Man City 1-1 Everton: Erling Haaland misses a penalty as champions’ miserable run of form continues

If Erling Haaland’s guilty plea after Manchester City’s recent defeat at Aston Villa was an attempt to get himself into better shape, it hasn’t worked. His struggle and that of his team continues in a haze of aimless and completely directionless football.

Here Haaland’s glaring mistake was a headline maker, a missed penalty early in the second half. Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made the save but the penalty was desperately weak and when Haaland headed in during the ensuing flurry he was a yard offside.

The big Norwegian now has one Premier League goal to his name since November 9, while City’s disastrous form now stands at one win in all competitions in thirteen games. Of the eighteen league games that Pep Guardiola’s defending champions have played this season, they have won only eight.

Here against an increasingly ambitious Everton team, City were stunningly directionless. They started the match well in both halves and took the lead after fifteen minutes through Bernardo Silva.

But Guardiola’s team seems to lack leadership both on and off the pitch, and when the rhythm lets them down in a match, they are clueless when it comes to trying to get it back. The city looks physically shot and mentally exhausted.

Ghost footballers get lost in the mist on Boxing Day and the longer it goes on, the more we wonder if Guardiola will wake up one morning and realize it’s time to let someone else have a go.

Everton were a decent opponent here, but no more than that. A City team playing at 75 percent would have beaten them, but this version is nowhere near that and that particular percentage is only going south.

When Everton’s young talent Iliman Ndiaye equalized towards the end of the first half, Sean Dyche’s team had as much chance of winning this match as losing. City didn’t really threaten again after Haaland’s miss and Everton could have demolished it in the end when they managed to squander a four-on-two counter-attack with just a minute of extra time remaining.

City were short on form, fitness and fun, but had plenty of energy and purpose early on. Everton were the team that looked a bit slow as they were stuck and under pressure.

The difference from a City point of view was the speed at which they could move the ball. With Jeremy Doku and young Brazilian Savinho eager to penetrate from wide positions and Haaland living on the shoulder of Jarrod Branthwaite, Guardiola’s team were as threatening as they had been for some time. Admittedly, they were working with a fairly low bar.

City almost took the lead in the third minute when they recycled a corner on the left and centre-back Josko Gvardiol rose unchallenged and headed against the near post when he had expected to score.

That moment lifted the home crowd a little and in return City worked to get behind it. Savinho beat two defenders by cutting in from the right and brought home Pickford’s save with a low left-foot shot to the near post. City then scored in the fifteenth minute.

It was a simple move as Doku held the ball and his position on the left and waited for Silva to run off Branthwaite’s shoulder. When he did, he looked a little too wide to shoot with any hope, but when he did, Branthwaite couldn’t get a full block on and the ball went strangely and slowly across the goal and into the far corner.

Branthwaite should have done better and Pickford might have done it too. However, the city didn’t care. It was only Silva’s second goal since August and it was too late. The city was celebrated with all the enthusiasm you would have expected.

Everton had not enjoyed any action up front at this point and there was no initial reaction. Haaland bullied Branthwaite as he has done before in the 27th minute but was forced off goal through Pickford.

Then a long ball was worked to the Norwegian in the 34th minute, left behind by Phil Foden. Had Silva’s first shot with the outside of his left foot been placed one foot to the left, City would have been two goals ahead. But he flew wide and we wondered why he hadn’t touched the ball first or even used his other foot.

Whatever the good and bad of that decision, City regretted it shortly afterwards when Everton broke to level the match. The entire Dyche team had succeeded so far with a half-volley from Idrissa Gueye, which was easily held by Stefan Ortega in the City goal.

But when Abdoulaye Doucoure’s cross was missed by Manuel Akanji in the 37th minute, the ball reached Ndiaye, who controlled it with one touch and beautifully smashed the ball back over Ortega into the top corner.

The beauty of the goal was the timing. Ndiaye was off balance and his weight shifted back, but still managed to find the strength to beat the goalkeeper. It was a fantastic performance from a very talented young player.

City’s confidence is fragile at the moment and this is the sort of thing that happens when that is the case. To their credit, they started the second half strongly as Gvardiol hit the foot of the post with another header before Pickford saved low with his feet from Savinho and Mateo Kovacic drilled the rebound wide.

Savinho was a threat with his directness and it paid off in the 52nd minute. Vitaliy Mykolenko’s challenge was rash and high as his opponent drove towards him in the penalty area. Referee Simon Hooper gave the penalty, but only he knows why he did not show the Everton defender a second yellow card and sent him off the field.

Haaland’s penalty was too close to Pickford and the fact he was offside when he headed in the rebound probably summed up his current problems. Furthermore, Foden was in an offside position behind him and if Haaland had left the ball behind, his teammate would in all likelihood have scored.

From then on it was all a bit of a fluke from City. Before the penalty there had been a flurry of sharp football, just like at the start of the first half. But again it didn’t really hold up. There didn’t seem to be anyone in a home shirt who could really get a grip on the match. With just under fifteen minutes to go, Guardiola threw Kevin de Bruyne onto the pitch and that almost felt like the last throw of the dice given the lack of quality and experience here on the home bench.

The best chance of the period after Haaland’s penalty miss actually fell to Everton when Doucoure whipped Jack Harrison’s far post cross towards the near corner of the goal, only for Rico Lewis’ block. And that’s pretty much how it was for Everton as they moved closer to another valuable point. Stay in the game and try to break with purpose whenever possible.

They almost found a way out with seven minutes remaining when Nathan Ake – struggling with an injury – could not prevent a ball being put back into the path of Orel Mangala from 22 yards out. When the first shot arrived it hit Akanji and honestly could have gone anywhere. It missed the post by about a foot.

City were given six extra minutes to turn one point into three. It seemed like a lot. Lewis could have been the hero almost immediately, but smashed a decent chance high over the crossbar from just inside the penalty area. Then Everton broke well, but could not count an overload. From then on the match faded away and the final significant act was Foden – last season’s doubles player of the year – being shown a yellow card for a shirt pull to prevent an Everton breakaway. It seemed appropriate.