Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side take on Everton in the premier league game on Monday night, 21 August 2017 at the Etihad Stadium the first home game for the blues. Everton are coming into this match on the back of that hard fought 1-0 win on the opening weekend while Manchester City overpower Brighton thanks to goals from Aguero and own goal. The game will kickoff at around 21:00 uk time and skysports has live coverage of the match in the UK.
Match Highlights
Everton are a very compact side and although they have lost Romelu Lukaku and his goals, they signed number of players going into the new season and they look one of the surprise packages this season who might cause trouble for top 6 come the end of the season. Manchester City are odds on favourites to win the title under Guardiola after they spent huge in 2017 transfer window but their defense still looks a bit shaky at the back and thats is where the problem comes because going forward City are as good as anybody in the league.
Everton are kind of a boggy team for Manchester City and looking at last season’s result Everton drew 1-1 at Etihad Stadium back in October 2016 while the return fixture at Goddison Park saw one of the finest Everton performances of recent era when they hammered City 4-0 thanks to goals from Lukaku, Mirallas, youngsters Tom Davis and Ademola Lookman. Can we expect similar result again ? Hard to think so but looking at this Everton team if they spring a few positive results against top 6 teams should not come as surprise to anyone.
Tom Davis was one of the star performers when last time these two meet back in January 2017 when Everton came out 4-0 winners at Goddison Park.
Everton 4-0 Manchester City – January 2017
[ English Premier League 2016-17 Match ]
34′ 1 – 0 Romelu Lukaku scored in 34th minute of the game to put Everton in lead at Goddison Park. The lead was totally deserved as they created several chances in first half.
47′ 2 – 0 Kevin Mirallas scores second for Everton just after the break to put City in real trouble.
79′ 3 – 0 Tom Davies scored his very first Everton goal and what a goal it was. He runs with the ball on counter attack cutinside with a superb skill playing one-two before producing a class chipped finish.
90′ 4 – 0 Ademola Lookman came on for last few minutes and found himself on scoresheet to cap off a superb performance by Everton.
Team News & Lineups: Pep Guardiola has some injury worries ahead of Everton clash with Sergio Aguero doubt having suffered minor injury on international duty while Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany and Bacary Sagna are all out due to their respective injuries. Which means Nolito is likely to start upfront while Sterling, Gundogan and David Silva to play in attacking roles ahead of Fernandinho and Fernando.
Everton on the other hand might be without captain Phil Jagielka while Koeman is likely to retain the lineup from the last game. This is how I expect both teams to lineup on Saturday.
Match Predictions: Everton use to be somewhat boggy team for Manchester City having record 4 straight wins at Etihad Stadium from 2010 to 2013 but since than they are winless in last 5 visits losing 3 and drawing 2. But Ronald Koeman has kind of steady the ship and Everton are enjoying their best start to the league campaign in years. City will be wounded having lost to Tottenham and this game will be a big test of their character where anything but a win might dislocate City from the top of the table. I am going with a narrow City win in this one.
Tanks