Mikel Arteta celebrates after opening the floodgates at Goodison Park with his first of the season. It was not to be his last.
Yesterday was rotten, wasn't it? A horrible 90 minutes with few bright spots for the travelling City fans. Tucked into the ramshackle away section at Goodison Park, a section of the ground offering only the very worst of views, we were subjected to a performance the likes of which have become all too frequent since December 2008. We travelled to Merseyside buoyed by Manchester United's scrappy win over Wolves as well as the images of Sam Vokes skying a possible season changing chance. We knew that even a point against Everton would be enough to lift us out of the relegation zone. We also knew that City had gone a full calendar year without an away win, and would be hard pressed to end that run against an Everton side that has really just started to get into its stride.
City's line up held a few surprises. Gone was Andy Dawson for Kevin Kilbane, fitting reward we thought considering Dawson's white booted Upton Park nightmare. We later learned that Dawson had actually suffered from a bad asthma attack and was unfit to play, with Brown hinting that he would've played had he been available. Jimmy Bullard made his long anticipated return to Premier League action in the middle of a five man midfield that also included Nick Barmby and Richard Garcia and Amr Zaki started on his own up front. Everton, meanwhile, boasted a wealth of talent in their line up. Yakubu, Osman, Arteta, Jagielka, and Pienaar as well as Landon Donovan, Diniyar Bilyatedinov, Dan Gosling and Jack Rodwell amongst the substitutes. We'd've snatched your right arm off, never mind your hand, if you'd offered us a point before kick off. The opening minutes of the game were watched by a strangely muted crowd, but it was hardly stirring stuff. Even when Arteta put the Toffees ahead, the Goodison crowd's response was swift, half interested. We knew it was coming and, apparently, so did they. Yakubu had already hit the post, after Osman had robbed Boateng to feed the Yak. The men in amber and black did not heed the warning though, as only minutes later it was 1-0. Yakubu, given far too much time by Paul McShane, floated a lovely ball to the back post with Mikel Arteta arriving on cue to guide the ball past Myhill. Arteta motored past Barmby in the midfield to find himself in a prime position. Tracking runners from deep has long been a problem for us, and so it would prove again as the game wore on. Yakubu again showed himself to be unusually profligate in front of goal when he missed a penalty. Having been brought down by Zayatte, the Nigerian dusted himself off and took the resultant spot kick himself only for it to be turned away by Myhill. This was the start of City's best period in the game. We hardly had time to draw breath and City were level. Tom Cairney, a revelation in recent weeks, but understandably struggling to convince in this particular game popped up with an absolute worldie of strike. Waiting on the edge of the area to pick up any scraps from a set piece, Cairney unleashed a beautifully struck left foot volley past the desparing dive of Tim Howard. A sweet moment for Cairney, and probably a satisfactory one for the men who brought him through to first time level; Billy Russel and Neil Mann Mann Mann. Having clawed level against the run of play, City could count themselves lucky and you always felt that Everton would score again. That feeling proved correct when just six minutes later, Arteta bagged his second of the match. Running onto Steven Pienaar's cute drag back, the Spaniard passed the ball low into the net. City's midfield again failed to give adequate protection the goal, as Cairney, Bullard and Boateng were all bypassed easily. There were no further incidents of note in the first half and City went in behind knowing it would be a huge task to find a second equaliser.
As the second hlaf began, it was clear to all watching that Arteta was enjoying his afternoon and wasn't ready to stop playing the role of the Tigers' tormentor-in-chief. Six minutes after the break and the game was dead and buried, and there was to be no pet cemetary style comebacks. Arteta dinked a cross towards the back post from the left hand side of the area, having again been given too much room to play the ball. Myhill inexplicably failed to deal with it, and the ball crossed the line having hit Richard Garcia's head. Garcia had every reason to be surprised at having to deal with the cross as to all watching Myhill should've done so himself. Everton had squeezed the life out of the game with more than a third of it to go. Bullard was withdrawn on the hour for Altidore, possibly to save him exerting himself in a game that was lost, with Nick Barmby preceding him, Goodison's least popular man being replaced by Geovanni. With City defending so poorly, there were always likely to be more goals and Everton did not let their fans down, with substitues Donovan and Rodwell providing the final goals. And so ended another painful afternoon watching City away from home. The Tigers' performance has been branded 'pathetic', 'unacceptable', 'tame' and 'tepid' by various media outlets. All fair comment. It was an afternoon never likely to see us gain any reward from our efforts, even before kick off, but it was the manner of defeat that really sticks in the throat. Much had been made in the run up to the game of City needing to go back to basics and make things more difficult for their oppenents but they did anything but. Our five man midfield was always wide open, with Everton running rampant down the middle and out wide. The central midfielders did not protect that centre backs and the keeper well enough and Garcia and Barmby did not offer enough help to their full backs. Amr Zaki was a largely frustrated figure. A willing runner, the Egyptian had to feed on scraps all afternoon and was given little support by his team mates. Much had been made of Jimmy Bullard's comeback, but in his first Premier League game since December, he appeared to be struggling to keep up with the pace of the game and rarely got himself in the kind of positions he needed to to affect the game.
So where next for City? Arsenal come to the KC next week in front of the ESPN cameras. The Gunners form of late has been frightening and a repeat of this performance will surely see us on the hand of another thrashing. Phil Brown has much work to do between now and Saturday, but the games all City fans have their eyes on come after this coming weekend. An inviting run of fixtures could see the Tigers push themselves out of the drop zone. Coming to the KC in the weeks to come are Fulham, Burnley and Sunderland. Three winnable fixtures. Burnley's away day woes extend back nearly as far as our own, Fulham have struggled for consistency away from Craven Cottage since time immemorial and Sunderland are busy performing a passable impression of City's 2008-09 collapse. But we really need to start picking up points away from East Yorkshire to complement our decent home form. Trips to Portsmouth, Stoke, Birmingham and Wigan must yield points if we are to avoid a return to the Championship.
Gulp.
Further reading:
Brown Going Down - Sky Sports.com
Second Half Collapse Unacceptable - Hull City OWS
Liverpool Echo match report
Soundtrack to this post:
'Sigh No More' - Mumford & Sons
(Island)(2009) Rating 9/10
and
'The Draft - Digital EP' - The Draft
(Epitaph) (2007) Rating 7/10
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