Man City Player Ratings vs. Everton: Cityzens Face Utter Disbelief As Title Race Intensifies

In the ultimate tale of two halves, Manchester City felt lucky to walk away with a 3–3 draw to Everton on Monday night, adding another layer of drama to the intensifying Premier League title race and leaving City manager Pep Guardiola in a mix between relief and wide-eyed utter disbelief.

City dominated the first half, and it seemed only a matter of time for them and, specifically Jérémy Doku—whose creative brilliance was on display since the opening whistle—to break the ice. Rayan Cherki fed Doku a ball at the top of the 18-yard box, prompting a quick touch and a left-footed shot from the Belgian into the upper-90 of the goal frame in the 43rd minute. It was a picture-perfect goal for what was supposed to be a picture-perfect game, an easy three points to bring City within three of Arsenal still with a game in-hand.

Everything quickly became dark after the hour mark, though, when City became seemingly careless and complacent. Everton got on the board in the 68th minute when Marc Guéhi played a weak backpass to goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from inside the 18-yard box, which Thierno Barry easily jumped onto and nailed for the equalizer, blowing the title race wide open. The Toffees had all the momentum after that moment, adding a second and third goal within 12 minutes to see Donnarumma throw his hands up in despair and City fans start to storm out of Hill Dickinson Stadium.

A brief—very fleeting—moment of brilliance from Erling Haaland came just two minutes later, though, forcing fans reluctantly back into their seats. It proved worthwhile for the visiting supporters when Doku fired one into the upper right-hand side of net in the waning seconds of stoppage time to level the game by the final whistle.

The Cityzens, although initially expecting three, will gladly take the point, bringing them within five of the league-leading Gunners with a game in-hand. Given Arsenal’s steadfastness in the title race—earning a crucial 3–0 win over Fulham on Saturday, City really couldn’t afford this stumble; however, the title race still isn’t over. They’ll just hope West Ham can spoil the Gunners’ fun next week, in the same way Everton did to them.

One Thing We Can’t Ignore

Jérémy Doku once again played the hero. | PETER POWELL / AFP via Getty Images

For all the creative mastery and offensive momentum in the world, City once again struggled to find the back of the net in the first half—a plethora of opportunities they would soon come to wish they had capitalized on.

They completely dominated possession and total shots in the opening period, yet walked away with just an unsettling 1–0 lead over Everton at the break and the bone-chilling reminder of the equalizer the Toffees almost had, if it hadn’t been for a heroic moment from Gianluigi Donnarumma between the sticks in the 31st minute. That would be end up being a moment of foreshadowing.

City once again were completely dependent on Doku to be the game changer, just as they were in their last outing against second-tier Southampton in the FA Cup semifinals last week. Sure, they had a heavily rotated squad in that match, but again, after dominating possession and in the attack, they walked into the break actually down 1–0 to the Championship side. Advancement to the final round required the brilliance of Doku, who relied on his trademark explosiveness to earn a goal and an assist for an ultimate 2–1 win.

For a team of so many offensive threats, the burden should not be beared so heavily by Doku, especially this late in the season. It’s a dangerous and careless bet to play with the title race on the line and Arsenal refusing to let up. This was proved ten-fold by Everton’s second-half response. City should have finished the job much earlier in the night. Doku was there to save the day, but how many times can the Cityzens rely on him to do that?

Man City Player Ratings vs. Everton (4-2-3-1)

*Ratings provided by FotMob*

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma—6.9: Absolutely unbelievable save in the 31st minute, after Guéhi got torched on the left side. His backline did him no favors in the second half.

RB: Matheus Nunes—6.7: Close and diligent defense, curbing any creative attempts by Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye. Ineffective in the second half.

CB: Abdukodir Khusanov—6.9: Had two heroic moments in the first half: a sliding save to halt Everton’s first real shot opportunity in the 25th minute and a deflection off his chest on a rebound shot in the 31st. Wheels fell off after the hour mark for him and Guéhi.

