Points shared with the title contenders

What a night that was, 3 goals against Man City is a feat on it’s own, and 3-1 up at one point is somewhat miraculous but to only end the game with 1 point is a real kick in the balls.

We had gone into this game with 1 point from the last possible 9 after the international break, we got a late draw at Brentford then we lost the derby after 100 minutes and last week at West Ham, after getting ourselves level, we conceded another injury time goal to lose the game.

Going into this one, I think even the most passionate Evertonian wouldn’t have thought we would get something out the game, I know I didn’t and when City finally did score I didn’t react, I just thought it was inevitable because that’s what they do, they break you down and usually score but, if I was offered a point before kick-off, I’d have taken it, yes, wanted the win to try and get the European spot but after losing the last 2 and now facing the title contenders, I would have taken a point if you offered it me before the game.

We had a couple of changes to the starting 11 in the last game, Gana Gueye had got a knock in training so he was out, Tim Iroegbunam came in for him, McNeil was benched as we all know, he hasn’t been great the last few games and Merlin Rohl came in for his first start since we beat Villa away on January 18^th and up top, Beto came back in after missing out at West Ham due to the concussion protocol.

We know Man City have a strong 11 and bench but Rodri was out and deputising for him was Nico Gonzalez so I did think that could be an area where we may be able to do well.

The game went the way as we expected though for the first 40 mins, Man City had all the ball and then finally broke us when Jeremy Doku curled one in from outside the box to put the visitors 1-0 up on the 43^rd minute. I did think this would be the start of another defeat. We got to half-time and in the second half we came out and were a bit better on the 64^th minute we made our first sub as Barry came on for Beto and 4 minutes were later we were level, a ball was put through towards Barry but he was offside so didn’t go for it then City defender Marc Guehi took control of the ball and attempted to play it back to his keeper but the pass was short and Barry became active again in that phase and latched on to it and slotted it to make it 1-1.

Just 5 minutes later following a corner from James Garner we were 2-1 up after Jake O’Brien glanced a header in. Hill Dickinson went wild and on 81 minutes it was 3-1, Rohl broke with the ball and I think it was a bit of a wayward shot but it went across the six-yard box and Barry was there to tap it in.

Everton being Everton though, didn’t switched on from the kick off and Erling Haaland was put through by substitute Mateo Kovacic and the big Norwegian of course out paced our defenders and as Pickford advanced Haaland chipped it over him to pull it back to 3-2, the man City fans that had left then came back from the concourse to their section. That was on 83 minutes and then on 86 minutes we had a corner and Bernado Silva, not looking towards the ball grabbed hold of Rohl and threw him to the ground and between the referee, Michael Oliver and the VAR Paul Howard they decided it wasn’t a penalty although, in saying that, there’s no mention of the incident so maybe we need to ask the question, did it even go to VAR? Here it is below

6 minutes were added on, we had brought Nathan Patterson & Carlos Alcaraz on for Merlin Rohl & Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on 92 minutes and Harrison Armstrong on for Iroegbunam on the 96^th minute, this added slightly more time on and on the 97^th minute, Doku once again, whipped a ball into the top corner to give the visitors a point, he ran off shushing the crowd and yet by not beating us, the league is no longer in their hands so unless Arsenal slip up, they’ll not win it this season so that was quite funny he did that.

We are now on 48 points in 10^th place with 3 games to play, joining us on 48 points are Fulham and Chelsea. If Villa get through their semi-final of the Europa League on Thursday and then go onto win it, the positions will go from 8 to 9 for European football next season as it stands, I think 8 & 9 are up for grabs, below is the table for the teams around us going into match week 36, we have Crystal Palace away on Sunday, they have their second leg of the European Conference semi-final on Thursday. Following Palace it’s the last home game of the season at Hill Dickinson on May 17^th against Sunderland before we finish away at Spurs on the 24th.

Anyway, that’s it, thanks for reading.