Manchester City refused to accept defeat and yet, in the final reckoning, it may be the game that means they are beaten. There were seconds remaining when Jeremy Doku curled in his second spectacular goal of an extraordinary evening. City still have not lost in the Premier League since January, but it may have been the night the title slipped from their grasp.
The winners were not Everton, though they were seconds away from their biggest scalp at Hill Dickinson, but an old Evertonian. If Mikel Arteta makes Arsenal champions, his debt to David Moyes and Everton will be still greater. It is definitively advantage Arsenal after in the title race after a stunning spell and a City collapse. Even their subsequent comeback, with two late goals, only reduced the damage done in the second half on Merseyside.
Two goals in four minutes and three in 12 means City need favours from West Ham, Burnley or Crystal Palace, Arsenal’s last three opponents. Their destiny is out of their hands now. When this seemed it would be a comfortable, professional win, it turned into an anarchic draw. And if City showed their spirit in a frantic finale, it was nevertheless them, rather than Arsenal, who lost their nerve in the run-in.
The turning point was an awful error from a player who had been almost impeccable in his City career. Everton’s equaliser could be attributed to a Moyes change, bringing on Thierno Barry for Beto, but it owed more to a horribly under-hit back-pass by Marc Guehi. The substitute advanced to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma. The striker had been flagged offside when Merlin Rohl tried to find him; but Guehi’s deliberate, if misjudged, intervention meant the goal stood. It was a gift.
City appeared rattled. It was inevitable that some of Everton’s threat would stem from set-pieces but it felt too easy when they led. Jake O’Brien got in behind Erling Haaland to head in James Garner’s corner.
Then it was time for Barry again. The summer signing had gone six games without a goal. Two came in a flurry, the second aided by another of Moyes’ decisions. He brought Rohl in on the right of midfield, and the German’s forceful running was a feature of Everton’s best moments in the first half. Another surge led to a goal in the second, Rohl shrugging off Mateo Kovacic too easily and squaring for Barry to have a tap-in.
City, often the masters of control, looked ragged. There could have been more goals. Iliman Ndiaye was irrepressible in the second half, taking the attack to City. He twice broke clear, and was twice denied by Donnarumma. The goalkeeper had spared Matheus Nunes, in particular, when the right-back headed thin air to allow Ndiaye to evade him.
And yet Everton’s third goal spurred a response from City. It was immediate. From kick-off, Kovacic split the Everton defence with a pass and Haaland chipped Jordan Pickford for a goal that takes him closer to the Golden Boot.
This, though, was a night when he was overshadowed and outscored. Guardiola sent for Phil Foden and Omar Marmoush. Donnarumma came up for a couple of corners. But their rescuer was the man whose goals bookended the game. Doku’s first goal was curled in with his left foot, his second with his right, his first from just inside the box, his second from just outside.
He has said he needs to score more tap-ins. Instead, he delivered two early contenders for May’s goal-of-the-month award. Either offered echoes of another magnificent intervention by a Belgian in May, Vincent Kompany’s valedictory strike against Leicester that helped decide the title in 2019.
But that was a winner. This time, victory eluded City. An oddity of a game was an exercise in tedium at the start, a frenetic classic by the end. Everton went from passive to dynamic, a side whose sole interest was diligent defending to one who acquired a threat. At one stage, they had made one pass in the final third to City’s 97. By the end, though, they had the higher xG. They came agonisingly close to the win that could have taken them towards Europe. City can wonder if it might have been different, too; particularly if Michael Keane was sent off for ploughing through Doku on the stroke of half-time.
The eventual draw was perfect for neither but distinctly good for a man 200 miles away. Because, 21 years after Moyes signed Arteta for Everton, the younger man could again be grateful to a mentor. Moyes may never win the Premier League, but he could have an input into a title win nonetheless.