3 weeks ago
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A reminder of the teams
Manchester City (possible 4-3-3) Ortega Moreno; Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol; Foden, Kovacic, Bernardo; Savinho, Haaland, Doku.
Substitutes: Carson, Brits, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Simpson-Pusey, Mubama, Alleyne, O’Reilly, McAtee
Everton (possible 4-2-3-1) Pickford; Coleman, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Mangala, Gueye; Harrison, Doucoure, Ndiaye; Calvert-Lewin.
Substitutes: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Beto, O’Brien, Chermiti, Broja, Lindstrom, Armstrong
Referee Simon Hooper.
“LFC failed to score against the Evo cos the game never happened,” writes Jon Dry. “Just sayin…”
Did they score a goal, yes or no?
Pep Guardiola on Manchester City’s new world
“Is Seamus Coleman replacing Ashley Cole in a starting line up a candidate for oldest ever combined age for such a switch?” wonders Nick Smith. “Free sherry for anyone who can come up with an older outfield pairing.”
Ashley Cole? Are you sure there’s any sherry left? It’s a good question, though: Seamus Coleman (36) and Ashley Young (39) have a combined age of 75. As with most age-based questions, the answer probably involves Stanley Matthews or Kazuyoshi Miura.
Sean Dyche is one step away from using the V-word here. The day he starts talking about vibes is the day we know it’s over.
Pep Guardiola takes to Amazon
[How do you find your rhythm again?] I don’t know. Winning games, basically. We can’t think beyond the next game; we are going to try.
I love the club, the hierarchy and the people, my life in Manchester. We have a lot of problems, for many reasons and the target is to turn it round.
When we won everything in the past we had almost a full squad. Now we have eight important players out. When they come back they have to straight in the team, and with one game every three days they get injured again. We are in a cycle that we can’t get out of.
Kyle is unwell, Kevin and Gundogan [who are on the bench] have had flu the last few days, Jack [Grealish] is injured. Football is unpredictable. When you think, ‘Oh it’s going to be difficult’, maybe our form will change.
[On the transfer window] If we can we have to add players, definitely. Saying that, I don’t know if it will happen because the winter transfer window is not easy.
Stats department City have won 14 and drawon of their last 15 games against Everton, so there’s that.
Barney Ronay on City’s astonishing collapse
There is no obvious explanation for any of this. A team that were all aura, that carried their presence before them like a lance have become an anti-presence, stuffed shirts, straw men.
As ever the explanations tend to divide into the macro and micro view of history. Details will always decide a game. But we remain addicted to our sweeping narratives. So the more hard-headed analysis says: take the Ballon d’Or winner out of any team, chuck in one or two key defensive injuries, and there will of course be a drop-off.
Team news
Nathan Ake, Savinho and Jeremy Doku come into the City side in place of Ilkay Gundogan and the injured pair of Jack Grealish and John Stones.
Everton start Seamus Coleman at right-back in place of the suspended Ashley Young. That’s the only change from the goalless draw against Chelsea on Sunday.
Manchester City (possible 4-3-3) Ortega Moreno; Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol; Foden, Kovacic, Bernardo; Savinho, Haaland, Doku.
Substitutes: Carson, Brits, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Simpson-Pusey, Mubama, Alleyne, O’Reilly, McAtee
Everton (possible 4-2-3-1) Pickford; Coleman, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Mangala, Gueye; Harrison, Doucoure, Ndiaye; Calvert-Lewin.
Substitutes: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Beto, O’Brien, Chermiti, Broja, Lindstrom, Armstrong
Referee Simon Hooper.
Preamble
You don’t have to wait till New Year’s Day to start a resolution. STOP EFFING DRINKING. Manchester City will hope that the Christmas break – all four days of it – is the cue for them to emerge from the astonishing slump of the past two months. It’ll probably never make sense that a team of City’s calibre lost nine games in 12, but the sooner they start winning the sooner they can consign it to the annals.
City have a relatively kind run of fixtures in the next few weeks, starting at home to Everton today. That said, Arsenal and Chelsea have both come up dry against Sean Dyche this month, and even Liverpool couldn’t score against them three weeks ago. Any goals are likely to be hard-earned.
Kick off 12.30pm
