A dogged and organised Everton display at the Etihad Stadium ultimately counted for nothing material after Manchester City cracked the visitors’ resistance with two goals in 11 minutes either side of half-time.
The home team added gloss to the scoreline with a third that owed something to good fortune five minutes from time.
Everton, who gave a Premier League debut to 18-year-old Tyler Onyango off the bench, saw little of the ball and fell victim to an early hammer blow when Demarai Gray limped off after 17 minutes.
Rafa Benitez’s team hung-in, though, surviving a penalty award overturned following the intervention of VAR Chris Kavanagh and thankful to Jordan Pickford for a terrific one-on-one save from Bernardo Silva.
But 60 seconds before the break Raheem Sterling flashed a strike beyond Pickford after the forward was picked out by a spellbinding pass from City left-back Joao Cancelo.
City’s second goal, on 55 minutes, was supplied by the explosive right boot of Rodri. Everton half cleared their lines but when the ball ran for the Spaniard approximately 30 yards out, he unleashed a blockbuster shot that fairly screamed into the top left corner.
The hosts scored their third after a driving midfield run from Ikay Gundogan on 86 minutes. The German found Cole Palmer for a low effort that ricocheted into the path of Silva, who stroked the ball into the net.
The Premier League champions didn’t have it all their own way. Everton were stubborn and disciplined and moved the ball well when they reached the final third. Richarlison miskicked when trying an acrobatic volley and there were attempts from Gray and Anthony Gordon blocked by defensive bodies.
Benitez’s team go to Brentford in seven days aiming to climb from 11th but will have to manage without Richarlison, suspended after receiving a fifth booking this term.
Everton spent minutes 27 to 33 with their backs firmly against the wall. It was to the away side’s credit, however, that City’s relentless pressure in that spell yielded only one clear-cut chance.
Palmer dropped to the edge of the penalty box to supply the pass for Silva, scurrying into the space vacated by City’s young striker, whose pass for the midfielder was inch perfect.
Pickford was out like a flash, on top of Silva after the Portuguese’s first touch and saving from the second. The ball spun up in a looping arc and was met on its downward arc by Gundogan, who had to generate all the power on a headed attempt that clipped the top of the bar.
By this stage, a pattern had become embedded, the hosts’ attack trying to outfox a robust and focused and rigid formation implemented by Benitez, the Everton manager called “tactically, so clever” by Pep Guardiola in the City boss’s programme notes.
Additionally, Everton were finding it extra difficult to escape their own half without the thrust and speed of Gray, who immediately signalled he’d hurt a muscle after striking a pass around the 17th minute and was replaced by Alex Iwobi.
Back to that flurry of City pressure, begun in the 27th minute by Phil Foden, crossing deep from the left. Sterling couldn’t get over the ball at the back post and directed his header off target.
Pickford saved low to his left from Palmer’s long ranger as City generated momentum. The busy Sterling gathered the rebound, turning 360 degrees to manufacture a shooting opportunity but scuffing into Pickford’s gloves.
Benitez cautioned Everton would spend a lot of the game without the ball and his players were evidently ready for the challenge.
Crosses were repeatedly stopped and interceptions completed around the fringes of the away team’s penalty box.
Sterling took it upon himself to rule passing out of the equation with a direct dart into the area. The England forward hit the deck when confronted with the figure of Michael Keane and, to the evident horror of the visiting players, referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot.
Cue VAR and a hefty delay, four minutes in all, as Attwell was eventually urged to rewatch the incident and rowed back on his initial decision.
For all City’s imagination and possession, it increasingly appeared as if it would take something special to burst through Everton’s ranks.
And that was precisely what Cancelo produced as we entered first-half stoppage time.
Lucas Digne walloped clear of his box – Everton were very good as pouncing to extinguish danger as soon as City’s touch was anything other than immaculate – and full-back Cancelo collected about 50 yards from goal.
Nobody saw what was coming, the Portuguese showing wonderful vision and technique to match with a glorious outside-of-the-boot pass that eliminated Keane and landed in the path of Sterling, who clipped his first-time effort on the half volley inside Pickford’s left post.
Gray was a loss for Everton. He ran at City inside 30 seconds, causing confusion that ultimately presented a shooting chance for Gordon, whose effort was blocked.
Moments before he was hurt, Gray received a pass from Andros Townsend, resisting a buffeting from Rodri as he burst through the middle, to canter forwards.
Gray advanced to the edge of the area, shaped to shoot, shimmied, delayed some more, then smacked an effort that thudded into John Stones.
Five minutes earlier, Foden leapt and contorted to meet a ball hung over from the right by Sterling but couldn’t control the finish.
It did feel like the Alamo, on occasion. Ben Godfrey got a toe in to stop a Silva cross finding Palmer in front of goal, Palmer turned supplier, only for Gundogan to be thwarted by a defensive body, and Gordon and Seamus Coleman both snuffed out threatening raids down Everton’s right.
Benitez’s side were a menacing proposition on the counter, however. Everton felt badly done by when Rodri balked an advancing Townsend without any repercussions – Richarlison collecting his booking for a lunging tackle on Kyle Walker in the next instance.
Ayermic Laporte followed the Brazilian into the book for dangling out a leg as Townsend checked back onto his left foot deep into first-half stoppage time, the Everton player picking himself up to fizz the free-kick into the midriff of Ederson, the City goalkeeper.
Everton picked up where they left off immediately after the break, going at City and earning a couple of set-pieces in promising positions, notably a free-kick on the byline when Cancelo flattened Coleman.
City smuggled Townsend’s delivery clear and began to reassert themselves, without disturbing Everton’s rearguard, until Rodri smashed his jackhammer strike into Pickford’s top corner.
Riyad Mahrez duly replaced Foden and almost immediately slid a strike the wrong side of the post after being ushered in by Cancelo.
Palmer miskicked after Walker’s precise ball through a congested area and Mahrez sent a dipping free-kick straight at the rock solid Pickford.
Everton kept City honest, however, countering with pace and conviction – and in numbers.
Richarlison’s timing was awry when attempting an acrobatic finish from Iwobi’s right-wing delivery and Coleman was repelled at close quarters by Ederson.
Meantime, Palmer unzipped Everton with a pass for Walker, whose ball along the floor from the right found Sterling in front of goal. Pickford spread himself to make a second first-rate smothering save.
There was nothing Pickford could do to deny Silva, though, when the City player controlled a ball that cannoned into his feet eight yards out and completed the scoring with a cool finish.
