EVERTON DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO THEM
After Sane’s sizzling strike, Kevin De Bruyne lauds City’s destructive play
AT MANCHESTER City, the guard is dropping just a little. Towards the end of a season when their showbiz football has rarely been matched by the quality of their soundbites, Pep Guardiola and his players can finally sense the glory that will be theirs once the endeavour is over.
Guardiola, admittedly under some rather repeated questioning, conceded on Saturday night that to win the Premier League against Manchester United next weekend would be special.
‘I understand completely the enthusiasm to win the league at home against them,’ said Guardiola. ‘Our opponents would feel the same if the situation was opposite.’
From City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, meanwhile, came a remarkable insight into what it is like to play for Guardiola’s gilded team.
At the start of a week that features a Champions League game at Liverpool on Wednesday and ends with the game against United on Saturday, the Belgian hinted that he saw fear and confusion in the eyes of City’s opponents at Goodison Park.
‘You feel in control, you feel like you have power over everything that is happening. . . offensively, defensively,’ said De Bruyne.
‘We have had a lot of games where we have controlled the game, but here, the first half especially, was something different, another level.
‘They didn’t know what to do. We controlled it so much, they didn’t know whether to press us, whether to stay back, and there was something in between in the end.
‘And you could see it in their faces in the first half that they didn’t know what was happening.
‘And that’s why you feel in so much control I guess, when you see it on their faces.’
De Bruyne is only arrogant in the way he plays his football. It is not in his nature to be boastful. So these words were telling and indicative of the rare sense of confidence Guardiola has bred in his players.
Over the coming days, they will face different tests. Liverpool’s high press followed by United’s low block. One game should be a thriller, the other maybe less so.
Both will represent challenges, though. Both will be different from what we saw on Saturday on Merseyside.
It was easy to be critical of Everton after City walked all over, round and through them. Over the years we have grown used to feeling the rawness of competition whenever we have gone to Goodison. It is that kind of place and Everton have more often than not had that kind of team.
This wasn’t a contest, though. Everton — with their injuries and their unbalanced squad — were not remotely competitive and that was sad. But as well as a snapshot of manager Sam Allardyce’s problems, this game also gave us an insight into what City have done to the competition in the Premier League.
Teams like Liverpool will always have ambitions of beating them and have already done so this season. That will sustain their manager Jurgen Klopp ahead of Wednesday.
United and Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, probably have what it takes to frustrate them.
But what of the rest? We talk often of the competitiveness of the Premier League but City have changed the landscape a little. The way they have played this season has sucked the spirit and the confidence out of the rest and that, as much as anything, has taken the edge out of games like this.
Afterwards, Allardyce — a Premier League manager for two decades — admitted that he was tactically unable to devise a plan to stop City, and that in itself is quite an admission.
Over the years, Allardyce’s teams have found ways to irritate and occasionally beat those led by managers like Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson.
On Saturday he suggested some of those teams of yesteryear may compare favourably to what Guardiola has constructed in Manchester.
But then he contradicted himself a little when he said: ‘Normally there is one way to frustrate a team in general.
‘In my long career, I have found a way to frustrate a team and block them off.
‘But this team, whichever way you try to block them off, they can get round it and through it. They proved that today.’ The game was settled with a quarter of an hour gone thanks to sublime goals from Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus. A further strike from Raheem Sterling followed in the first half before City eased
‘They didn’t know what to do. We controlled it. You could see it in their faces in the first half, this was something different — another level.’
back and Yannick Bolasie scored after the break for Everton.
A goal for the home team can change games on many occasions but not here. Before Bolasie’s strike from 18 yards, City were dominant in every way and even the adrenaline spike of an Everton goal in front of the Gwladys Street was never going to change that.
So City are one win away from the title, one win over United away from a special kind of glory.
Guardiola says he is focusing only on Liverpool on Wednesday. You can be certain the fans are not.
EVERTON (4-4-2): Pickford 5.5; Coleman 6, Keane 6, Jagielka 6.5, Baines 6; Walcott 4.5, Schneiderlin 5, Rooney 5 (Davies 57min, 6), Bolasie 5.5; Tosun 5.5 (Niasse 79), Calvert-Lewin 6 (Baningime 75, 6).
Subs not used: Robles, Martina, Funes Mori, Vlasic. Scorer: Bolasie 63. Manager: Sam Allardyce: 5.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Ederson 7; Walker 6.5, Kompany 7, Otamendi 7, Laporte 7.5 (Danilo 87); De Bruyne 8 (Gundogan 77), Fernandinho 8; D Silva 8; Sterling 7.5 (B Silva 64, 6.5), Jesus 7.5, SANE 8.5. Subs not
used: Bravo, Adarabioyo, Zinchenko, Nmecha.
Scorers: Sane 4, Jesus 12, Sterling 37.
Manager: Pep Guardiola 8.
Referee: Paul Tierney 7. Attendance: 39,221.