MY ACCOUNT
Manchester City’s dramatic loss to Tottenham, and Liverpool’s demolition of Leeds United, means the Premier League title race is very much alive.
The gap is down to just three points at the top, with 12 games remaining for each side, while Chelsea are not quite out of the equation just yet, either.
The Blues and the Reds get a break from league duties this week as they will contest Sunday’s EFL Cup final, meaning City have the chance to put that Spurs loss behind them and put the pressure back on the chasing pack.
And it just so happens they’re facing opponents who have really, really not done well against them lately.
A taste for Toffees
On his first visit to Goodison Park, Pep Guardiola suffered a 4-0 defeat. That result in January 2017 remains his most one-sided defeat in league football and left some observers wondering whether his tried and tested methods would be unsuccessful in the ‘blood and thunder’ of the Premier League.
Three league titles later, we know definitively that those concerns were a load of rubbish. And since that famous win five years ago, Everton have not enjoyed themselves against City.
That result was the Toffees’ only win in the previous 17 league meetings between these sides. The most recent eight have all been won by City, including the past four at Goodison Park; they only had four wins from 20 previous visits.
Everton have only lost nine times in a row against the same opponent in league football twice before: against Manchester United between 1999 and 2004, and Portsmouth, who won 13 consecutive meetings between 1947 and 1956.
Let us be Frank
When Everton thumped Brentford 4-1 in the FA Cup in January, the mood on the blue half of Merseyside was buoyant: gone were the mutinous days under Rafael Benitez, replaced by renewed optimism under new boss Frank Lampard.
Since then, they have lost 3-1 at Newcastle United and 2-0 at Southampton, a 3-0 home win over Leeds United sandwiched in between. It means they have lost 13 of their 23 league matches this season, which is already as many defeats as they suffered in the whole of 2020-21, and 12 of them have come in their most recent 16 games.
Given City are on a 12-game unbeaten away run and have only conceded eight goals on their travels all season, you sense that belief in a positive result will be scarce among the home fans – even more so if you consider Guardiola’s record against English managers. Apart from a 3-2 loss to Graham Potter’s Brighton and Hove Albion in May last season, City have won every one of their past 25 league games against teams led by an Englishman.
Still, perhaps there is reason to think Lampard is the man to buck the trend. After all, aside from Potter, the last English manager to beat Guardiola in league football was, you guessed it, Lampard – his Chelsea team won 2-1 back in June 2020. Plus, as a player, Lampard won 15 of his 21 league games against City; he only managed more victories against five other Premier League teams.
Dom-struck
Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored in each of Everton’s first three games of the season. Since coming back from injury in January, he has gone five games without a goal.
That said, his expected goals tally in that time is only 1.04, so it’s not as though chances have been coming thick and fast. Indeed, he has only averaged 2.5 shots per 90 minutes in that time, at a value of 0.09xG per attempt.
His form is in stark contrast to England team-mate Raheem Sterling, who has hit 12 goals in 18 games in all competitions since the beginning of November. It took him 58 matches in 12 months to score his previous 12.
If Sterling wasn’t enough to worry Everton, then consider Riyad Mahrez, who has been directly involved in 25 goals in 30 City games in 2021-22. He needs just four goals and assists combined to match his record tally in English football, set during Leicester City’s unforgettable title triumph in 2015-16.
