Match Report and Player Ratings: Everton 3-3 Manchester City (Premier League)

Erling Haaland responded immediately though – and Doku hit a last-minute screamer to tie up a bonkers encounter. The unfamiliar Hill Dickinson surface was an early problem for City and caused a number of slippages in the opening 10 minutes but that was one of few things which seemed capable of knocking the Blues out of their stride as they penned their hosts in. Rodri absent from Manchester City matchday squad for Everton clash That dominance didn’t translate to too many clear openings initially but City began ramping things up, with Nico O’Reilly drawing a block from James Tarkowski ; then Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo going close with quick-fire efforts.

The majority of the Blues’ play was coming down the left and Doku in particular was a menace to Everton ; the Belgian jinked past O’Brien and picked out fellow winger Semenyo, but he couldn’t keep his volley down. Everton found a foothold after half an hour and should have taken the lead with their first opening, Merlin Rohl being freed on the right wing and seeing Gianluigi Donnarumma just about prevent Beto from reaching his cross, before I liman Ndiaye ‘s follow-up blasted into the chest of Abdukodir Khusanov . Doku remained City’s most likely source of an opening goal and shortly after Cherki had shot over from one of the winger’s deliveries, the Frenchman turned provider and laid off for the 23-year-old to take a step inside and lash a fantastic finish off his weaker left foot into the top corner.

City weren’t quite in the same stride to start the second-half and needed Donnarumma again when Ndiaye led a one-man breakaway and used Beto ‘s run as a decoy for his own shot, which the Italian goalkeeper got down to quickly. And the pair locked horns again just after the hour as Matheus Nunes and Khusanov couldn’t work out a bouncing ball between them, allowing Ndiaye to break free on goal; this is Donnarumma’s element though – and City’s number one spread himself heroically to protect his team’s one-goal lead. There was nothing the 27-year-old could do mere minutes later though – Marc Guehi made an atrocious error in trying to play the ball back to his keeper, gifting the ball to substitute Barry to score Everton’s equaliser.

City’s heads appeared to be scrambled and this time, it was the other centre-back who erred as Khusanov took far too much time on the ball, with Guehi needed to jump in with a last-ditch tackle – but that merely delayed the disaster as O’Brien headed in from the resulting corner to compound the Blues’ collapse. And the implosion was added to as the Toffees raced clear again, Rohl easily going past substitute Mateo Kovacic and seeing his dragged effort fall perfectly for Barry to bag his brace and put City in even deeper trouble. The crazy conclusion to the game continued immediately though; Kovacic was quickly back on the ball and played an incredible through pass for Haaland, who delightfully lifted over Pickford to reduce the rears back to one.