Jeremy Doku’s stoppage-time strike snatched a 3-3 draw for Manchester City at Everton, but a calamitous second-half collapse handed the Premier League title initiative back to Arsenal on Monday.
Mikel Arteta’s side now need only to win their final three matches to end a 22-year wait for the English crown. City remain five points adrift with a game in hand, though the manner of their implosion at the Hill Dickinson Stadium will give Pep Guardiola serious cause for concern.
City appeared to be cruising when Doku opened the scoring at the end of a dominant first half. But an error-strewn second period was ruthlessly punished: Thierno Barry struck twice for Everton, either side of Jake O’Brien’s header. Erling Haaland pulled one back before Doku’s sensational 96th-minute equaliser, yet the damage may already be done.
Arsenal visit relegation-threatened West Ham on Sunday before hosting Burnley and travelling to Crystal Palace on the final day.
City Self-Destruct Despite Bright Start
Two successive Arsenal victories since City last played had piled pressure on Guardiola’s side. His first team had gone nearly a fortnight without a competitive outing after heavy rotation in the FA Cup semi-final win over Southampton. The visitors looked fresh rather than rusty, pinning Everton inside their own box for virtually the entire first half.
That pressure finally told two minutes before the interval: Rayan Cherki found Doku, who curled a shot into Jordan Pickford’s top-right corner. Michael Keane escaped with only a yellow card for a wild lunge on Doku, a decision that proved pivotal as City then imploded.
Twice, Guardiola’s men ignored warnings of an impending equaliser. Gianluigi Donnarumma parried Iliman Ndiaye’s effort back into the danger area, but Merlin Rohl was slow to react. Ndiaye then squandered a glorious chance after an error from Matheus Nunes. When the equaliser finally came, City were again the architects of their own misfortune: Marc Guehi’s under-hit passback handed Barry the simple task of slotting past the stranded Donnarumma.
Another casual mistake moments later led to Everton’s second. Abdukodir Khusanov was caught in possession by Ndiaye and bailed out only by a last-ditch Guehi challenge. From the resulting corner, O’Brien rose highest to power home a header. Barry then prodded home a third from Rohl’s deflected cross as City’s defence went missing on a rapid counter-attack.
Within seconds, City had a lifeline: straight from kick-off, Mateo Kovacic played in Haaland to halve the deficit. Doku’s dramatic late strike delivered a dagger to Everton’s European hopes, but it may prove too little, too late to rescue City’s chances of a seventh title in nine years.
— AFP
