VIEW FROM THE BLUE

The Price of Stability

By Lyndon Lloyd   ::  24/09/2011

Manchester City 2 - 0 Everton

Given the yawning inequality that has developed between Everton and Manchester City in recent seasons, it would have been glorious to shove the pundits' near certainty that Robert Mancini's side would finally break their Everton hoodoo back down their throats. Unfortunately, apart from an energetic opening five minutes, that never looked on the cards at the Etihad Stadium today; instead, Mancini did indeed oversee a victory over the Blues at the fifth time of asking, one that really just needed a goal from the home side to achieve.

It's more than a little dispiriting as an Evertonian that the outcome of this game was more or less assured before a ball had been kicked. David Moyes has employed the same gameplan of contain-and-hope on the home turf of the Premier League's best teams time and time again in his time at Goodison and though it's been successful here and there in grinding out a draw, all too often it's an exercise in futility.

And so it proved today. Swap the word "United" for "City" and you had the usual Everton experience in Manchester: a determined and stubborn rearguard action, precious little attacking outlet, the nail-biting wait for the inevitable breakthrough from the home side and a late scramble to claw back an equaliser.

Moyes used his post-match interviews to blame referee Howard Webb, who was shocking in his inconsistency and willingness to flash yellow cards with abandon, but, as poor as they were, the match officials did not lose this game for Everton; they were at massive disadvantage in terms of resources coming into this match but their manager undercut them further by persisting too long with a defensive strategy that was undermined the moment Mario Balotelli's deflected off Phil Jagielka and past Tim Howard with 22 minutes to go.

Given Moyes's legendarily cautious approach against the top sides and with his resources trimmed this season there was little surprise in him fielding arguably the most conservative line-up at his disposal. Phil Neville was drafted into midfield at the expense of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov as the only change to the team that started against Wigan Athletic last weekend which meant Tim Cahill playing as the lone striker but a chronic lack of creativity going forward.

Initially, the Blues fared well enough, taking the game to City with energy and some nice passing football but they only mustered a speculative Jack Rodwell effort from 25 yards that bounced wide in the fourth minute. Apart from a poor back-header by Phil Jagielka four minutes later that almost let Edin Dzecko in with Howard rushing out of his area to put him off, though, the home side weren't really offering much by way of goal threat either and it would take 17 minutes before they mustered a meaningful shot when Aguero sliced a left-footer over the crossbar from the edge of the box.

As the first half progressed, however, Everton began ceding more and more of the initiative and the pressure on their defence started to steadily build, not helped by a controversial booking for Neville following a seemingly innocuous collision with David Silva in the 25th minute. Following that up with a yellow for Leon Osman, referee Webb was chipping away at the Blues' aggressive game of dogged harassment in midfield. Nevertheless, Moyes's men successfully held out until half time, restricting City to long-range efforts from Dzecko and Gareth Barry.

The pattern firmly established in the first half predictably continued into the second and though Osman did strike the Blues' first shot on target four minutes after the restart and Cahill arced a header a yard over from Seamus Coleman's cross, the bulk of the traffic remained focused on Everton's defence. With so little in the way of an attacking outlet ? Cahill was routinely found defending on his own 18 yard line from open play ? the ball kept coming back and the 11 blue shirts behind it were under long periods of pressure.

While Moyes may have been contemplating changes midway through the second half, he was forced into his first substitution after an hour's play when Cahill injured himself in an ill-advised challenge on Vincent Kompany for which he was eventually booked. Louis Saha came on to replace him and he made an almost instant contribution, leading a breakaway into the City half but Marouane Fellaini's lethergic first touch was very poor and the ball was taken off him before the Belgian could carve out a chance.

A minute later, City made the breakthrough they'd been threatening when Aguero skipped along the Everton 18 yard line before back-heeling the ball neatly into the path of Balotelli and the Italian striker side-footed home via Jagielka.

It was so nearly 2-0 almost immediately when David Silva somehow got a shot away despite three blue shirts crowding him in the area but the ball smacked off the post, while Balotelli smashed a first-time shot wide from 25 yards.

It wasn't until first Royston Drenthe and then Apostolos Vellios came on for Neville and Coleman respectively that Everton, belatedly, started to look like a different side going forward and to ask questions of both City's defence and the referee. Drenthe drove narrowly over on his weaker foot with seven minutes left while, quite astonishingly, Mr Webb waved away protests when Baines' marauding run was cynically checked by Kompany on the edge of the box in the same fashion in which Osman had fouled Micah Richards in the first half and been booked for it.

While Drenthe's movement and pace were an added dimension, the Dutchman was, sadly, directly responsible for the killer goal with a minute left of the 90. A poor cross-field pass aimed at Baines on the left was easily intercepted by Silva in the centre circle and as Jagielka hesitated he released James Milner between the two central defenders into a one-on-one situation with Howard, the England international squeezing his shot under the 'keeper's body to make it 2-0.

A late flurry from Everton, which saw Saha warm the palms of Joe Hart with a powerful left-footed drive and superb anticipation by Vellios that saw him slide the ball away from the 'keeper and set up Fellaini for a shot that couldn't beat the two defenders stationed on the goalline, was in vain and time was called on an inevitable second defeat of the season.

In his pre-match press conference, Moyes likened this game to coming into a gun fight armed with only a knife. A more apt analogy would be a pistol versus a sub-machine gun and Moyes had a few bullets in his clip, he just chose not to chamber them until it was too late. Vellios was impressive once more as a late substitute and further pressed his claims for greater involvement, but Drenthe's costly error will, unfortunately, have set back his own case for starting the derby next weekend when his pace and unpredictability in forward areas are two qualities the Blues desperately lack.

There is no question that the strategy of containment had for an hour suffocated the ideas out of City but it was Mancini who made the timely substitution that turned the game, leaving Moyes chasing the point he'd set his men out to defend so staunchly when a bolder move might have given the home side something to think about at the back rather than making the decisive moves at the other end of the field.

In reality, Moyes made no real attempt to win this game and with a stategy like that, you usually get what you deserve. As well as they did, Sylvain Distin in particular, asking his defence to hold out against such a talented side for 90 minutes is just too big an ask. By the end, the defence looked spent and the team as a whole had bowed to the inevitable. Plus ça change under Moyes ? the price of stability, perhaps.

Player Ratings: Howard 7, Hibbert 7, Jagielka 7, Distin 9*, Baines 7, Neville 6 (Drenthe 6), Rodwell 7, Fellaini 7, Coleman 6 (Vellios 7), Osman 6, Cahill 7 (Saha 7)

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