CB: Marc Guéhi—6.7: Solid and patient outing for the left-hand side of the back-three in the first half. Became complacent the last 30 minutes and punished by a tragic back pass to Donnarumma.

LB: Nico O’Reilly—6.0: Shifted well and explosively up the field when in attack to seamlessly adapt to Guardiola’s three-back formation in attack.

DM: Nico González—6.4: Had moments of brilliance on defensive tackles, single-handedly halting the Toffees’ offensive momentum in the middle third; however, burned on other occasions, specifically in Everton’s quick counterattacks.

DM: Bernardo Silva—6.2: His offensive creativity and defensive poise were both on full display. Toffees appeared afraid to step to him at times.

RW: Antoine Semenyo—7.2: Demonstrated his usual trickery; used his moves to explode both down the flank and centrally across the 18-yard box. Skied one off a perfect cross in the 20th minute, which he would later regret.

AM: Rayan Cherki—8.0: His energetic high press put the hosts on their heels. Set up Doku’s first act of brilliance.

LW: Jérémy Doku—9.4: His silky brilliance embarrassed Everton’s Merlin Röhl and Jake O’Brien down the left flank on multiple occasions, often at the same time, despite being two-on-one. Once again the hero of the night.

ST: Erling Haaland—7.5: Relatively stationery, especially in comparison to Cherki’s continual explosion, and waited too long to become an actual contributor.

SUB: Phil Foden (74’ for Semenyo)—6.2: Ineffective in his time on the pitch.

SUB: Mateo Kovačić (75’ for González)—7.4: Burned for Everton’s third goal, as he slid and missed the tackle.

SUB: Omar Marmoush (87’ for Silva)—N/A: Hopelessly thrown in the fiery pit of Everton’s bliss.

Subs not used: James Trafford, John Stones, Nathan Aké, Rayan Aït-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders, Savinho

What the Ratings Tell Us

nico oreilly — Nico O’Reilly played multiple positions on Monday in the run of play. | Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Nico O’Reilly was everywhere on the field—not just along the left sideline to creatively combine with Doku at the corner flag, but also in the center of the pitch to aid Silva’s build up and even breaking through Everton’s backline inside the box. He singlehandedly kept in tact Guardiola’s three-back formation when City were the ball, so the visitors could keep up their offensive pressure. The wheels came off, though, in quick counterattacks when O’Reilly was caught too high up the field, proving how influential O’Reilly’s role is to Guardiola’s offensive system.
Gianluigi Donnarumma came up big on multiple occasions, and the scoreline does not reflect his performance. First, he got one fingertip on the ball in a heroic, backwards sliding save to prevent a lethal far-post goal for Beto in the first half. In the second half, again, he used his sheer length twice to prove his worth as a world-class goalkeeper. World-class or not, he was never going to rectify the dangerous position Guéhi put him in.
Jérémy Doku proved to be City’s ultimate game-changer once again, while Erling Haaland appeared to be nothing more than a body in aimless motion. He didn’t come alive until the final 30 minutes, after Everton equalized, but by then, the hosts had all of the momentum, and it was largely too late.

The Numbers That Explain Man City’s Draw

City are not nearly clinical enough when taking shots. They are good at generating offense and getting shots off, with a total of 21 shots on the night, but they had just 1.45 xG, which was lower than Everton’s 2.77 xG, despite the Everton taking 14 total shots. This will need to be drastically improved for any hoping of taking over the title race.
Guardiola’s men were dominant with 75% possession and poised with 90% passing accuracy, which only further prove how out of hand this game quickly got.
Everton were much more aggressive, with 15 fouls committed, compared to City’s five fouls committed.

Statistic	Man City	Everton
Possession	75%	25%
Expected Goals (xG)	1.45	2.77
Total Shots	21	14
Shots on Target	4	6
Big Chances	1	3
Passing Accuracy	90%	69%
Fouls Committed	5	15
Corners	9	5

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