Man City 2-0 Everton: Post-match reaction

Our reporter Michael Plant gives his thoughts on Manchester City's 2-0 win over Everton.

Transcript

00:00 Manchester City 2 Everton 0 was the final score here today from the Etihad.

00:04 In a game that in truth I don't really think will live too long in the memory.

00:08 City found it really difficult for the first 65-70 minutes here against Everton.

00:12 We defended really well, a 4-4, 1-1 shape. City just couldn't break down and they

00:19 didn't offer enough incision penetration and you're getting into the latter

00:22 stages of the game wondering whether Everton were gonna nick a point. Probably

00:26 one of the best defensive displays I've seen here at the Etihad for quite a long

00:29 time. Pep Guardiola made his changes, brought on Kyle Walker and Kevin

00:32 De Bruyne and it was the latter who had a real impact. Didn't actually provide the

00:36 game-changing moment but his energy and his range of passing I think was

00:40 kind of the catalyst for City to go on and win this match. The first goal came

00:45 from Erling Haaland, a really vicious, venomous shot from I think quite a

00:49 frustrated Haaland who enjoyed a difficult start to the game but when

00:52 the corner came in it pinged around the box and Haaland with his right foot just

00:55 absolutely leathered it past Jordan Pickford. A really good finish from him and then

01:00 about 15 minutes later a through ball from De Bruyne, at this time creating

01:04 the goal, shrugged off Grant Thwaite who I actually thought was perhaps one of the

01:07 best players on the pitch but Haaland shrugged him off and kind of off-balance

01:10 looked up, saw Pickford coming out and just slotted it into the bottom corner.

01:13 Listen, this wasn't vintage from City, it wasn't fantastic but ultimately another

01:17 three points. That's six wins in a row in the Premier League, ten in all

01:20 competitions and as I'm recording this video they are currently sitting top of

01:23 the Premier League table. For how long that will last I'm not sure as I suspect

01:27 Liverpool will beat Burnley in a couple of hours time but for now it's a good

01:32 result for City even if they didn't exert the same level of control and

01:36 dominance and I suppose attacking flair that we've seen in recent weeks but as I

01:41 say an important game, some good performances as well. I actually thought

01:43 defensively City were good for all evidence, kind of huffing and puffing.

01:46 They didn't actually really create many chances and the back four didn't have

01:49 much to deal with. Ederson, did he have one save to make all afternoon? So yeah

01:53 City come through this one again. I think for them they're just getting in

01:57 that rhythm now picking up three points as regularly as they can. Very important

02:00 period of the season of course.