Manchester City 2-0 Everton Review

Premier League GW8

Another win for Manchester City, extending their winning run, and keeping within three points of leaders Arsenal. It’s not easy to get back up and running after the international break, and the tricky first half proved as much. Ndiaye caused problems. In the second, the change of tempo and aggression off the ball drove the team towards a win. Led by Phil Foden and converted by Erling Haaland.

MOTM: ERLING HAALAND

Notable Stats:

• Erling Haaland has scored in each of his last 11 games for club and country.

• There have been just three instances of a player scoring 10+ goals in the first eight games of a Premier League season:

  • Erling Haaland (2022/23)

  • Erling Haaland (2024/25)

  • Erling Haaland (2025/26)

• Jeremy Doku, Nico O'Reilly, Tijjani Reijnders, and Josko Gvardiol have all provided two assists for Erling Haaland this season. Only one player has more than one pre-assist for Erling Haaland this season, and that's Phil Foden (4).

• Phil Foden has completed 2+ through balls in thirteen matches across his City career. Three of those were during the 2025/26 season against Napoli (5), Everton (3), and Monaco (2). Improving his connection to Erling Haaland.

Game Stats:

Manchester City 2-0 Everton

• xG: 2.56 - 0.8

• xThreat: 2.08 - 0.97

• Possession: 71.0% - 29.0%

• Field Tilt: 74.1% - 25.9%

• Penalty Box Shots: 16 - 4

• Deep Entries: 20 - 8

• PPDA: 7.3 -16.8

• Buildup Completion: 92.8% - 77.9%

• High Turnovers: 5 - 2

Here is a look at the cumulative xG and xGA for Manchester City this season across all competitions. Tight in the opening three games, but the gap has grown significantly since, and the team isn’t allowing nearly as many chances.

Phil Foden has now made 5 consecutive Premier League starts for Manchester City, his longest streak since November 2024.

Donnarumma has made 5 consecutive Premier League starts. The last time a Manchester City keeper did that was in November 2024.

Across the opening 11 games to start the season, Manchester City have kept 6 clean sheets. Last season, they kept 3 clean sheets in the first 11 games.

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Here is how Manchester City looked to set up in possession against Everton. Nico in place of Rodri, Savinho on the right wing, and Nathan Ake getting his first PL start of the season. Continuing to build on the approach in previous games, Nico O’Reilly tucking inside and then looking to support Jeremy Doku with underlapping runs, or holding the width in the second half. Especially in the first half, Ndiaye did a great job to support O’Brien against Doku, to double up and shift Everton into a back five at times.

As you can see from the final third entries by Everton, they looked to go long and found success off Beto battling with Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake. Despite being a handful to deal with, the two defenders were a bit soft in those duels, giving Everton some joy. Poor pass from Nathan Ake, which is intercepted by Ndiaye, leads to the chance Beto has. 0.6xG for that chance, which was most of the total they created (0.8). In the second half, Garner (61’) had a shot blocked inside the box, and Rohl (77’) had a shot off target; that was all Everton was able to create.

On the flipside, Manchester City was consistently looking to find Jeremy Doku isolated against O’Brien, but couldn’t quite get him the ball with enough time. Ndiaye did a great job to support his full-back and allow NOR to be tracked in the first half. In the second half, NOR pushed out wide, Doku moved inside (eventually Savinho), and had more joy.

Plenty of good chances in the first half for Manchester City between Savinho (15’), Reijnders (31’), and Doku (42’) for the biggest ones. As Guardiola mentioned post-match, the players need to step up in the coming games to score; it can’t only be Haaland. They’ve had chances to. No shots by Haaland in the first half, but once they found him more consistently in the second half, he had five.

Erling Haaland 58' 1-0  

Foden central building up to the opening goal, dropping into space to receive from Nico, and Doku moves inside pulling O'Brien with him, which opens up the lane into NOR.

Shades of the Brentford goal, instead of Foden pulling a defender to open up the lane for Gvardiol, it's Doku moving him for Foden to play the pass.

In the first half, they tried and struggled to find Jeremy Doku isolated 1v1 against O'Brien with enough time. Ndiaye supported well. Second half, the winger moved inside more often as NOR held the width.

