Everton 0 Man City 1: Rodri gets away with clear handball as Foden strikes to send Citizens 6 points clear of Liverpool
PHIL FODEN broke Everton’s brave resistance with a goal crucial to both ends of the table.
Jordan Pickford’s saves and a gutsy all-round display took Frank Lampard’s team within ten minutes of claiming a point in their relegation battle.
If City had dropped two more after their 3-2 defeat against Tottenham, the gap between them and Liverpool would have been slashed from 14 to four in a matter of weeks.
But just as Reds fans were starting to wonder what their club’s two games in hand were, Foden capitalised on an error by Michael Keane to poach the winner.
It felt hard on Everton, after such a spirited performance.
Even more so when their strong claims for a penalty for handball against Rodri were dismissed by VAR moments later.
But this is what champions do: they find a way to win when not playing at their best.
City were nowhere near their usual standards, especially in the first half.
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It matters not. In players like Foden – and it feels like it IS Foden, more and more frequently – they have the individual stars who can change games in a second.
The visiting fans were understandably ecstatic at the end of this passion play.
In an emotional build-up to the game, both teams and sets of fans expressed solidarity with Ukraine and their international players, Vitaliy Mykolenko and Oleksandr Zinchenko, who sat tearfully on the home and away benches, respectively.
But football is better at making one-off gestures than it is at dealing with the long-term issue of the source of some of its funding.
The big news about Roman Abramovich and Chelsea will take some of the heat off Everton’s Russian sponsor, Alisher Usmanov.
Owner Farhad Moshiri, Usmanov’s business partner, has spent more than half a billion since becoming Everton’s majority shareholder in 2016 – only for things on the pitch to get worse.
The British-Iranian businessman is based in Monaco and for his latest spin of the roulette wheel, he has put his money on Lampard, a man with two and half years of managerial experience – none of it in a relegation battle.
When playing legends take the coaching reins, there is a bizarre convention to add their name to the club’s title.
It’s like those Marks & Spencer adverts.
You can almost hear a sultry female voice saying: “This is not just Everton – this is Frank Lampard’s Everton.”
But the Goodison Park faithful find Lampard as boss a lot easier to swallow than Rafael Benitez.
And from the start his players showed the hunger that those supporters demand as a minimum.
It was a massive improvement on the limp defeat at Southampton in their previous game.
Everton snapped into challenges, ran hard to close down opponents and space, and generally looked up for it.
City were showing the odd flash of menace, with one particularly fine piece of skill by Phil Foden deserving a better climax.
Yet Everton were more than holding their own.
The main issue, for both sides, was a lack of quality in the final third.
Everton’s five-man midfield were working like Trojans to suffocate City, restricting them in the first half hour to a shot by Kevin De Bruyne that was easily saved by Jordan Pickford.
When they could, they also broke forward but full back Jonjoe Kenny fired wide after being played in by Allan.
In the absence (again) of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, this time with a groin niggle, Richarlison was once more ploughing a lone furrow up front.
The Brazilian struggled to impose himself for much of the first half, but on 34 minutes had a clear sight of goal, only to shoot straight at countryman Ederson.
Richarlison also won the free kick from which Anthony Gordon dropped the ball on to the roof of City’s net into a free kick in first-half stoppage time.
Ederson saw it all the way, but it sent the visitors into the break with plenty to ponder.
Guardiola’s side emerged with greater purpose.
Pickford had to make a sharp save from Foden and another, less difficult one from Joao Cancelo, as City started to build some pressure.
Everton were finding it increasingly hard to enjoy any meaningful possession in their own half, let alone the visitors’.
Pickford made a bit of a meal of John Stones’ effort, but his initial save from De Bruyne’s 68th-minute shot was good and the stop from Bernardo Silva’s follow-up was brilliant.
A City goal felt inevitable. It should have come when De Bruyne crossed and Foden headed the ball on top of the net, instead of into it, denying Ilkay Gundogan what would have been an easier finish.
Ederson was by now a spectator, and remained one when a rare Everton break ended with Gordon firing wide.
The finishing line was in sight for Everton, but then Foden struck.
Silva’s cross deflected off Mason Holgate, Keane lost his balance and in nipped the City star to score from close range.
Ederson blocked a shot by RIcharlison and then Rodri escaped punishment for a needless use of his upper arm to control the ball in his own box.
You could see why Lampard’s assistant Ashley Cole protested so vehemently after the final whistle that he was booked.
A yellow card for the disappointed Blues – a final nod to the colours of Ukraine.
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