PREMIER LEAGUE LIVE: Everton v Manchester City - as it happens from Goodison Park
By ADAM SHERGOLD
Follow Sportsmail's coverage of the Barclays Premier League as Everton host Manchester City at Goodison Park to begin the weekend's action.
The champions still hold an outside hope of retaining their title and a win on Merseyside would close the gap to league leaders Manchester United down to nine points.
David Moyes' side will look to bounce back from their FA Cup capitulation at home to Wigan last weekend and will target three points to keep up their hopes of reaching the Champions League next term.
Everton 1 Manchester City 0
Everton: Mucha, Baines, Gibson, Heitinga, Mirallas, Distin, Osman (c), Pienaar, Coleman, Fellaini, Anichebe
Everton substitutes: Springthorpe, Oviedo, Jelavic, Naismith, Neville, Barkely, Duffy
Scorer: Osman 31
Booked: Fellaini, Pienaar
Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta (c), Kolo Toure, Nastasic, Milner, Garcia, Barry, Kolarov, Silva, Tevez, Dzeko
Manchester City substitutes: Pantilimon, Razak, Nasri, Sinclair, Lescott, Clichy, Lopes
Booked: Kolarov, Dzeko
Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire)
35min Mirallas cuts into the penalty area then slips over with Zabaleta in close proximity - no contact though and not even an appeal from the crowd. Everton really have their tails up after the goal.
34min Booking for Edin Dzeko for being too physical - it has been coming.
GOAL! Everton 1 (Leon Osman) Man City 0
Wonderful strike from Leon Osman - a shot from 25 yards of swerve and power, which fizzed through the air and left Hart wrong footed.
Fifth league goal of the season for Osman, who has certainly responded to being given the captain's armband today.
29min Booking for Kolarov who rugby tackles Osman to the ground out on the right. Someone should tell him the Six Nations is on later.
27min Whistles of derision around the ground as Barry collides into Distin after making a clearance. No booking, despite Distin's protestations.
25min Anichebe sniffing around as Kolo Toure heads the ball back to Hart - just enough power on it to reach the England stopper.
Yellow card for Steven Pienaar - a late slide tackle on Gareth Barry.
Touch! Roberto Mancini shows off his ball skills as David Moyes looks on
23min City come to life and Tevez cuts inside from the left flank. He produces a weak, bobbler of a shot and it's easy for the keeper.
A few seconds later, Dzeko is allowed time and space to turn and shoot in the box. Again it's a poor attempt and Mucha can throw his cap on it.
21min First real chance for City to send a decent ball into the Everton box, but David Silva curled his free-kick straight into the gloves of Mucha.
Enlarge 
Controversy: Kolarov's heel appears to play Mirallas onside, but his goal for Everton was disallowed
Aerial ballet: John Heitinga challenges Edin Dzeko in the air during the early stages of the game
18min Just seen another replay of the disallowed goal - Mirallas appears to be onside with Kolarov behind him. Big call from the linesman.
17min Hearing news that before kick-off, a supporter ran onto the field and tried to warm-up with the Man City team.
The fan was wearing full Man City kit and jogged along the touchline before being escorted away by stewards.
14min This has been a positive start by Everton - plenty of the ball and lots of width and crosses from Baines and Coleman.
12min What a finish from Mirallas - shame it's offside! Not too sure about that one to be honest, he looked level with the City defenders but the linesman was in no doubt. He lashed the ball into the net, giving Hart no chance.
11min Leon Osman is bundled over by Milner - there have been plenty of fiery tackles so far.
9min Nice dribble from Coleman on the right, beating two City players, before winning a corner. Joe Hart has to come out and punch away a cross from Baines from the resulting move.
7min Fellaini making his presence felt too, clattering Milner as he tried to break down the touchline. He receives a yellow card, his tenth of the season and will get a two-game ban.
5min Leighton Baines surges down the left and is chopped down by James Milner - free-kick swung in by the England left-back and header clear by Kolo Toure in front of his keeper.
3min Everton looking comfortable on the ball in the opening stages, while Distin and Dzeko have already had some heavy collisions. In fact, referee Lee Probert has already stepped into have a chat with the pair and try and nip it in the bud early on.
