Pep Guardiola must have understood now completely that the route to the Premier League silverware will be the most difficult and tedious journey of his managerial career. The standard of competitiveness of the top tier of English football is simply unparallel and one can see the master tactician struggling to find his feet in the new environment.
Manchester City were torn apart by Everton today at the Goodison Park. A goal each from Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman ensured that the blue half of Manchester suffers a humiliating 4-0 defeat away from home and leaves a severe dent upon their title credentials. As an anecdote of what transpired at the Merseyside, we have pencilled three main reasons as to how the Toffees cruised to a thumping win over Manchester City at the Goodison Park on Sunday.
Manchester City’s Midfield Was In Haywire
It would not be unjustifiable to underline that Guardiola’s men created their own downfall. The midfield unit looked timorous, uncertain and definitely out of colour. Their veteran central midfielder, Kolo Touré seemed to have lost the plot as he failed to provide a shield to the backline, which was obviously exposed by the likes of Lukaku, Ross Barkley and Mirallas.
The exchange of passes between proven personnel like David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne failed to pose the maximum threat to Everton as their passes were bereft of ideas or intent most of the times, despite showing occasional bursts of magic. City’s midfielder allowed Everton to settle down, giving the license to the likes of Barkey and Tom Davies to knit their game-plan and catch Guardiola’s men off-guard.
Attacking Brand Of Football From Everton
Ronald Koeman’s side had their plans pretty clear in their minds as to what was to be done on the pitch against a top quality side like Manchester City. The Dutchman’s pawns put into practice a relentless and continuous pressing tactics from the very inception to rattle the visitors. Intense pressing helped Everton in annoying City and pile pressure on them, to which the latter eventually succumbed.
Moreover, there were quite a number of counter-attacks, flourishing Everton’s attacking knack. There was an undeniable precision involved as well, as Everton bagged four goals from four shots on target. The home crowd at the Goodison Park enjoyed the way in which Lukaku kept the defenders busy and allowing the attacking midfielders to surge forward to create the damage.
Visiting Defenders Were Embarrassing Themselves
Honestly speaking, Manchester City’s defence dug the graveyard for their side at the Goodison Park and showed once again that they do not have the mettle to be the defence of a serious title challenge. It was their heaviest league defeat this season and the goals that they conceded were basically the output of their own flaws.
Gaël Clichy’s carelessness paved the way for Everton’s first goal, followed up by Yaya Touré losing the ball in the middle of the park and handing the impetus to the opponents to bury their second. John Stones was a disaster and was reduced to a laughing stocked by Everton’s attackers.
The third and fourth goal came when Clichy once again failed to deal with Davies and Stones’ inability to clear the ball, respectively. It would not be wrong to underline that Everton were helped by hopelessness from Manchester City’s defence who were in tatters.