Pass inbehind to NOR from Foden. Haaland makes his initial run towards the box, pushing back the opposition CBs tracking him. As soon as he reaches the top of the penalty box, Haaland slows right down and moves inside to find space. As we saw against Monaco, another floated cross from NOR into the middle of the box.

Shortly after the first goal, Guardiola made two changes (59’), which looked planned regardless, with Bernardo Silva coming on for Reijnders, and Bobb for Doku. Savinho then shifted over to the left side and looked more comfortable operating inside as O’Reilly would push up to hold the width. Bernardo had more touches (41) than Reijnders (39) despite playing half the minutes. Made a difference dropping into midfield, forming overloads, and moving the ball quickly. Everton couldn’t get close to City in the middle of the pitch.

Erling Haaland 63' 2-0  

Foden again was central in the buildup to the goal, receiving from Oscar Bobb on the right side, and picking out the run of Savinho into the penalty box on the left side. Excellent first touch from Savinho, and to his credit, delays the pass into Erling Haaland until after Gueye has run across, leaving him in space to shoot.

Simple as it sounds, winning your duels was an important part of the second-half performance from Manchester City. Phil Foden stood out for winning second balls, driving the team forward. In the first half, Manchester City won 56% of ground duels and 41% of aerial duels. In the second half, it was 60% of ground duels and 56% of aerial duels won. Dribble success also shot up from 5/10 (50%) in the first half by Manchester City, to 10/13 (77%) in the second half.

In the final five minutes, Mateo Kovacic, Rayan Cherki, and Rico Lewis came on for O’Reilly, Savinho, and Nico Gonzalez. Encouraging to see the depth of quality on the bench coming on, compared to earlier in the season, which we’ll need to sustain the level throughout a congested schedule. Rayan Cherki, in particular, can create a big chance within five minutes. That can be to kill games off, run up the goal difference, and push for the game-winner. Nothing makes a team drop off quite like having a player cut through you every few minutes.

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Moving Forward

As Guardiola and Phil Foden mentioned after the match, the team simply didn’t move the ball quickly enough through the lines in the first half. Taking too many touches. The chances didn’t fall to Erling Haaland, and the likes of Reijnders, Doku, and Savinho didn’t convert. Increasing the tempo in the second half, aggression in duels, and using the wingers inside helped to cut through Everton, leading to the goals. All whilst keeping Everton to very little.

It’s another step in the right direction. Some great signs of what’s to come with the players off the bench. Another game, you feel there was plenty of room for improvement, and hope that in the next run, others will step up with goals.

Manchester City are now up +8 points when comparing directly to the same fixtures from last season. Missed two opportunities against Spurs (H) and Brighton (A) to pick up more, but it’s still an improvement on last season.

Not the best start by Nathan Ake with his pass intercepted by Ndiaye, leading to the Beto chance, but he improved throughout the game. Certainly needed the minutes to be an option for the team to rotate with Gvardiol, and there wasn’t a better game for him to start between now and the next international break.

Phil Foden had 4 key passes, 1 big chance created, and hit the woodwork against Everton. Involved in the buildup to both goals. 4/5 long passes completed. 5/9 ground duels won. 2 tackles won. 4 ball recoveries. Great to see his influence across the pitch, whether it’s playing the pass through for Nico O’Reilly, playing 1-2s in the middle of the pitch, or winning second balls. All whilst consistently creating chances for Erling Haaland. Slowly shifting towards the David Silva role many expected him to take up.

Not sure if Matheus Nunes is going to be one that most people praise after this, but I thought he had an excellent game. 2 chances created. 95/100 passes completed. Made the most ball recoveries (9) for Manchester City. 5/7 ground duels won. 2/3 aerial duels won. Hopefully, we’ll see him maintain this level through a consistent run of games, along with Khusanov for others, giving the team a stable set of options at right-back.

Next up for Manchester City is Villarreal (A) in the Champions League on Tuesday, 21st of October at 20:00 (UK time). They’re sitting 3rd in La Liga after 9 games played. In the CL, they have lost away to Spurs and drawn at home to Juventus. Tajon Buchanan (4) is their top scorer across all competitions, followed by Georges Mikautadze (3), who moved from Lyon in the summer.

If you’re looking for more content on the match against Everton, then check out the YouTube video link below. 👇