English Premier League: Manchester City Vs. Everton: What Did We Learn?

Heading into a very cold night game in Manchester, Manchester City was sitting two points behind Manchester United on the table and a win would put them in front heading into the winter break.  

Carlos Tevez had just withdrawn his transfer request the day before, and everyone wanted to see if he would answer his critics and get a goal during the course of the game.

Everton was only two points above Wolves in the relegation zone, so a win would be a big boost to make it more than a one game gap from the bottom three.  

It was a disaster of a start for City: In the fourth minute, poor pressure from their defense led to an easy header off of a cross for the Australian star Tim Cahill. Then, in the 19th minute, disaster struck for City as Leighton Baines hit a beautifully curved shot to make it 2-0.  

This allowed Everton to back off and sit many players in their own box (which resulted in plenty of blocked shots) and really frustrated City throughout the night. The rest of the first half was relatively uneventful, with City controlling possession but struggling to break down well-organized Everton.

In the second half, there was more of the same.  

Manchester City pushed the ball and kept good pace, but struggled to get shots on goal and when they did, Tim Howard was always there to make the save.

In the 60th minute, a stupid challenge by Victor Anichebe (when he had crushed keeper Joe Hart just several minutes before) earned him his second yellow card and reduced Everton to 10 men, which gave the players in the sky blue jerseys some life.

City got a bit of a break in the 72nd minute, when a shot by Toure deflected off of Phil Jagielka for an own goal, which seemed to be the only way City could get the ball past Howard on the night.

Several times during the second half there were claims by City for handballs in the box, but upon seeing the replays these were either not true or too close to call, especially from the position the referee was in.  

Everton got some pressure in the last half hour, mostly Tim Cahill being caught offside several times, but Manchester City kept pushing the ball to no avail. In stoppage time, frustration kicked in as Kolo Toure made two stupid challenges in the span of about one minute to get himself sent off and more importantly miss the trip to Newcastle United after the break.  

So, what did we learn?

Well, we learned City could not overcome the blows they were hit with early and at least draw with a side that is very hard to play when they are ahead.  

This definitely brings questions as to whether they can win the EPL.

They now sit two points behind leaders Manchester United, who also have two more games left to play. Everton, who some people predicted to have a top four finish, gained some much needed ground on the back of Tim Howard, who was, in my opinion, the man of the match.  

It will be interesting to see how City will respond to all the recent Carlos Tevez drama and now this recent loss after they had a good run of seven games unbeaten.

This team, right now, looks like a bunch of highly paid individuals and not a championship team. They were outplayed by Everton.