Everton 0-2 Manchester City

This was City’s most impressive display of the season. This was the day they showed themselves to be expressive but also resilient; exciting but also efficient.

Three games in and Manuel Pellegrini’s team have three wins, eight goals and a hat-trick of clean sheets. 

To repeat, this is where the bar is set and it is already worth wondering how many teams will be capable of coming here, to face a confident Everton team, and winning this way. At the end, City’s supporters applauded their team off but there were cheers from the Gladwys Street for the home team, too.

It had been that kind of game, competitive, engaging and rumbustious at times. Both teams had spells of dominance. 

Ultimately, though, the right team — the best team — won and Pellegrini will have noticed with satisfaction that his team’s eight goals have been scored by seven different players. Only Vincent Kompany, peculiarly, has two.

Here on Merseyside, chances and territory were shared evenly in the first half but City emerged for the second period to strike clinically and the goal owed as much to sheer will as anything else. That was its beauty.  

Left back Aleksandar Kolarov did not have to run 30 yards down the line when he saw Raheem Sterling in possession with a little under half-an-hour left. Nobody would have blamed him had he not bombed on, but merely held his covering position.

As it was, though, the Serbian arrived at Sterling’s shoulder at lung-bursting pace, was rewarded with the ball and his subsequent cross shot fooled Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard and found the far corner, passing between the American and his near post.

It was a goal born of steadily increasing pressure. Lean against the door long enough and it will open. It felt significant, too.

City had struck the frame of the goal moments earlier, but so had Everton just before half-time. As such, Kolarov’s strike gave the visitors a necessary foothold and they were able to see the game out, Samir Nasri making it 2-0 right at the end after scampering through an Everton defence that by then was looking tired. 

Everton will be disappointed. The second quarter had belonged to them. Romelu Lukaku had a ‘goal’ ruled out for offside and struck the top of the bar with a free-kick. Seamus Coleman also threatened Joe Hart’s goal.

And in between the two City goals, Roberto Martinez’s team enjoyed a decent 10-minute spell, a period that saw Gareth Barry head goalwards only to see Kompany clear from under the bar.

Ultimately, though, Everton will have appreciated they were playing one of the best teams in the land, maybe the very best. That was why they should not think on this for too long, why their fans clapped them off in defeat.

The modern City are so powerful, so dextrous and so fresh — with many of their players free from summer tournaments this year — that there seems to be a new confidence about their football. 

Once again David Silva was their top player. Rarely has he played better. Equally, this was Sterling’s best performance since his £49million move from Liverpool. He was booed by the home crowd but it was his marker, Everton right back Coleman, who will have heard the ringing in his ears.

City began brightly and Howard saved well from Sergio Aguero twice in the opening stages. A Silva cross narrowly eluded Sterling’s toe after Arouna Kone had lost possession near to his own goal, while Silva himself made Howard work with a low shot.

City’s football was not always expansive but they have settled well into their formation this season and already look as though they will be devilishly hard to beat.

The worry for everybody else is that they are still buying players, still trying to improve their squad. This is the standard and before the end of the month it may rise a fraction higher. 

(dailymail.co.uk)