Toffees Hoping to Build On Doucoure's Winner Last Week Versus City

Everton hosts Manchester City on Saturday, and with the Toffees’ recent form going hand in hand with Man City’s lacklustre season, by their standards, will Moyes be able to end this campaign on a high?

If last week is anything to go by, Everton will be certainly up for this one! At the City Ground around 5 minutes of additional time was given after a goalless 90 minutes, and Idrissa Gana Gueye was still pressing the Forest defence, forcing an uncomfortable pass from Alex Moreno into the path of Murillo, who took the ball with a really dodgy touch, allowing a 50/50 with Dwight McNeil, with the Everton winger coming out on top. A pinpoint perfect pass into the path of a counter-attacking Abdoulaye Docuoure after an impressive run meant the Mali midfielder was one-on-one versus Mats Selz. Taking it the first time, with no one around, the 32-year-old Doucouré smashed it near post, flying past the goalkeeper and sending the Evertonians in attendance into pandemonium, limbs in the away end, celebrating by pointing at the name on the back of his shirt and writing a contract on his palm, as the midfielder is out of contract this summer, and it has been confirmed that he will not be receiving the one-year contract extension that was negotiable as part of Doucouré’s current contract.

For City, Pep Guardiola’s side hosted Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium. Although underdogs, Palace started the game amazingly! It only took 7 minutes for Palace to open the scoring. When 27-year-old winger Ismaila Sarr received the ball, sprinting at a rapid pace ahead of the Manchester City backline on the right wing, Eze, one of the star men in South London this season, was also making a run into the penalty area. As expected, a ball across the goal was played, and the English international was there to tap it home. Only 13 minutes later, Oliver Glasner’s side had a corner, whipped across by Adam Wharton into the bundle of both Palace and City players. Luckily for the away team, American defender Chris Richards, who has made 25 appearances this season even though the 25-year-old picked up a hamstring injury back in February, causing him to miss 5 game weeks, including their defeat to the Toffees at Selhurst Park, towered above the rest to knock it home past a desperate Ederson, who couldn’t handle the sheer amount of bodies in his way of claiming the match ball. Many thought it was done and dusted; even Eze scored a second of the day. However, the semi-automated offside that was introduced and tested for that fixture confirmed the 26-year-old was in an offside position; however, this wasn’t the case!

When Man City had a free kick in the 32nd minute, there was only one man who could step up: Belgian midfielder Kevin de Bruyne. A strike hitting the inside of the post, fooling Dean Henderson, gave City hope of a miraculous comeback in their hopes of UEFA Champions League qualification come the end of the season, as both Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United are competing for a similar spot. Before the second half concluded, City equalised through summer signing Omar Marmoush. A header back across goal from De Bruyne was gifted to Gundogan, who missed kicking it. Luckily, Marmoush was there to volley it home in front of the South Stand. Throughout the second half, it was no shock to see City win the game, but the amount of goals in the next 45, 3, would have slightly annoyed Oliver Glasner and his players. 2 goals in 9 minutes from Croatian midfielder Kovacic and upcoming future star James McAtee put the blue side of Manchester in the driving seat to claim all three points. Finally, in the 79th minute, the ball fell to Nico O’Reilly, who dealt with the odd positioning of the ball really well, side-footing it mid-air from just inside the penalty area past Henderson.

Although City’s goal threat is superb in comparison to the Toffees, the amount of injuries may be a helping hand for the Blues… Pep Guardiola has confirmed in his pre-match press conference that John Stones and Nathan Ake will not be available. It’s the same case for first-choice goalkeeper Ederson, with Pep stating, “He is not ready for tomorrow.” Instead, the replacement may have to be Stefan Ortega, who, according to Steve Kay for Football Transfers, is gathering attention from several top clubs around Europe for Ortega’s signature to be their number one choice goalkeeper. Furthermore, Manchester City’s top goalscorer, 29 this season, Erling Haaland, is out with an ankle injury, with a possible return date unknown. Finally, central defender Manuel Akanji and Englishman Phil Foden will have been assessed today, Friday 18th April, to see if they are fit to feature.

On the other hand, David Moyes has confirmed in his pre-match press conference that there are no new fresh injuries. Instead, the media’s focus was on Docuoure’s contract gesture, previously mentioned; the possibility of Europe, with 11 English teams maybe playing in it next season; and the influence of Harrison Armstrong, Everton youngster who is currently on loan at Derby County. Moyes stated that “a young player getting games in the Championship is not as easy as you think – it's a credit to him. We like him; we're not selling him or anything – we want him around, and we'll assess if he needs another loan."

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Premier League Matchweek 33:

Saturday 19th April:

Brentford 15:00 Brighton & Hove Albion

Crystal Palace 15:00 AFC Bournemouth

Everton 15:00 Manchester City

West Ham United 15:00 Southampton

Aston Villa 17:30 Newcastle United​

Sunday 20th April:

Fulham 14:00 Chelsea

Ipswich Town 14:00 Arsenal

Manchester United 14:00 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Leicester City 16:30 Liverpool​

Monday 21st April:

Tottenham Hotspur 20:00 Nottingham Forest​

Tuesday 22nd April:

Manchester City 20:00 Aston Villa​

Wednesday 23rd April:

Arsenal 20:00 Crystal Palace​

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Thank you for reading my pre-match article!