VIEW FROM THE BLUE

Everton fightback stuns City

Everton conjured a riveting victory from what, on the evidence of the first half, looked destined to be a lethargic end-of-season display to register a fourth straight win over Manchester City and maintain their 100% record over Champions League-chasing Roberto Mancini.

Second-half goals by Sylvain Distin and Leon Osman turned this match on its head, stunned the visitors just when they appeared to be strolling to a vital victory at Goodison Park, and provided the home faithful with some real value for money.

Unbeaten on home turf since November, it's rare that the Blues are out-played at Goodison but City stamped their authority on proceedings early on and, after David Silva had flashed a shot across Tim Howard's goal, Patrick Vieira really should have put them ahead after 10 minutes. James Milner's cross found SIlva at the back post and he knocked it back first time to Vieira but the Frenchman belted the ball over when he really should have hit the target.

Everton, featuring one change from the side that drew at Wigan last weekend as John Heitinga came into a five-man midfield instead of Tim Cahill, were struggling to create anything meaningful going forward at all, their inadequacies illustrated in the 13th minute when Osman wasted their first real opportunity to open City up by attempting a speculative 30-yard shot that he screwed embarrassingly towards the corner flag.

When Vincent Kompany scythed through the back of Victor Anichebe, though, right on the edge of the area, Mikel Arteta had a sight of goal with the direct free kick but a double deflection took the ball wide and two subsequent corners came to nothing.

And five minutes later, City made the breakthrough they'd been threatening. Distin committed himself with an ill-advised lunge to try and intercept an inside pass to Silva and that left the Spaniard with time to slip it forward to Yaya Toure on the overlap and he rammed the ball past Howard from the angle.

The home side barely managed a response until a couple of minutes before half time when Jack Rodwell rose to meet Phil Neville's cross from the right but steered a header narrowly wide.

David Moyes responded positively during the interval, though, deciding to withdraw Tony Hibbert, move Neville to right back and introduce Jermaine Beckford as the new spearhead to the attack. Victor Anichebe, who had acquitted himself well from a physical standpoint but not offered much threat to the visitors' goal, was moved to a wider role on the right and the Blues looked altogether more dangerous right from the restart.

Indeed, Beckford almost found himself with his team's first clear-cut chance in front of goal when Leighton Baines picked him out with a low free kick on 47 minutes but Kompany nicked it off the striker's toe and stabbed it behind for a corner.

But any shift in the pendulum appeared premature just three minutes later when Toure was put into the clear behind the Everton defence and his long-legged stride took him into the box with Osman as the last man trying manfully to keep up with him. Howard foiled him, however, with a superb block after coming out to close him down and the deficit remained 1-0, as it would do so a minute later as well when Edin Dzeko's header flew inches wide thanks to a slight deflection off Distin.

Everton started to come into things from an attacking point of view as the half wore on, though, and Beckford and Anichebe showed some signs of an understanding, not least when the big forward intercepted a pass out of the City defense and quickly found Beckford who spun and shot in one fluid movement but Joe Hart was able to gather comfortably.

Beckford then turned provider just before the hour mark, playing Phil Jagielka in on the overlap but the defender's cut-back was behind all the blue jerseys in attendance and the ball was cleared. The crowd, having suffered through a tedious first half from the Everton perspective, were now firmly in the game by this point, spurred on by the commitment shown by the players as the temperature on the pitch began to rise amid a flurry of full-blooded challenges and testy exchanges between players.

Prior to the 65th minute, though, it felt like there was plenty of passion from the Blues but precious little to "hang" it on in terms of chances. But, when Tim Cahill came on for Rodwell and won a free kick wide on the right, Arteta whipped in a perfect cross that Distin rose to meet and power into the bottom corner via Hart's glove.

All of a sudden, City were on the rack and Everton pressed home their new-found superiority with a second goal in seven minutes. Neville clipped a teasing ball into the penalty area that Osman made all his own despite a significant height disadvantage against Kompany and his looping header drifted over Hart's despairing dive to nestle in the far corner to make it 2-1.

The diminutive midfielder's collision with Kompany left him prostrate on the turf amid all the celebrations of what really was a terrific goal and it took him a minute to shake off the grogginess before taking his position for the restart.

City had clearly had the stuffing knocked out of them, their confidence visibly shaken, and though they were desperate for the points, for the remainder of the match they were a shadow of the side that had bossed the first 45 minutes.

Milner did have Evertonian hearts in mouths with five minutes left when his shot from the edge of the area took a heavy deflection off Baines and looped over the bar but that was about the sum total of Mancini's men's efforts in the last 20-odd minutes and the Blues held on for a victory that more or less secures a minimum of a seventh-placed finish.

Player Ratings Howard 7, Hibbert 7 (Beckford 7) Jagielka 7, Distin 7, Baines 7, Rodwell 7 (Cahill 6), Neville 7, Arteta 7, Heitinga 7, Osman 7, Anichebe 7 (Coleman)

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