Good afternoon and welcome to The42‘s live minute-by-minute coverage of what could be a huge day in the Premier League title race.
At 4pm, all eyes will be on Old Trafford as the in-form Manchester United host fierce rivals Liverpool.
But first, on a day which Sky are ham-fistedly billing as ‘Manchester v Merseyside’, is Everton v Manchester City.
Win and City will move up to third place for a couple of hours at least; lose, and Pep Guardiola’s side will fall a massive 10 points behind Chelsea.
Kick-off is at 1.30pm,
TEAM NEWS: Here’s the Everton team with Kevin Mirallas returning to the starting XI.
Morgan Schneiderlin is on the bench, as his fellow new recruit Ademola Lookman.
Everton: Joel, Baines, Williams, Funes Mori, Holgate, Coleman, Barry, Davies, Mirallas, Barkley, Lukaku.
TEAM NEWS: Claudio Bravo is back in goal for City but otherwise, it’s the same side that hammered the Hammers in the FA Cup last weekend.
Man City: Bravo, Sagna, Stones, Otamendi, Clichy, Yaya Toure, Zabaleta, De Bruyne, Sterling, Silva, Aguero.
We need to talk about Morgan Schneiderlin and his number 2 jersey…
The Z Cars theme tune plays over the Goodison Park tannoy as the teams make their way out of the tunnel.
City are 4/5 favourites with Everton 10/3 and 11/4 for the draw. Who do you fancy?
KICK OFF: We’re up and running, and if you had six seconds for the first boos at John Stones, come on down and collect your prize.
City knock the ball around at the back, with plenty of early touches for Claudio Bravo. Everton seem happy enough to let them have it there.
Funes Mori tries to keep the City back line honest by trying a chipped ball over the top to Ross Barkley. Barkley went a second too soon though – offside.
Good hustling from Barkley who gets back to dispossess Aguero inside the Everton box, and then start a counter. Nice quick exchange between Mirallas and Barry but the latter’s pass to try to set Lukaku free is overcooked.
Good vision by Leighton Baines who spots Gareth Barry in acres of space on the left wing and opens his body up to slide a pass out to him. Barry has two in the box to aim for but misses both.
DISALLOWED! Everton have the ball in Bravo’s net but it won’t count. Nice move as Lukaku played a nice little reverse to Coleman as he cut in from the right, and he squared for Mirallas to tap in. The linesman was dead right though, Coleman had strayed a yard ahead of the last man.
CHANCE! Should that have been City’s opening goal? Should it have been a penalty? Raheem Sterling certainly can’t believe that he’s got neither.
Leighton Baines steps up too late as he tries to play Sterling offside and it leaves the City man one-on-one with Joel Robles. Robles does enough to stall Sterling and by the time he steps around the keeper and goes to shoot, Baines has slid across to block the ball with his body.
It looks like there was contact between Robles and Sterling but Mark Clattenburg is having none of it.
De Bruyne zips in a pass to Sergio Aguero’s feet on the edge of the Everton area but his touch is a bit heavy and it bobbles off his foot and out of harm’s way.
There’s Bravo’s first iffy touch of the afternoon. Both sets of fans inhale sharply, for different reasons.
Aguero and Silva try to knit something together on the edge of the Everton area but they don’t have the space to pull it off. Everton try to counter in response but Mirallas’s pass isn’t accurate enough to pick out Lukaku.
Oooooh, that was close. Holgate catches Aguero as he goes by him on the edge of the box and it’s a City free. Another foot and that was a penalty.
Silva whips in a low free but it’s cleared by the first man.
That was half a chance. De Bruyne tries to rake a long pass over the top to Sterling. He’s in behind the City defence, and does well to get his volley on target, but it doesn’t have the power to trouble Robles.
City have had 90% possession in the last five minutes, according to the Sky boffins. No surprise really when the hosts are giving the ball back as cheaply as Ross Barkley just did.
City are starting to carve Everton open — de Bruyne in particular and it’s his brilliant vision again that creates the opportunity. Silva sneaks in around the back and the Belgian picks him out. It’s only some great goalkeeping by Robles that snuffs out the danger. He stays big for long enough to delay Silva and the chance fizzles out.
De Bruyne tries his luck with a free from 25ish yards but it’s straight into the Everton wall.
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Man City (Lukaku, 34′)
Oh hello. Everton take the lead with their first shot on target. City lose the ball as they try to play it into midfield and 18-year-old Tom Davies steps up to make the interception. From there, it moves like lightning as he picks out Mirallas — played onside by Otamendi. He rolls back into the centre for Lukaku and he sidefoots crisply past Bravo.
Well, well, well.
Close! City almost back on level terms as de Bruyne slides the ball across the face of goal and Aguero comes agonisingly close to touching it in.
Justice is served there though. Aguero clearly fouled Funes Mori in the build up but it wasn’t spotted by Clattenburg.
OOOOF! Raheem Sterling grazes the bar with a shot.
He’s not wrong.
Good footwork by Funes Mori as he turns back inside Zabaleta and works the angle for the cross. It’s got plenty of pace on it but it’s too close to Bravo.
