The perfect response
Sterling helps send City top as Nike backs him in anti-racism campaign
Advert mirrors the backing given to NFL’s Kaepernick Guardiola praises forward for excelling in tough year
Nike, the American sportswear giant, has launched a campaign that supports Raheem Sterling in a similar way to its backing of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, following the Manchester City forward’s outspoken analysis of the media’s portrayal of young black footballers.
Hours after Sterling had gone on as a substitute to score his side’s third goal in a 3-1 win over Everton, Nike released a social media advert featuring him that followed the theme of a successful campaign around Kaepernick in September. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback began a leaguewide movement by kneeling during pre-match national anthems in protest at the shooting of young black men by police officers in the United States.
Nike’s Sterling commercial has the strapline “Speaking up doesn’t always make life easier. But easy never changed anything”. Sterling’s Instagram post last Sunday prompted a week of media reflection about the portrayal of young wealthy footballers. He drew attention to the difference in coverage between a white player buying his parents a house, and the equivalent story for a black player.
Earlier Pep Guardiola praised Sterling’s composure after scoring his ninth league goal of the season. The City manager said: “I see him so calm, he has handled in the last year many situations, a lot of rumours and not nice things about him and his family, in this case the colour of his skin. It’s not easy for him, but he’s happy playing football, he’s loved by all the staff, the locker room, the players.”
For the final moments of injury time, Phil Foden got as far as standing matchready alongside Pep Guardiola with his number being inputted into the board before the Manchester City manager decided that even two goals to the good, his team were not sufficiently in control of the game.
Foden was made to wait while they defended a corner until eventually his manager suggested the teenager take a seat and wait for next time, because nothing was going to stop his team seeing out a win as they embark on what will surely be another unbeaten run of some sort. City returned to the top of the Premier League for the time being with a victory that suggests last week at Stamford Bridge was just a temporary glitch in the unstoppable Guardiola football machine.
This is an elite team, defeated at Chelsea last week but virtually impossible to beat at home where they have won their last 10 games and even against a well-organised, dangerous Everton team controlled all but the last 10 minutes. There were two goals from Gabriel Jesus, his first in the league since Aug 19, and he and substitute Raheem Sterling scored headers against this giant Everton defence. They can beat you any way they choose, and back at the top of the Premier League for now, thoughts are turning to Jan 3.
That is when they face the league’s only unbeaten team so far, Liverpool, and their one true rival for the title. There are four games before then, starting with Tuesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Leicester City, although for City it is rare to find an opponent who can live with them for an entire game.
This was by no means a bad Everton performance, give or take some errors in defence, and yet they did not have a shot on goal until Dominic CalvertLewin scored on 66 minutes.
Guardiola sent on Kevin De Bruyne on 75 minutes for his first game since Nov 1 and only then, with the game ostensibly over, did Everton have a significant period of possession in the final stages, dissuading the City manager from sending on Foden.
He will play against Leicester, Guardiola said, although it is the sharpness of de Bruyne which is the priority, this game marking the start of tuning up the maestro in time for the visit to Anfield.
The goal within three minutes of Sterling’s introduction to the game ended a week for him he will not forget for a while. Guardiola joked later that when Sterling has time to think in front of goal that is when he has “problems”.
As a man who is City’s top scorer with nine goals in the league, Sterling might well object to that diagnosis. He was left off the original team-sheet, a mysterious blank space and a zero where his name should have been, put down by City as a simple typo.
Certainly he looked a lot more deadly than the expensive goalscoring talent on the opposing side, Richarlison, who had a chance for Everton after 15 minutes and then again in that late period of pressure which he failed to convert.
Missed opportunities that Marco Silva was still grumbling about afterwards. “Near perfect” was how he described the requirement for any team hoping to get something from the Etihad and although his side were never completely out the game they made too many mistakes in defence and squandered too much in attack.
Twice their towering centre-backs Kurt Zouma, Michael Keane and Yerry Mina allowed Jesus and Sterling to slip in between them and connect with the inch-perfect deliveries that sought out diminutive figures finding space in the area.
There was much to admire in the performance of Ademola Lookman, a second-half substitute who had an impact on the game when Silva decided that it was time to take a few risks.
In his most hopeful mood, Silva would have seen his formation as one where Lucas Digne and Seamus Coleman could break into space behind the City full-backs and they did on one first half occasion. But they were pushed back by a team that play football right up in your grille until there are no more backward steps to be taken.
In midfield Andre Gomes did what he could against the waves of attacks and perhaps it would have been different if Richarlison had scored from a 15th-minute chance made by Digne’s dart into the corner. The Brazilian should have headed a cross to the back post rather than try to guide in with his right boot and he made a mess of it.
Everton sought to turn City around swiftly with those low-trajectory precise kicks of Jordan Pickford, and when it worked it was effective. But for the most part the away side were hunted and when finally they made a mistake there was a goal.
Mina’s ball from deep in his own half was intercepted by Ilkay Gundogan and the ball went forward quickly to Leroy Sane and then Jesus who beat Pickford at his near post.
Such swift punishment. If Pickford had an excuse for the ball going past his right hand then it was that this City team are impossible to read at the best of times. He saved one later point blank from Jesus although by then the belief seemed to be ebbing from his teammates.
They did get one in the end, CalvertLewin scoring with the first attempt on target on 66 minutes, a strange affair where City never quite cleared the ball and Digne got the ball in from the left.
Calvert-Lewin had barely had a chance served up to him all day but he took this one well.
His team had already conceded again when Jesus got his second of the game, a flick of the shoulders and a header straight through Pickford from another Sane cross.
“We had three against one in our box for that chance and when you have Michael and Mina against Jesus and they score that means we could do better,” Silva reflected. At 2-1 that was the moment when City might have wobbled and eventually there were further opportunities for Richarlison, wayward again, and the substitute Theo Walcott. Everton were finally on the front foot and De Bruyne still adjusting to the pace of the game after six weeks out.
But by then City had a third, the substitute Sterling heading in unmarked after Fernandinho’s ball had dropped precisely over Mina’s head.
Once Everton had begun to take risks it felt much more like a game although by then Foden was standing at Guardiola’s shoulder and the last few minutes were on the clock. It is so rare for City not to be in control that the short periods of games when they are not must feel strange for their manager who demands it all times. Manchester City (4-3-3) Ederson 6; Walker 6, Otamendi 7, Laporte 7, Delph 7; B Silva 6, Fernandinho 7, Gundogan 6; Mahrez 7 (De Bruyne, 75), Jesus 7, Sane 7 (Sterling, 66). Subs Muric (g), Stones, Aguero, Zinchenko, Foden. Booked Delph. Everton (3-4-2-1) Pickford 6; Mina 6, Keane 6, Zouma 6; Coleman 6 (Walcott, 56), Gomes 7, Sigurdsson 5 (Davies, 81), Digne 6; Richarlison 6, Bernard 6 (Lookman, 57); Calvert-Lewin 6. Subs Stekelenburg (g), Baines, Tosun, Schneiderlin. Booked Calvert-Lewin. Referee Craig Pawson (Sheffield).