Man City’s spent stars speeding up Guardiola resignation process as Everton gleefully accept easy ride

Pep Guardiola is “unsackable”, but the chances of him resigning are growing as Everton were the latest side given an easy ride by his spent Man City squad…

Rodri’s untimely injury has lazily been the main reason given for Man City‘s dramatic collapse over recent months, though the absence of the Ballon d’Or winner has purely acted to bring their underlying issues to the surface sooner than they otherwise would.

The Spaniard’s absence has made Guardiola‘s team far too easy to play through as teams great, average and terrible in the Premier League pyramid suddenly fancy exposing their frail opponents.

This has certainly not been helped by the bulk of their squad, including players either out of form, ageing, or just past it (Kyle Walker and Ilkay Gundogan, if we’re naming names).

But as bad as Man City have been in their defensive half, it’s been equally terrible going forward as their distinct lack of creative spark has left Erling Haaland isolated. He’s been increasingly anonymous, while the supporting cast has not offered anywhere near enough backup to take on even the slightest slice of the attacking burden.

Man City’s stars were rightly accused of downing tools in the 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa, which was their ninth loss in their last 12 matches across all competitions.

Before the Boxing Day match against Everton, Guardiola insisted his players need to work together to ensure Haaland is “used better” as it’s been difficult to see where goals will come from when the ridiculous forward fails to find the scoresheet.

Haaland has been given a helping hand by versatile defender Josko Gvardiol, who has been holding up his end of the bargain as an unexpected goal threat; he almost netted his fifth Premier League goal of the season inside the opening five minutes against Everton.

A quick corner caught out Sean Dyche’s well-drilled side as Phil Foden’s cross was headed onto the post by Gvardiol.

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Man City were unlucky not to find the net with this move, but they benefitted from a much-needed slice of good fortune as Bernardo Silva settled the Etihad nerves with a rare goal in the 14th minute – only his second Premier League goal of the campaign.

It will inevitably be to the annoyance of Dyche that this goal was avoidable from Everton’s perspective as all it took to open them up was a simple run inside by Jeremy Doku and a through ball to an advancing Silva. He then slid with Jarrad Branthwaite and his tame effort deflected into the bottom corner past Jordan Pickford.

Man City’s only win in this dire run was the 3-0 home victory against Nottingham Forest, but the scoreline did not tell the whole story. The hosts rode their luck while facing several missed chances after their early opener but eventually added to their advantage to briefly get that winning feeling again.

A home match against Everton was always a potential banana skin for Man City, though their upcoming FA Cup tie against League Two’s Salford City will be as well with how Guardiola’s players are operating.

A repeat of the edginess of the win against Forest felt likely; Silva’s nerve-settling opener failed to alter the tide as the plodding hosts added to the noticeably flat Etihad atmosphere in the early kick-off on Boxing Day.

You know what you get from Dyche’s Everton: An organised and gritty defensive unit that lacks quality in the opposing half and piles all its eggs in the set pieces basket.

The confidence in Man City’s squad has gradually withered away during their woeful run as they played within themselves and lacked any semblance of urgency on Boxing Day, while their overwhelming fear of making mistakes allowed Everton to maintain a foothold in the match when rival Premier League with less quality would have blown the visitors away.

Despite their struggles, a 1-0 win for Man City felt like the banker of the day as soon as Guardiola’s side got their allusive goal, but Everton’s Christmas wish of a goal from open play came true as the visitors restored parity from nowhere in the 35th minute.

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A really poor attempt at a clearance by Manuel Akanji saw him swing a leg and hit thin air as the ball found Iliman Ndiaye at the back post. The Everton summer signing has been one of their bright sparks in attack and he silenced the Etihad (even more) with a sublime finish into the far corner.

This goal set the remainder of the game up to be a more evenly-matched contest than Man City would have been hoping for after their early goal. This could have altered as Vitalii Mykolenko’s rash challenge on Savinho – who had plenty of joy in this battle – gifted the hosts the potential reprieve of a penalty.

Haaland headed into this match with just one goal in six Premier League matches, while Pickford is full of confidence off the back of clean sheets against Arsenal and Chelsea.

With just this as context, it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear that Pickford guessed right and saved Haaland’s spot-kick. To add to the forward’s misery, his header at the follow-up was correctly ruled out for offside as he was comfortably ahead of the last defender.

Everton were unsurprisingly limited to the odd opportunity on the counter-attack while sitting back with a solid defensive lineup, while Man City supporters’ pleading on their players was more out of hope than expectation as game-saving goals at the death are not expected of this tired version of the once-great Premier League winners.

While Amad Diallo provided one of the only moments of quality in this month’s Manchester derby, Ndiaye was the star of this match as Man City’s woes deepened with a home 1-1 draw, which would have been made worse had Everton capitalised on a four-on-two situation in stoppage-time.

A run of one win in 13 matches is not enough to change Guardiola’s “unsackable” status, but the chances of resignation are growing as the already “burned out” head coach will struggle to find the bundles of energy required to fix what has quickly come an almighty mess at Man City with replacements a necessity in virtually every position.