Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Super Sunday takes on the theme of Merseyside vs Manchester Today and the first encounter sees Everton pitted up against Manchester City. With Everton looking to make ground up on the top 6 and City looking to keep up with the top 4 there is a lot riding on this one.
Hosts Everton come into the game off the back of F.A. Cup disappointment as they lost 2-1 to Leicester last weekend, a result that not only means that it’s another season without silverware but one that also spurred Ronald Koeman into the transfer market.
As a consequence of that defeat he has signed Morgan Schneiderlin from Manchester United for £24m and the French international is expected to get straight into the first team for this Afternoon’s visit of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side.
Schneiderlin is not the only new signing who could feature for Everton Today as youngster Ademola Lookman has also recently joined the club from League One Charlton Athletic. Whether he gets thrown into the deep end or is edged into life in the top flight remains to be seen.
Their last league run out was a comfortable 3-0 win over Ronald Koeman’s former employers Southampton. A win that kept them in 7th place in the Premier League and with results going their way yesterday they can consolidate that position further with a win later on.
As for the visiting City side they come here off the back of a rampant 5-0 win in the F.A. Cup over West Ham last Friday. It was Guardiola’s first taste of the competition and you get the feeling that he enjoyed it as his side never really had to get out of second gear.
That may well have been an impressive win but what matters most to the Manchester City club owners is getting back in the Champions League places, victory at Goodison Park will see that happen but they should drop points then they run the risk of not losing ground but also cross town rivals Manchester United closing the gap.
Their last league outing saw them eventually get the better of Burnley with a 2-1 win at The Etihad. They had to do so with just 10 men as Fernandinho was once again given his marching orders. More importantly though was the fact they bounced back after that New Years defeat to Liverpool.
In City’s first 10 games they only lost 1 league match, in their next 10 they have lost three. After many were considering them champions elect after the first half dozen matches, this team has hit of somewhat of a rut and the hope for Pep Guardiola will be that they return to the kind of form that the first 10 matches bought.
Goodison Park is never an easy place to go to, arguably it’s harder if you are one of the bigger teams as Everton seem to raise their game just a little bit more. They’ve already drawn against Manchester United at home, how will they fare against City.
The last time these two sides met was at The Etihad and both sides had to make do with a share of the points in a 1-1 draw, although a lot of credit has to go to Maarten Stekelenburg who saved two spot kicks that Afternoon much to the frustration of the home fans.
Can City get a modicum of revenge for those two dropped points later on, I don’t think Everton will make it all that easy for them but if Guardiola’s men harbour any hopes of still winning the title then these are the kind of places they are going to have to pick up all three points.
And I think that is exactly will happen later on, I’ll go for a City win but both teams to score then they will hope that their arch rivals go do them a small favour by taking points off of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. We should be in for a very Super Sunday.