Two additional minutes to be played. Robles is down holding his head after a minor collision with Ashley Williams as he went to claim possession but he’ll be ok.
Off the line! Sagna loops a header over everybody and it’s dropping in at the back post – but Davies is perfectly positioned to nod it clear. He’s had a good half.
HALF TIME: Everton 1-0 Manchester City
Back in five.
SECOND HALF: We’re back. No changes for either side at the break.
Kevin de Bruyne decides to try his luck with the first shot of the half but it’s a bit wild and well off target.
GOAL! Everton 2-0 Manchester City (Mirallas, 47′)
Kevin Mirallas puts Everton two up – what a start to the second half! Pep is furious on the City bench and you can hardly blame him.
This comes out of nothing as Yaya Toure, I think, loses the ball in midfield and Lukaku tries to play a quick ball through to Mirallas. It’s cut out but only falls as far as the feet of Ross Barkley who prods it through to Mirallas at the second attempt. He’s very close to straying offside — I wouldn’t mind seeing another replay — but the flag stays down and he does well to drive his shot across Bravo into the bottom corner as Stones tries and fails to make a last-gasp block.
Barkley gives away two frees in the space of 20 seconds; the second looked harsh as he used his body to shield the ball away from Zabaleta.
Silva lofts the free towards the back post where Stones wins the header. The direction is good but there’s no pace on the ball and Robles gathers easily.
That looked like a sore one for Mirallas. Zabaleta caught him with his studs on the back of his Achilles – unintentional but sore nonetheless.
City sub: Iheanacho comes on to replace Zabaleta as Pep tries to kickstart the comeback.
Again it’s de Bruyne, and again it’s a really tempting low cross right in front of Robles’ goal… and again it’s just a whisker out of reach for the nearest City striker. Iheanacho was closest this time.
Everton sub: Kevin Mirallas is withdrawn and here comes Morgan Schneiderlin to make his Everton debut.
Pep, you might give Paul a call for some advice:
Sagna gets to the bye-line and wallops in a cross — the kind of cross where you’re almost praying that it will hit off someone and trickle in. Unfortunately that someone is Ashley Williams who gets his body in front of Iheanacho and turns it behind for a corner.
Aguero buys himself a yard of space and tries to drill the ball across Robles and in at the far corner. It looked like it was going to bounce harmlessly by the post but the keeper wasn’t to know that and touched it behind anyway.
Everton sub: Gareth Barry’s afternoon is done; James McCarthy comes on for the final 17 minutes.
That sums up a lot of City’s afternoon. Silva’s touch is heavy and as Davies pounces to dispossess him, Silva clips his heels and brings him down. Yellow card.
GOAL! Everton 3-0 Manchester City (Davies, 78′)
PURE MAGIC BY TOM DAVIES! What a brilliant, brilliant goal that is to cap a mightily impressive afternoon from the 18-year-old.
He wins the ball in his own half and bursts forwards, sending both Toure and Clichy down to the shops for a pint of milk and loaf of bread as he cuts back inside with a quick flick of the heel.
He gets absolutely flattened as he lays the ball off to Lukaku but is back on his feet to collect the return and then dinks it over Bravo.
It takes an eternity to cross the line with Lukaku stretching for a touch to make sure it goes in. Thankfully he misses it. It’s Davies’ goal and it’s a cracker.
Sorry, still drooling over that Davies goal. It’s still 3-0.
Half-chance for Lukaku. He nicks it past Bravo but can’t keep the shot on target.
Where do City go from here? They haven’t been at the races at all today – a lot of half chances but nothing more. Everton have been clinical by comparison.
Everton sub: Lookman on to replace Barkley for the last few moments.
There’ll be four additional minutes. Plenty of time to make some popcorn before Pep has to give a post-match interview.
A sniper in the Goodison crowd has taken out Nicolas Otamendi. That’s the only explanation. There’s no way that he’d collapse like that if Lukaku went belly to belly with him and gave him a bit of a bump. Both players are booked for their nonsense.
GOAL! Everton 4-0 Manchester City (Lookman, 90+4′)
That’s a pretty unnecessary layer of icing on the cake for Everton, and the final act of a grim afternoon for Pep and City.
John Stones tries to clear the ball but somehow manages just to hook it off Seamus Coleman. It bounces into the path of Ademola Lookman, who is only on the pitch a couple of moments, and he lashes it through the legs of Claudio Bravo for Everton’s fourth.
FULL TIME: Everton 4-0 Manchester City
Well, I won’t lie, I didn’t see that coming.
(Neither did Paul Merson, incidentally. He apparently predicted City to win to nil as his bet of the day.)
Everton had six shots on target and four goals which is a solid return by anyone’s count.
For City, it’s another number that will trouble them tonight. Ten: the gap between themselves and league leaders Chelsea now. It’s only mid-January and a league challenge looks to be slipping out of reach.
All eyes on Manchester now to see if Liverpool can close the gap at the top or if Manchester United can continue their recent form and propel themselves right back into the mix.
Thanks for reading and for your comments.
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