Manchester City vs. Everton: Issues and Decisions That Will Shape EPL Game

Manchester City, to their credit, are not the sort to let the truth get in the way of a good story.

"Honestly in the Champions League we have not played well this season but the game against Bayern helped us a lot," said suddenly in-form striker Stevan Jovetic according to the Press Association's Mark Staniforth (h/t the Daily Mail.)

"We have more confidence because we had some bad times two or three weeks ago when we didn't play so well." Jovetic added. The takeaway here, per the Daily Mail's breathless headline, is that City's shocking come-from-behind win over Bayern "was the turning point for Man City!"

All right, everybody, settle down.

City hammered Southampton and Sunderland, overcoming significant injury problems in the process. The Sky Blues deserve full marks for those performances.

Here's the thing, though: City were probably going to beat both of those teams even if Sergio Aguero had not rescued them against Bayern. Neither Southampton nor Sunderland are in City's class, much less Bayern's.

It's a nice story, though. Give Jovetic that.

City will play their third match in seven days as they welcome Everton to the Etihad. Here are some of the issues and decisions that will shape this Premier League clash.

The Elephant in the Room

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Garcia (left) and Pellegrini will renew hostilities in mere days.

It will take all of Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini's persuasive and motivational powers to keep the Sky Blues on task against Everton.

Four days after City play the Toffees, City's Champions League fate will most likely be decided by the result they earn (or don't earn) at AS Roma. Could CSKA Moscow beat Bayern Munich and spoil City's party? Anything is possible. Will CSKA Moscow win that match? No.

Three more Premier League points against Everton would be great, but a quasi-miraculous passage to the knockout stage of the Champions League could eventually be season-defining.

Professionals are paid to compartmentalize, and City should be able to beat Everton even with an eye forward toward the Roma match.

If City drop points against Everton, though, the prevailing narrative will be that City looked past the Toffees.

City's Depleted Squad Is Better Than Most at Full Strength

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Toure is turning it on again.

The XI Manuel Pellegrini used to disembowel Sunderland mid-week was not exactly the murderers row he normally has at his disposal.

Captain Vincent Kompany and Aleksandar Kolarov were unavailable due to injury, and Eliaquim Mangala missed out because of the red card he was shown during the Southampton match. Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy were thus compelled to bolster the third- and fourth-string centre-backs (Martin Demichelis and Dedryck Boyata).

From an attacking standpoint, Edin Dzeko and David Silva continued their convalescences. City's options were so limited that Jose Angel Pozo not only made City's bench, he actually played against Sunderland.

Naturally, City won 4-1 and were never in serious danger against Sunderland.

That City are blasting opponents with so much quality on the shelf should be of some concern to the rest of the Premier League.

Sergio Aguero and 10 Random Premier League Players Could Qualify for Europe

Stu Forster/Getty Images

Given that much space, Aguero's probability of scoring is incredibly high.

Football writers are running out of superlatives to describe Sergio Aguero. The Argentine's incendiary form is forcing scribes to consult a thesaurus just to give him a match grade.

Stuart Brennan in the Manchester Evening News was among the latest pundits to figuratively throw his hands up in attempting to rate Aguero's two-goal performance against Sunderland.

"SUBLIME, brilliant, genius, unstoppable, unplayable, magnificent, stupendous, destructive, devastating...pick your own adjectives, 10," Brennan huffed.

But he's not wrong.

Given the overall mediocrity of the Premier League this season (yes, Liverpool, we're talking about you), is it really a stretch to think that putting Aguero on, say, Newcastle United or Tottenham Hotspur would make those clubs contenders for Europe?

Thankfully, City supporters are nearly certain never to find out.

Tim Howard Is Not Tim Howard Any More, at Least Not Right Now

Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

Howard looked awfully close to a shot player against Spurs.

The problem with being a goalkeeper as great and as old as Tim Howard is that when you fail, the "is he past it?" rhetoric is never far away.

Though your humble correspondent must admit that Howard's inability to keep out the first Spurs goal against Everton last weekend was disconcerting. Watching it, I thought it looked like Howard had lost a step.

I was not alone.

"Harry Kane's effort, while on target, was modest. But, expecting something with a bit more behind it, Howard had committed to the dive a touch early. Rather than palm the ball to safety with any conviction, he simply pushed it into the path of the on-rushing Christian Eriksen," who scored as noted by Vithushan Ehantharajah in the Mirror.

You know which kind of athletes start committing to dives early and try to anticipate plays to make up for lost athleticism? Old athletes.

Howard's dipping form is only underscored by the upcoming release of his autobiography. This book's existence feels like the release of a greatest-hits compilation from a band that knows its hit-making days are over.

City Must Keep Whatever Pressure They Can Muster on Chelsea

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

"Hold me."

Chelsea lead the Premier League by six points over Manchester City, 10 points over Southampton and 11 points over Manchester United.

The supremacy of Chelsea and the relative weakness of every challenger other than City have triggered an avalanche of analysis declaring the Premier League, at best, a two-horse race.

"While Chelsea and City run away from the pack, Arsenal and Liverpool are flailing in sixth and 11th. Tottenham is flirting with irrelevance in seventh. Meanwhile, Southampton (third) and West Ham (fifth) are staying in contention," wrote Joshua Robinson for The Wall Street Journal. "And something is happening at Manchester United, though no one is quite sure what it is."

Robinson is correct, which makes City's pursuit of Chelsea all the more difficult.

It used to be that you could rely on Chelsea to drop points at a place like St James' Park, where the Blues will play this weekend. And yes, Jose Mourinho's men were held to a scoreless draw at the Stadium of Light just last week.

But on the whole, the rest of the Premier League is just too weak for City to count on too many more stumbles from Chelsea. City's margin for error is thus almost non-existent in the league this season.