Manchester City travelled west to the banks of the Mersey intent on underling their title credentials and reaffirming their threat to Arsenal. Instead their hopes of another Premier League triumph were seconds from being washed away on a tide of cacophonous Evertonian noise.
Everton left Goodison Park last May but maybe this was the night they truly said hello to their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Trailing at half-time to a Jeremy Doku goal after 45 minutes of City pressure, David Moyes’ Everton team almost sank City’s season with a second-half display of attacking fire and brimstone that brought Pep Guardiola’s players to their knees. Only Doku’s 97th-minute goal — a carbon copy of his first — gave City a point that saved them from complete and utter disaster.
Yes, there was a sense of the calamitous about City here. Marc Guehi presented an equaliser to Everton substitute Thierno Barry and was then outmuscled by Jake O’Brien who headed his team in front from a corner. When Barry scored again with nine minutes to go, it came after Mateo Kovacic lost the ball on the halfway line.
This was not like City. It was schoolboy. But it was Everton’s pressure and ambition and energy that forced City to implode. There was a late City reply from Erling Haaland and then, with time seemingly up, Doku scored beautifully to level.
Moyes claimed referee Michael Oliver should already have blown for full-time. But extra seconds had been added for an Everton substitute. At the end of it all, it was Arsenal who maybe felt like the victors. Their lead at the top of the table is five points and a first title in two decades is once again theirs to lose.
It’s advantage Arsenal in the title race after Pep Guardiola’s Man City drew 3-3 at Everton
Jeremy Doku rescued a point with a stunning late strike from distance – his second of the game
Gunners in control: City fans cannot believe their eyes as they suffer a second-half collapse
Early on there was no hint of what was to come. Such was the City dominance, it felt as though Everton may suffocate under the sheer weight of their opponents’ pressure. Guardiola’s team threw a green and grey blanket over the attacking third of the field and attempted to smother their opponents into submission.
Chances were hard to come by, though. Wide players Doku and Antoine Semenyo carried the greatest threat, jinking inside and out in a bid to find clear passage. Rayan Cherki probed away in the No 10 position and, further forward, Haaland tried in vain to find pockets in the crowd.
There were isolated moments of threat. Everton’s new England midfielder James Garner blocked out Nico O’Reilly at the near post before a flurry of activity that saw Jordan Pickford parry a Cherki shot and Semenyo scoot past two defenders before crossing low towards the far post, where somehow the ball seemed to pass without a touch being applied.
A goal seemed inevitable but Everton were well-organised and diligent and managed to frustrate their opponents. Then, when they broke, they almost scored.
Merlin Rohl got away down the right and his low cross would have been turned in by Beto but for a touch from City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Still the ball was live and Beto turned to try again, only for the ball to strike the chest of City defender Abdukodir Khusanov.
With the home crowd finally roused, the occasion suddenly felt like a contest. Everton’s players were engaged. Centre half James Tarkowski came nose to nose with Khusanov and then, just before half-time, his partner Michael Keane was a little lucky to stay on after a lunge at Doku missed the ball and connected with the winger’s standing ankle.
By that time City were ahead. The game had briefly been a little more even but maybe that offered City a smidgeon more space in which to play. Cherki might have scored himself, firing over the bar from Doku’s pull-back in the 39th minute, but four minutes later, Doku took possession over on the other side, stepped past a challenge and curled a beautiful shot outside the far post and back in to find the top corner.
City had the lead they needed but not the breathing space to make their evening comfortable. Needing a goal now, Everton were more liberated after half-time and started to scare City.
Bernardo Silva and then Khusanov had shots blocked early on but the next 10 minutes or so belonged to Everton. Guehi, with no hint of the catastrophe to come, had to time a tackle perfectly to deny Beto a run on goal and then Iliman Ndiaye worked Donnarumma from 18 yards before being denied brilliantly by the City goalkeeper after Guehi and Matheus Nunes got in to a muddle 30 yards.
Erling Haaland looks to the sky in disbelief after Everton’s third goal in just 13 costly minutes
Thierno Barry capitalised on a huge error from Marc Guehi to equalise for the Toffees
Minutes later, Jake O’Brien headed Everton in front from a corner – before Barry scored again
That felt like a huge save and indeed Everton’s big moment. But, four minutes later, Guehi erred again by passing the ball straight to substitute Barry, who scored easily. Barry had been offside when the initial pass had been played through but Guehi’s pass was a deliberate play on the ball and therefore meant that was irrelevant. Suddenly this marvellous new stadium was alive.
City needed a response couldn’t find one. Moments later they survived a scare at the near post and from the resulting corner O’Brien jumped between Guehi and Nico Gopzalez to head in.
Guardiola’s need for a response was desperate and he sent on Phil Foden. Still his team couldn’t regain control, Ndiaye running through again to see a shot saved. Everton’s third goal came with nine minutes left as City coughed up the ball again for Rohl to shoot across goal and Barry to nudge in his second of an amazing cameo.
That appeared to be that but Haaland — almost hitherto invisible — ran on to a Kovacic pass to score from the kick-off. City still had seven minutes plus stoppage time to save themselves. They were on the verge of defeat after Donnarumma appeared in vain at two corners.
But Doku’s equaliser was a thing of beauty. Whether it means anything in the long run remains to be seen.
