City give toffees away day Blues

Manchester City           3   -   1         Everton

             
Negredo 17',  Aguero 45' ,  Howard 69' (og)                                          Lukaku 16'             

Manuel Pellegrini got a response from his Manchester City side in the early Saturday lunchtime game against Everton, after his side was humiliated in the Champions League clash this past week against German side Bayern Munich. Talk before the game was whether Pellegrini would drop the England no1 Joe Hart due to his string of poor performances along the way of late, waiting in the wings was that of Romanian keeper Costel Pantilimon who has played in the cup competitions for the past couple of seasons for City and has played very well too, as well as helping them get to the FA Cup final last year, before then Boss Roberto Mancini chose to pick Hart over him.

Despite all the talk of Hart being possibly dropped and replaced, the City manager stuck with his number 1 keeper for the game as he made a few changes to the side  that lost to Bayern Munich Wednesday night. In came James Milner, Aleksander Kolarov, Joelon Lescott, Pablo Zabaleta and Alvaro Negredo to side. For the opening quarter of the game, Everton was by far the most attacking side between the two as they pressured City and carved them open without really troubling the goals really.

City had the opening chances in the game with Kolarov shooting from outside the area and hitting the side netting, as well as then having a header from a David Silva corner go just over the bar by the Serbian International defender. Everton had the majority of possession in the opening quarter of the game and they eventually made it pay. Everton defender Phil Jagielka played a ball up field which was latched on to by Romelu Lukaku down the right flank and who had beat the off side trap thanks to the two Manchester city centre-backs playing Lukaku onside.

Everton`s Romelu Lukaku scores opener  Picture via :Theguardian.co.uk

Lukaku then danced his way inside the area before shooting on goal and having the ball go under Hart in the goals, who took some pace off the ball. But not enough to stop the ball going in for an Everton goal after 15 minutes in. The lead lasted all of 90 seconds, before City first attack after the goal saw them level the score. Some good work by Yaya Toure saw him get free and then played a beautiful through ball to Negredo who then put it home to draw level at 1-1, this then kick started City into gear.

Aguero then wasted a glorious chance for the home side, after a well crafted set piece by the blues saw a great passing move in the Everton area come to the feet of Aguero who put the ball wide of the far post from a great position. There was then a massive problem for the home side when Vincent Kompany stayed down as he picked up a thigh injury. Despite getting treatment he walked off down the tunnel for the second time this season at home with another injury blighting his season, the Belgian was replaced by Matija Nastasic, as Pellegrini was forced into an early substitution for the Blues. Everton had a very good claim for a penalty, when Nastasic seemed to barge Lukaku over in the area as the ball was going out of play.

Negredo draws City level      Picture via :dailymirror

Sergio Aguero then had another great chance to possibly fire City ahead when David Silva played a lovely ball across the area for the striker, only for the Argentine striker to stumble as the ball came to him and the chance went begging. Alvaro Negredo and Seamus Coleman got into a heated argument prior to home sides second goal, after Coleman had swung the Spanish striker round the neck outside the area to which Negredo wasn`t too pleased with Coleman over. Tim Howard came out of his goals to try and calm the situation, before quickly running back in goals as City broke away on the attack.

Silva had led the charge towards the Everton defence and he spotted Aguero before laying the pass to the striker, who with a tight angle drilled it past Howard far corner for 2-1 City lead just before half time. Referee John Moss blew for half time but then called James Milner over to show him a yellow card as the players were walking off the field of play for half time, after the City player challenge injured Coleman and after Everton player showed their displeasure towards the referee, he then show the yellow card to Milner as took two Everton players out with a strong challenge.

Sergio Aguero scores for 2-1 Picture via : bbcsport

 Second half saw City boss Manuel Pellegrini once again forced into a defensive shuffle, when a clash between Kolarov, Nastastic and Naismith from Everton saw play stopped due to injury to both City defenders. Kolarov had sustained a cut that needed treatment and was bad enough to see the Serbian defender swapped for Gael Clichy. City must have thought that their defensive ranks were cursed when no stranger to giving to blood to the cause in Pablo Zabaleta, the argentine picked up a bloodied head as he was given some stuff to help stop the bleeding for the City man when home side was suffering with defensive problems the whole game. Zabaleta was then involved in a penalty incident, when the Argentine defender ran onto the ball in the area and some contact by Coleman saw the City man go down in the area and had Moss award a penalty to the home side. Sergio Aguero was given the task of making the game safe with the penalty kick, but he failed with the spot kick and saw his effort hit the post and then bounce off the back of Tim Howard`s head into the net for a 3-1 lead.

 Negredo and Coleman go nose to nose prior to 2nd City goal                            Picture via : RTE.IE

Sylvain Distin had a chance for Everton which was collected by Joe Hart as he had hardly anything to do in the second half at all, Negredo then had a chance to extend the lead for City but Howard was equal to it. The final chance of the game fell to the home side, with some good play between Toure and Nasri down in the Everton corner, Nasri managed to weave his way into the Toffees box (no pun intended) and was denied by Tim Howard at the near post otherwise it was 4-1.

 City took the three points and in doing so handed Everton their first loss of the season and showed a response from their defeat midweek and shown resiliency to come back from a goal down to win the match, the win also moved City up to third place before the rest of the games took place.