Haaland sinks Everton as Manchester City step up pressure on title rivals

With a swipe of his lesser-used right foot, Erling Haaland beat Jordan Pickford to score his first goal since late November and put Manchester City on track for the three points that, until that point, appeared to be eluding them.

Everton’s ploy of squeezing up high on Pep Guardiola’s side had thrown them out of joint, reducing the champions to a uncharacteristically average proposition. With City aiming to reel off a historic fourth consecutive title Haaland’s intervention in a crowded area was precious, as Guardiola’s jubilant fist-pumping reaction illustrated.

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His second goal, via a classic rope-a-dope counterattack engineered by Kevin De Bruyne, sealed a victory that briefly took City top until Liverpool returned to the summit after defeating Burnley, and was the kind of determined display that championship triumphs are made of. It was also a 10th successive win in all competitions.

Guardiola said: “It’s a big achievement. I love to win these type of games – the difficulty is there, we knew it, we talked about suffering and knowing how difficult everything is. Nothing is granted, the way they celebrated goals shows how difficult it was.”

This was Haaland’s third outing of a comeback after a stress fracture to a foot and the sight of him lashing the opener home at a corner off Pickford’s left arm was a welcome one for City. Despite a near two-month layoff, it was his 15th league goal of the season. His 16th, which came in the 85th minute, pulled him two clear of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in the scoring charts.

Guardiola, for the umpteenth time, deserves credit after his decision to introduce De Bruyne 57 minutes in. Suddenly City had more pace and craftiness, and it was the Belgian’s cool swivel and pass into Haaland that created their second goal. It was the peerless De Bruyne’s 106th assist in the Premier League.

Haaland barged past Jarrad Branthwaite and, as Pickford advanced to narrow the angle, calmly slid home to the goalkeeper’s right. Cue pandemonium among the sky-blue faithful and the sight of sheer delight racing across Guardiola’s face.

Until Haaland’s double, Everton had done what Sean Dyche sides do: frustrate their opponents. Their first attack rang alarm bells for City as the Toffees came close to scoring and Ederson was left in a heap. Jérémy Doku lost possession near the area, a disguised pass from Dwight McNeil found Ben Godfrey stampeding in, and the Brazilian keeper dived at his feet as Nathan Aké tried to help out. Replays showed the right-back kicked Ederson in the head – perhaps inadvertently. Guardiola said: “[I] didn’t see it, I cannot give an opinion about that.”

Ederson recovered and you wondered how many more chances the visitors would fashion; ruthlessness would be paramount. Dominic Calvert-Lewin underlined this with a weak chip into Ederson’s arms when a defence-splitting pass was on, in a period that featured copious Guardiola thigh-slaps due to his side’s ponderous play.

With De Bruyne starting on the bench, his heir, Phil Foden, was positioned on the right rather than at No 10 and struggling to get into the contest. Now he acted, moving infield to take the ball in a central pocket and race down the left. This was more promising, as was Doku darting beyond Godfrey before dropping a cross on to the leaping Haaland’s head.

But the Norwegian missed. City lacked De Bruyne’s geometric eye yet when the teams trotted out for the second half, the same lineup remained. So, too, the pattern. Rodri or Matheus Nunes would make a burst, flip the ball behind to Doku or Foden, and Everton would scramble to douse the danger.

At last, De Bruyne was introduced for Nunes, with Kyle Walker replacing Manuel Akanji. The Belgian’s opening salvo featured rapid movement and passing as Haaland drifted left and poked over a dangerous ball but none of his teammates could finish.

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This all changed in the 14 minutes the 23-year-old generational talent required to score twice and kill the contest. On the final whistle De Bruyne’s smile was wide: it said it all.

Of Haaland, Dyche said: “I have been speaking to the players recently about this – footballers scoring trendy goals – whippers, dippers, clippers. He doesn’t think about that. Just score a goal. That’s the trendiest thing you’ll ever do. And he showed that.”

Guardiola said: “With Erling and Kevin we are stronger, it’s obvious.” This spells peril for City’s competitors. Next they are at Copenhagen in Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg as they begin the next phase of trying to retain that title.