Man City’s win over Everton was their season in microcosm
Everton 0-3 Manchester City (Gundogan 37′, 51′ Haaland 39′)
GOODISON PARK — We all dream of a team of Gundogans. If Txiki Begiristain did not march into the away dressing room at Goodison after full-time armed with a new contract that has an extra 12 months added to the length and an extra zero at the end of the number that matters, he is no sporting director extraordinaire.
Where would Manchester City be without Ilkay Gundogan? Maybe still at the top of the league. This is a footballing steamroller and there is quality to spare in every position. But when league seasons get tight and tense and Pep Guardiola needs a man to keep his head while others are fretting, he can normally turn to silky Ilkay and get the answer he desires.
For 30 minutes, Manchester City were being intensely frustrated. The game settled into a pattern in seconds and stayed there: City possession – loads; City incisiveness – not a lot. They passed and they passed some more, but eventually the ball was attracted like a magnet into the penalty area and a Dychian disciple headed it clear. Yerry Mina tried to get into Erling Haaland’s head and City players were hounded and harassed and forced to turn back. They have no problem with taking that option, but it can lead to stagnancy.
Nor was this a one-dimensional plan from Everton. Sit back and sit back only against Manchester City and they will eventually kill you with one of their thousand passes. Everton’s band of brothers in midfield – Garner, McNeil, Gueye, Onana, Doucoure – sprinted to sniff out even a chance of winning the ball, but they rarely played the one-per cent passes that just invites more pressure. Alex Iwobi dashed down one wing. Dominic Calvert-Lewin held the ball up like a man who has not seen enough of it over the last three months.
But, as with every great magician, it’s the moment that you think you have sussed the trick that the ball appears in the other cup. Manchester City do not need more than half-chances to make you look silly. The cross was hopeful but Gundogan’s touch and flick, on the turn and somehow delivered in one moment, stopped you in your tracks. Us mere mortals would have accidentally handballed or pulled a muscle just trying it and there are other professional footballers nodding in agreement.
The common wisdom is that Gundogan will one day turn his attention to coaching and you can see why he will probably be damn good at that too. It’s not just the effortless vision, the appreciation of space and weight and timing of passes, the self-admonishment went something, anything goes awry. It is the manner in which he appears to operate at a slightly slower speed physically than everyone around him, as if internally becalmed by his own excellence. Why rush, guys; Ilkay has got this.
How many times have we said this now: and then Manchester City happened. By which we mean: when they sense a weakness, particularly against a low block, they open a little hatch below the dashboard and show you three new gears. Within 120 seconds, Gundogan is crossing for Haaland and the Premier League’s Mr Inevitable has a grin on his face like he’s just teased John Stones. And there’s still time for the Gundogan party piece, a free kick curled over the wall to make Jordan Pickford look like a schoolkid playing in the big goals on the top field for the first time.
There was reason for cheer for Sean Dyche here, even if one of City’s other tricks is to make you dig deep in the ground for the positive vibes. At Wolves and at home to Bournemouth, they have two fixtures in which this midfield energy and attacking wing play can return at least the four points that might well be enough to stay up. Calvert-Lewin has taken some stick this season for the heinous crime of being injured, but if Dyche can get players close to him he is one of the finest strikers in the country with back to goal.
But cheer soon dissipates in the moment against Manchester City; 30 minutes after you believed in an unlikely victory you are bringing on central defenders to try and protect your goal difference. Everything about this team in this setting is inevitable: suffocating pressure, unyielding control, marvellous combinations between marvellous players.
And when that doesn’t get you, a comparatively unheralded central midfielder will end up showing you why he is one of the best at what he does in the whole damn sport. Twenty-two players kick a ball around and, almost always, Manchester City win. Twenty clubs do it across an entire season and they usually win that too. Resistance is futile. Move onto the next one and console yourselves that it’ll be a while before you meet them again.
