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Erling Haaland’s double seized the points, took him to 23 goals in 13 games for club and country, and kept Tottenham as the only foes the uber-striker has failed to score against this season.
The 25-year-old’s finishes – on 58 and 63 minutes – shredded David Moyes’s visitors in two high-quality moments that decorated a generally middling affair. Without the injured Rodri and the departed Kevin De Bruyne, this Pep Guardiola iteration does not purr along like his finest ones have. Jack Grealish was not on the sward for Everton, because of the parent-club rule, and City’s manager may ponder the wisdom of allowing the forward’s nous and class to be loaned away.
So this was an afternoon’s work when the verdict was defined as “job done” but City’s continuing lack of total control was visible at times – the precise quality Rodri, who has a hamstring problem, gives them.
Guardiola could be content when, at first, his men repelled Everton pressure, as without the vaunted No 6 they can be porous. Theirs is a game of flair. So we saw the visitors’ defence sprung and Savinho chest the ball and cross, Nico O’Reilly step up from left-back and slide a 20-yard attempt inches past Jordan Pickford’s left post. Phil Foden’s defence-splitter was aimed for an in-rushing Jérémy Doku but he marginally missed the target.
Then, City’s softness was spied. Nathan Aké’s pass out from defence went straight to Iliman Ndiaye, who cruised forward on Everton’s right and squared; Beto was close to turning the ball past a stranded Gianluigi Donnarumma in City’s goal.
This was a passage of incident that preceded stodgier fare, in which the players got bogged down in the middle third. Or, when breaking into the attack zone, overran the ball, as the usually silky Foden did.
City’s answer was to go route one. This time Foden did what was needed and threaded a corner in from the right. Jake O’Brien rose and inadvertently powered a header that beat Pickford but not his bar, and the right-back’s blushes were diluted.
The contest continued disjointed. Foden’s next corner, from the same side, ended with Idrissa Gueye in a heap and Tony Harrington blew for an infringement. When the referee soon signalled another City corner, this also yielded nothing.
With his clever feet and shoulder-drop Ndiaye has shades of Grealish, as was seen when he cut in and shot, Donnarumma tipping over. In a quasi-ping-pong phase City next broke via Foden, who touched to the thus-far quiet Haaland: the No 9 stamped forward and passed left to Tijjani Reijnders, whose tap in the same direction located Doku, but Pickford repelled the Belgian’s effort.
The half ended with a Savinho run and snapshot that Everton’s goalkeeper again kept out, with a shot count of 9-3 and City’s 67.9% ball-share indicating a first-half ascendancy. But the lack of end product continued after the break, as when O’Reilly marauded down the left, he and Doku combined near Everton’s area, and the move fizzled out.
An emblem of Guardiola’s discontent was seen when he implored Aké to zip the ball left rather than turn back towards goal and a more conservative option; when his team did as the manager asked, they prospered.
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Foden found O’Reilly, who advanced, glanced up and crossed. Haaland’s muscular leap was followed by an emphatic header home and Guardiola celebrated.
Could Everton respond? Nearly, because James Garner was soon in City’s area and his shot struck a hand of the newly introduced Bernardo Silva. The visitors wanted a penalty but Harrington was unmoved.
This scare for City was followed by joy. Yet again the left provided the incisive zone as Foden dropped the ball to Savinho, switched to the flank from the right. When the Brazilian cut the ball to Haaland, his low finish beat Pickford, who might have done better.
In added time the lethal marksman had two gilded chances to complete a hat-trick but to much surprise fiddled and failed: almost a collector’s item.
