Earlier today Everton took on Manchester City in a game that didn’t promise much to many Evertonians as City have made a blistering start to the season. Despite a positive showing last time out against Southampton, many knew that the game was going to be much more difficult against a considerably higher calibre of opposition.
Many people’s fear did come true as the Toffees fell to a 2-0 defeat, but the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story as a strong performance from the team and individuals did provide optimism for the rest of the season.
As Everton went in at half-time they received a very warm round of applause, something that they haven’t witnessed in many of their home games recently. The reason for this was that although City had threatened with a few long-range efforts and one close range strike from Sergio Aguero, which was smartly dealt with by Howard, the Blues had moved the ball quickly, looked to play forwards where possible and had some half chances such as Lukaku striking the bar from a free kick on the edge of the box.
Additionally, many Evertonians were pleased to see impressive performances from a number of key players, mainly Tom Cleverley and Ross Barkley- both gave exceptional performances in the first and second half. Cleverley has shown so far during his time as a Toffee that he fits perfectly into our brilliant club as he has bags of energy, sky-high work rate and composure bettered by no one at the club, and Sunday was no different as he produced a dogged performance.
Evertonians are taking to the former Manchester United man more and more by the game with today’s performance earning him more plaudits, with him making numerous important tackles and producing some very clever passes, most notably a brilliant cross which bounced on the six yard line which was screaming to be tapped in.
The positives surrounding Barkley are that he seems to have rediscovered his form from his breakthrough season, amazing really that now he is playing in his actual position rather than on the left-wing he is playing well, if only someone had told Martinez earlier, eh?
Moving on, Barkley really does look like he’s back as he again drove forward with ball committing defenders and looked to play the killer ball. His involvement in the game could have received official gratification as he smartly flicked a pacey ball into Lukaku who netted, only for it to be ruled out for offside.
So despite a rather conclusive scoreline Evertonians really can take positives that with a few more signings which look imminent we really will have a strong season we can be proud of.