1min Everton are in their traditional blue and white, while City are wearing their change colours of maroon.
KICK-OFF AT GOODISON PARK
12.44pm Further to the post about previous meetings, Moyes has masterminded five wins over Mancini in the league - more than any other manager (Ferguson is next with three). Hat-tip to OptaJoe for that one.
12.43pm The two sides are emerging from the tunnel and onto the Goodison Park pitch. Grey skies overhead but no rain. The place looks full to capacity for the visit of the champions.
A must win for City though if they want to lift the Premier League trophy again, especially with Man United strong favourites to beat Reading at Old Trafford this teatime.
12.40pm We are five minutes or so away from kick-off.
12.30pm One link between the two sides is Joleon Lescott, the centre-back who moved from Everton to City for £24m in 2010.
Lescott was overlooked by Roy Hodgson for the England squad to face San Marino and Montenegro in vital World Cup qualifiers next weekend, as Rio Ferdinand was recalled.
12.23pm Moyes can take comfort in his recent record in the fixture, though, with four of the last five ending in Everton wins since 2008.
12.20pm That shock home defeat to Wigan this time last week has taken its toll, with Moyes yesterday forced to defend Everton's achievements this season.
It rather poured cold water on the 11th anniversary of his appointment at Goodison Park, but Moyes is proud of the progress made since he arrived.
Reflecting on his time in charge in his programme notes today's match, Moyes said: 'I believe so much has changed since that very first game.
'The progress that the club has made since then can by shown by Everton's Premier League standings, when in the last 10 seasons we've finished outside the top 10 only twice.
'I understand this will never satisfy everybody and nothing would give me more pleasure than to bring the success that Everton had in the 1980s under Howard Kendall, with the great players that played for him.
'We are striving to reach those levels and we put every ounce of effort into trying to get back to that standard.'
Testing times: David Moyes has been forced to defend his record as Everton manager following last week's FA Cup exit
12.10pm While you won't catch him admitting the title race is over yet, Mancini already seems to be conducting a post-mortem.
Not bringing in defensive cover in January for Kompany is his biggest regret, though there is some comfort in the fact that, since August 2010, Joe Hart has kept 48 clean sheets in the league - 13 more than any other keeper.
12.07pm Tevez and Dzeko will be encouraged today by the stat that Everton have kept only two clean sheets in their last 23 Premier League matches.
12.02pm So the headline team news - Everton manager David Moyes has dropped Phil Neville to the bench after his poor performance in last weekend's 3-0 FA Cup defeat to Wigan (something he readily admitted) and so Leon Osman takes the captain's armband with Victor Anichebe preferred up front. Tim Howard and Phil Jagielka continue their absence through injury.
Roberto Mancini has gone with three at the back and has paired Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko in attack. Captain Vincent Kompany continues to miss out with a calf injury, while Sergio Aguero is back home in Argentina for treatment on a knee problem. Yaya Toure is suffering with a migraine and doesn't take his place in the squad.
12pm Good afternoon and welcome to Sportsmail's live coverage of Everton v Manchester City at Goodison Park.
Now that the dust has settled on another week of European football, we can get back to our bread and butter - the Barclays Premier League title race. And with that gap still at 12 points, City cannot afford any slips-ups this lunchtime against an Everton side very much in the running for European football next season.
We start as ever with the two team line-ups:
Everton: Mucha, Baines, Gibson, Heitinga, Mirallas, Distin, Osman (c), Pienaar, Coleman, Fellaini, Anichebe
Everton substitutes: Springthorpe, Oviedo, Jelavic, Naismith, Neville, Barkely, Duffy
Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta (c), Kolo Toure, Nastasic, Milner, Garcia, Barry, Kolarov, Silva, Tevez, Dzeko
Manchester City substitutes: Pantilimon, Razak, Nasri, Sinclair, Lescott, Clichy, Lopes
Stalemate: Everton and Manchester City drew 1-1 in the reverse fixture at the Etihad Stadium in December
0 komentar:
Post a Comment