Everton vs Manchester City match report: Steven Naismith hands Toffees crucial draw as Manuel Pellegrini's men stutter

Everton 1 Manchester City 1

(AFP/Getty Images)

There are many places where Manchester City won the title, but the 3-2 win at Goodison Park in May probably has the greatest claim to be last season’s decisive match.

Under David Moyes, Everton had become a block over which City all too often stumbled and it was not unrealistic of Liverpool supporters to believe that the blue half of Merseyside would come to their rescue. They did not quite come close enough.

It is far too early to know if the two points City dropped here will have a decisive impact on the title race. All you can say is that this draw ensured there would be clear blue water between Chelsea and the champions this morning.

Had Sergio Agüero been fit to start it is not unreasonable to imagine that Manchester City might have won the match by the interval. The opening 43 minutes were a thing of beautiful touches and measured passes, usually involving David Silva that were played out on the edge of the Everton area. However, not one of those moves finished with Joel Robles having to make a save.

By the time Agüero came on for his first match since he was injured against Everton in early December, the character of the afternoon had changed. The rain was sweeping horizontally across the stadium and in the words of the Everton manager, Roberto Martinez, it had become “an old-fashioned game, full of character and grit”.

It was one that suited Everton in general and Romelu Lukaku in particular. Martinez commented that Lukaku has to be fully fit to be at his best and he had not returned from the World Cup in good shape.

Lukaku sees his shot saved by Joe Hart (Getty Images)

On Tuesday, he had struck the late equaliser that kept Everton in the FA Cup and prevented a fifth straight defeat. Here, he was the lean, hungry striker who last season had driven Everton to within touching distance of the Champions League, although for the striker this would always be the day when his close friend, Junior Malanda, who played for Wolfsburg, died in a car crash in Germany.

The sight of Lukaku’s long strides pounding towards him would haunt Eliaquim Mangala’s waking hours. For his manager, Manuel Pellegrini, it would have been worrying that a defender on whom the club had spent £32m should have so little idea how to cope.

The moment the game changed was the moment, two minutes before the interval, when Lukaku forced a fine, spreadeagled save from Joe Hart and as the ball was half-cleared, Seamus Coleman sent it clattering back against the crossbar.

From that moment on, Everton looked as if they believed they could compete. Since the 2-0 win over Wolfsburg on November 27 that ensured they would top their Europa League group, they had played 10 matches and recorded one victory, against struggling Queens Park Rangers.

Before Coleman struck the bar, Goodison had been teetering on the edge of rebellion, waiting for City to break through. Thereafter, they were behind their team even when they fell behind in a move begun by a fabulous tackle from Pablo Zabaleta that saw the ball played out to Silva, whose composed shot was deflected into Fernandinho’s path. The Brazilian, who back home would have been used to rain this intense, if not quite this cold, did the rest.

Steven Naismith's header beats Hart (Getty Images)

Everton had already put the ball in the net by this stage and, had the game been played in 1958, Steven Naismith’s barge into Hart that allowed Phil Jagielka space to score would have gone entirely unremarked.

There was nothing wrong with the ball that produced the equaliser; a superlative free-kick from Leighton Baines that was floated into the heart of the City area for Naismith to head home. Mangala punched the sodden air with his gloved hand, a gesture that said everything about his performance and Manchester City’s afternoon.

Everton: (4-2-3-1) Robles; Coleman, Jagielka, Stones, Baines; Besic, Barry; Naismith, Barkley, McGeady (Mirallas 77); Lukaku.

Manchester City: (4-2-3-1) Hart; Zabaleta, Demichelis, Mangala, Clichy; Fernandinho (Lampard 82), Fernando; Navas, Silva, Nasri (Kolarov 92); Jovetic (Aguero 67).

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Man of the match: Stones

Match rating: 7/10