@font-face { font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 14pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }Manchester City returned to winning ways after the slip-up at Fulham last weekend, with a 2–0 home win over Everton in the English Premier League lunchtime kick-off on Saturday.
Everton made it difficult for the home side by packing the midfield, and kept the match goalless in the first half; but strikes from City substitutes Mario Balotelli and James Milner settled the matter in the second half.
Everton has been something of a bogey team for Manchester city in recent years, having won six of the last seven meetings between the two clubs including the last four played in Manchester. Roberto Mancini was without a win against the Toffees in four attempts since taking over the reigns at City. The visitors would certainly have felt that recent history was on their side and an upset might be on the cards.
Everton captain Phil Neville was back in the side to play a holding role in midfield with mercurial striker Louis Saha winning a place on the bench after his much publicized falling-out with manager David Moyes. City reverted to the 11 that have served them well in the Premier League thus far, with the majority of the team that beat Birmingham in the League Cup making way. City defender Joleon Lescott was facing his old club for only the second time.
A Rash of Yellow Cards
The visitors started brightly and it was 10 minutes before City managed an attack. However, neither side managed a serious attempt on goal until Sergio Aguero fired over the top on 18 minutes.
Everton’s Jack Rodwell, Phil Neville, and Leon Osman received yellow cards in quick succession. The first two were both for incidents involving David Silva who provided the best entertainment of the half when he collapsed in a heap and rolled around in a manner worthy of an Oscar nomination after an innocuous clash with Neville.
One feels that referee Howard Webb was punishing Neville’s reputation as a hard man rather than the actual offence if, indeed, there was any offence at all.
Those three yellows for the Everton midfielders meant that they would inevitably be that little bit more tentative in their challenges going forward, making things less constricted for the likes of Silva and Aguero.
Consequently the home side began to exert their authority. The first real save of the game was made by Everton keeper Tim Howard from Aguero and, although the final quarter of an hour of the half was played entirely in Everton’s defensive third, it was the best that City could manage.
Inspired Substitutions
Everton enjoyed a good 10 minutes at the start of the second half forcing three corners in quick succession, but from that point on it was one way traffic with City in complete control. Yet, still the best that City could conjure up was a strike from Samir Nasri that was well stopped by the American Howard.
Then on 68 minutes, Aguero came inside from the right flank, weaving his way along the edge of the box, but failed to find an opening for a shot so cleverly laid the ball off to Balotelli who clinically side-footed with power into the bottom corner. The ball took a slight deflection off defender Phil Jagielka giving Howard no chance.
That was the shot in the arm the Sky-Blues needed. Silva unluckily hit the upright on 70 minutes. Two minutes later he had the ball in the net after good work from Balotelli, but the flag was up for offside.
Silva made Everton’s Royston Drenthe pay dearly for a poorly placed pass by sending a sublime pass to substitute James Milner who sealed the win in the 89th minute. It was the England international’s first Premier League goal for City and long overdue.
Everton made a valiant effort to salvage something from the game and managed a couple of attempts in stoppage time. Saha had come on when Tim Cahill injured his ankle in the process of fouling an opponent.
Saha showed a glimpse of his class with a good shot from the corner of the area but Joe Hart had it covered. Just about the last act of the game was an attempt by Marouane Fellaini that was scrambled off the line by Mancini’s third substitute Stefan Savic.
The City boss was pleased with the way his team stuck to the task of breaking down a side who, more often than not, packed all 10 outfield players in the box, seemingly in search of a 0–0 draw.
"I am very happy because we kept going and didn’t give up," Mancini was quoted as saying on the Manchester City Football Club website. "Everton made things very difficult so we needed to be patient and find a way through, which we eventually found."
Mancini was also pleased for his two goal-scorers Mario Balotelli and James Milner, both who opened their Premier League accounts for the season. "Mario is a good guy and he loves Manchester City," he said. "Sometimes he isn’t happy when he scores, today he was and I am very pleased for him. He has had to wait for his chance and today he got it.”
