By Sam Lee Feb 28, 2022 14
Some football cliches are just too on the nose to be avoided, and for that reason there is no other place to start than to say that Manchester City’s gritty, battling, fortuitous 1-0 win at Goodison Park is a big win in the title race.
There is a title race, by the way. Before New Year’s Eve it was claimed that things were done and dusted, and that sentiment only grew after City beat Chelsea 1-0 in January.
After that, Pep Guardiola had to temper the emotions slightly.
“We can lose games, one and two and three and four and five. But I know that after losing, because it happened in the past, we will react properly. We will try again, we will try again.”
And so after losing to Tottenham Hotspur last week, City’s trip to Merseyside became all about reactions.
“I’m waiting for how we’re going to react tomorrow,” Guardiola said at his Friday press conference. “I know them, from what I saw in the last few years, I know they’re going to perform well.”
Well, not exactly.
The other obvious talking point is the penalty controversy. It looked to all the world that Rodri had handled the ball inside his area, inexplicably, and there was bewilderment when no penalty was awarded. Initially news filtered out that there was an offside in the build-up, but Frank Lampard refuted that — and so did the Premier League, who said there was no clear evidence the ball had hit Rodri in the “red zone” (this week’s phrase of choice); the area below the shirt line/armpit.
Perhaps if the VAR did think it was handball they would have checked the offside, and it must be said that some of the ball did seem to clip the Spaniard’s sleeve, but the rest of it made contact with his arm. It’s commonly accepted that the handball laws are a mess and we have not heard the last of this one. Perhaps that incident, rightly or wrongly, makes Phil Foden’s winner all the more important.
And in terms of City’s reaction, this wasn’t their slickest display — and it wasn’t exactly because they were trying to manage the match in a particular way (Everton had a big say in how it panned out), but they did limit the hosts’ threat after half-time.
A big reason that Everton made life difficult for City was because Allan, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Donny van de Beek and Richarlison made life hard in midfield. Every time City tried to bounce a pass between their usual suspects, one of the Goodison big lads, or the industrious Van de Beek, got in their faces, and in the faces of the out-ball, too. It was scrappy, the ball flew about and it became all about who got on the end of the loose balls.
A bit like the Southampton game, which ended as a 1-1 draw, City had to work incredibly hard to get the better of a side who pushed them all the way, who made life hard all over the pitch. It often looked ugly, then, and it was one of those wins that was imperfect enough to fuel plenty of debates over the next few days without even mentioning the penalty.
Foden’s winner sparked wild celebrations (Photo: Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
Why is Riyad Mahrez, City’s top scorer and assister since January 2021, out of the team all of a sudden? Why is Bernardo Silva, one of the best players in the league this season — if not the best — now being pushed up into the attack, and on Saturday to the right wing for a while? Will Kevin De Bruyne’s up-and-down season continue?
So it was not exactly the kind of ruthless reaction that City have roared back with in the past. When they lost away to Newcastle United in January 2019 they beat Arsenal 3-1 and won the final 14 games of the season to pip Liverpool to the title. When they lost against Manchester United last season to end their 24-game winning run they beat Southampton 5-2 and won the next six.
Given City’s usually comfortable wins at Goodison over the past few years, another stroll could have been expected. They lost 4-0 here in Guardiola’s first season in charge, but the performances since have made that ancient history.
Whether Sam Allardyce or Carlo Ancelotti is in charge, Everton have often sat back and invited City onto them, and been punished. Lampard’s iteration were far more assertive and aggressive, getting stuck in and, as a result, getting the crowd up on their feet and encouraging the next wave of pressure — which led to enough forays into Ederson’s box for it to be a concern.
When they had to defend, they were compact and forced City wide, a bit like Southampton recently and Tottenham last week, which didn’t necessarily bode well for Guardiola’s men.
The clock was ticking down, and the crosses weren’t exactly raining in like they had done in those two other games of late, but there wasn’t a clear sight of goal either.
And then a lucky break, and another one. Bernardo — now on the left — put in a low ball and Mason Holgate stuck a leg out, diverting it towards his own goal. Michael Keane was wrong-footed by the whole thing and could only stab at it.
Foden was alert enough to get on the end of the loose ball — the most important one of the evening — and calm enough, at such a big moment, to take a touch that removed Jordan Pickford from the equation and allowed him to slot in from a matter of yards. He’s done that a lot recently.
The away end erupted. They knew how big that could be.
Then the Rodri incident happened. Had a penalty been awarded, there would have been a serious inquest into what City are playing at — the second in seven days and a feeling that everything was falling down.
Instead, they are back on the up.
And maybe this is just the stage of the season we’re at now. During that run-in in 2019 there were times when City essentially only wanted a 1-0 win and anything else was a bonus. They smothered Bournemouth that March when the home side didn’t even win a corner — let alone a shot. Mahrez scored a scrappy winner that day too.
There was Burnley away in late April when Sergio Aguero scored a goal that crossed the line by 29.5mm, one of the tensest matches in recent City history. The famous Vincent Kompany goal against Leicester, a week later, secured another 1-0 win, although if that was scrappy it was surely to do with the sheer nervousness that seemed to reverberate around the Etihad Stadium that night.
All of those wins added up to something huge, with City winning the title on the final day ahead of Liverpool by a point. How thick is the hem of a sleeve?
That’s how tight the margins are and, look, nobody is saying the title race is done this weekend. It wasn’t done in December or January and it will go on and on, although surely the two teams won’t be able to win with the same consistency again?
But it just goes to show how important that Foden goal felt when it went in, and how big it could feel in May. City will need to play better, but they clearly still have the stomach for the fight.
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