Man City 1-1 Everton: Erling Haaland misses a penalty as champions miserable run of form continues
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If Erling Haaland’s admission of culpability after Manchester City’s recent defeat at Aston Villa was an attempt to stir himself into better form, it hasn’t worked. His struggles and that of his team go on amid a haze of aimless and utterly rudderless football.
Here Haaland’s stand-out error was a headline maker, a missed penalty early in the second half. Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made the save but the penalty was desperately weak and when Haaland headed in during the flurry that followed, he was a yard offside.
The great Norwegian now has one Premier League goal to his name since November 9 while City’s run of disastrous form now sits at one win in all competitions in thirteen games. Of the 18 league games Pep Guardiola’s defending champions have played this season, they have won just eight.
Here against an increasingly ambitious Everton side, City were staggeringly directionless. They started both halves of the game well and were ahead after quarter of an hour through Bernardo Silva. But Guardiola’s team lack leadership both on and off the field it seems and when the rhythm deserts them in a game they are clueless in terms of trying to get it back. City look physically shot and mentally spent.
Ghost footballers lost in the Boxing Day mist and the longer it goes on the more we wonder whether Guardiola will wake up one morning and realise it’s time to let somebody else have a go. . Everton were decent opposition here but no more than that. A City team playing at 75 per cent would have beaten them but this version is nowhere near that and that particular percentage is only heading south. Once Everton’s young prospect Iliman Ndiaye equalised towards the end of the first half, Sean Dyche’s team were as likely to win this game as they were to lose it. City didn’t really threaten again after Haaland’s miss and Everton could have snuck it at the end when they managed to waste a four on two counter attack with just a minute of added time remaining.
