Everton show first-half pluck before bowing to inevitability of Haaland

Anyone familiar with Manchester City under Pep Guardiola knows that one of their favoured and most successful patterns is via the overlap and a cut-back from near the byline. Everton, in their diligence and compact defensive posture successfully blocked that route to goal through Savinho in the first half but, dismayingly, left the door wide open down the other flank in the second.

Erling Haaland, in alarmingly prolific form but well-marshalled by David Moyes’s back line for the first hour, was the beneficiary of the Blues’ charity with a pair quick-fire strikes that killed the contest. Were it not for Jordan Pickford, the rampaging Norwegian might have claimed the match ball as well and put an overly harsh complexion on the scoreline.

The centre-forward issue has been a vexing one all season but Everton’s lack of a fit, reliable and natural right-back has been exposed as just as problematic in recent weeks. Jake O’Brien filled the void admirably and effectively last season but the flexibility he offers as an auxiliary centre-half when the Toffees don’t have the ball became an Achilles heel at the Etihad today.

Twice the Irishman was caught far too narrow, positioned more as a centre-half than a full-back, and on both occasions City struck ruthlessly to record yet another victory in this depressingly one-sided fixture, Haaland’s predatory instincts sharply at odds with his opposite number, Beto.

Two of Everton’s last three trips to Eastlands had ended in 1-1 draws and for long periods, the first 45 minutes in particular, it looked as though at least another point could be in the offing. Frustratingly ineffective in the first half of too many games already this season, the Blues, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall back after suspension, actually began in confident mood.

And, after Nico O’Reilly’s daisy-cutter and just missed at one end, Everton were perhaps within a stud’s length or fractionally quicker reactions from Beto of taking a shock lead at the other before a quarter of an hour had gone.

The electric Iliman Ndiaye, continuing down the right wing despite Jack Grealish’s ineligibility against his parent club, had intercepted an attempted pass by Nathan Aké and driven to the byline before skidding a centre across the face of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal. Beto arrived, reaching for it, at the back post but just couldn’t get enough purchase on it to steer it home.

It was an agonisingly close call and as good a chance as the visitors would get all afternoon, although Beto screwed a shot across goal when he should have hit the target before the referee's assistant raised his flag for offside.

Ndiaye, the standout player on the pitch with his mesmerising footwork, drive and tenacity, later engineered space for a shot at the end of a promising Blues move towards the end of the first period but Donnarumma was equal to his rasping drive, pushing it over his crossbar.

In between, City had enjoyed the majority of the ball and probed as expected, chiefly through Savinho down the right, but though Vitalii Mykolenko struggled at times to contain him, the Brazilian couldn’t find a breakthrough. He’d found himself in behind the Ukrainian for a second time to collect Tijjani Reijnders’s pass in the 15th minute but his shot was tame and easily gathered.

Then, after Matheus Nunes had fizzed an effort wide and Mykolenko diverted the ball behind, O’Brien unwittingly crashed a header off his own crossbar from the resulting corner before Savinho turned provider for Jeremy Doku to cut back for Reijnders, only for the Dutchman’s strike to be blocked at close quarters.

Guardiola’s side carried all the threat going into the break, with Haaland feeding Reijnders after James Garner’s forward pass was intercepted but Pickford foiled Doku. Aké headed wide from a corner when he probably could have done better and, finally, Savinho turned Mykolenko and drilled goal-wards but the Everton keeper was there again to make the stop.

The game was still evenly poised as it approached the hour mark with Everton having failed to test the hosts with either of two free-kick opportunities but the Toffees’ resistance was broken with 57 minutes gone. O’Reilly was released by Foden into oceans of space down City’s left where he clipped an inviting cross for Haaland to rise in typical fashion and power a downward header that beat Pickford on the line.

Three minutes later, fate denied Everton a quick equaliser when another Ndiaye cross ended at the feet of Garner but his goal-bound shot caught the supporting arm of substitute Bernardo Silva and deflected behind.

And two minutes after that, it was 2-0. Phil Foden pushed a ball out for for Savinho roaming on the opposite flank to the one he’d occupied for much of the match to that point and when he cut it back towards the penalty spot, Haaland swept it in via a slight deflection off James Tarkowski’s heel.

From then on it was a story of a flurry of substitutions, as Moyes first threw Tim Iroegbunam and Merlin Röhl on for Charly Alcaraz and Idrissa Gueye, then swapped Thierno Barry for Beto and finally introduced Dwight McNeil and Tyler Dibling for Dewsbury-Hall and Ndiaye.

Röhl, who enjoyed a hugely encouraging cameo, despatched a difficult header into the side-netting as Everton searched in vain for a way back into the contest but it was Haaland who dominated the closing stages. Twice the striker was put into the clear behind a lead-footed Blues defence but on both occasions, he was stymied by Pickford.

Having now played City and Liverpool away, two of Everton’s four most fruitless fixtures of the season are out of the way (the trips to Chelsea and Arsenal loom in December and March respectively) and Moyes can continue focusing on trying to fashion consistently positive results from what is an incomplete squad rebuilding project.

Tottenham will pose a stern test at Bramley-Moore Dock next Sunday but with Grealish and, potentially, Jarrad Branthwaite back, the Blues will be in a strong position to augment what has been a strong start to life at their new stadium. Scoring enough goals will remain the issue, however, while neither Beto nor Barry can make a convincing case for regular starts. What a different story this season might have had already with a reliable centre-forward up there…