looked like surrendering.

His 16th goal of the season, Yakubu showed that, while returning from international tournaments has proven troublesome, the penalty area is one place where he doesn’t go missing.

This wasn’t an easy victory by any means. Everton’s performance just made it look that way. For the second time in six weeks, Moyes’s men exposed City’s Champions League aspirations to be as convincing as Stephen Ireland’s hair.

That January meeting between the teams at Goodison Park was a tight encounter settled by a solitary Joleon Lescott strike.

And the centre-back was again on target last night, taking his tally to eight for the season with a trademark header. Watching England head coach Fabio Capello was surely impressed.

Everton could even afford to dismiss as an inconvenience the frankly bewildering failure of referee Rob Styles or his assistants to spot two clear handballs by Micah Richards inside the area.

The landmarks keep coming for Moyes’s side. This is the first time in 22 years that Everton have remained unbeat-en in the league during the first two months of the calendar year, with no opposing player having beaten Tim Howard in top-flight combat in 2008.

Indeed, the Goodison outfit have now kept 10 clean sheets in their last 13 Premier League games and last night was the first time since November 2002 that Everton have gone five successive league games without conceding.

“It was a massive result if you look how tight the table is,” said the again outstanding Phil Jagielka afterwards. “City put the pressure on in the second half but we had some decent defenders out there. We are going to have six-pointers every week now when you look at how many teams can finish in fourth place.”

How true. Games between the fellow Champions League aspirants will ultimately decide who grabs that fourth place, and this display has set the standard for Everton.

Victory was all the more commendable given it was achieved without the talismanic presence of Mikel Arteta, who again succumbed to the groin problem that has niggled away in recent months.

Leon Osman was recalled to the right of Everton’s midfield and Joseph Yobo and Tony Hibbert also returned with both Nuno Valente and Andrew Johnson stepping down to the bench as Moyes made three alterations from the team that thrashed Brann 6-1.

Unsurprisingly, City were unchanged from their last outing a fortnight ago, the historic victory at Old Trafford against neighbours Manchester United. But despite having not enjoyed a similar period of rest, Everton were by far the more buoyant in the first half and overwhelmed City with one of their finest 45 minutes of the season.

Moyes’s men almost went ahead in the sixth minute when Yakubu beat City goalkeeper Tim Hart to Steven Pienaar’s low cross but his shot was ushered wide by Richard Dunne at the near post.

Curiously, neither side had been awarded a penalty in the Premier League this season before last night, although quite how Everton weren’t given a spot-kick in the seventh minute following a fine save from the right arm of a falling Richards to thwart Tim Cahill’s goalbound effort only referee Styles and his assistants know.

The lively Pienaar saw a 20-yard curling shot deflect off Nedum Onuoha on to a flailing Hart’s right-hand post, but it was only delaying the inevitable which arrived on the half-hour.

It was a well-worked strike, Yakubu holding up play on the edge of the City area and playing in Cahill before sprinting into the box and applying the finishing touch to the Australian’s low cross with Dunne appealing for a non-existent offside.

Eight minutes later the advantage was doubled. City didn’t properly clear an Everton corner and, from Lee Carsley’s deep cross from the right, Dunne again claimed an offside that wasn’t there and allowed Lescott to head across Hart into the far corner.

Phil Neville went in search of a third shortly after the interval but fizzed his 25-yard shot narrowly over, while Yakubu’s brute force sent him through and Cahill was denied by Michael Ball when attempting to convert the Nigerian’s low cross before Dunne completed the clearance.

City, with Elano on from the bench, at least made more of a game of it in the second half and Jagielka was required to hack away after Howard misjudged his punch under pressure from Darius Vassell.

Dunne headed over from Elano’s set-piece delivery, but Everton were denied another penalty on 76 minutes when Richards again inexplicably reached up to handle Lescott’s long throw. The officials said the incident was outside the area; television replays suggested otherwise.

Carsley’s quickly-taken free-kick solicited a fine save from Hart and the City goalkeeper then did well to deny Osman and Johnson, but Everton’s resolve was such that Howard’s 85th-minute parry to repel a drive from City substitute Nery Castillo was his first save of the entire match.

City’s frustration boiled over in injury time when Martin Petrov, having escaped censure for one petulant kick at Yakubu, was dismissed after a second swipe at Osman was spotted by Styles.

If Everton can keep up this kind of form, it won’t only be a return to Eastlands in May that they may well be celebrating.