Manchester City vs Everton 02/01/20

2 January 2020

Manchester City entertain the resurgent Everton at the Etihad Stadium, looking to post their second successive triumph in the Premier League (PL) home H2Hs.

Although they’ve bounced back after a dismal 3-2 away defeat to Wolves with a 2-0 home triumph over Sheffield United, the reigning holders are not having the best of times. Their problems with consistency have seen City suffer two losses in their last five PL outings (W3, L2), with both of those defeats witnessing them find the net and concede at least two goals in one of the halves. The Etihad has been a venue of entertainment recently, as four of the Citizens’ last five PL home fixtures have featured three or more goals and seen both teams score. City’s home action usually sparks into life after the break, with nine of the last 14 home goals scored coming in the second half. Finding the net should not be the problem for Pep Guardiola’s men who boast the league’s joint-best attacking home record, having scored 27 PL home goals already.

Meanwhile, even though the visitors put together two consecutive league triumphs since Carlo Ancelotti’s arrival, it will be a daunting prospect for them to pick up a win here. The Toffees have failed to beat City in all eight of their previous top-flight trips to the Etihad (D4, L4), with four of their last such fixtures all seeing both teams score. By extension, the Merseyside club has lost all four of their previous PL H2Hs with City, with each of those failures coming via a two-goal margin. Everton’s indifferent away form will hardly help their efforts to outplay City for the first time since 2017, as they’ve suffered four losses in their last seven PL road trips (W2, D1, L4). Notably, five of those results (win/loss) in that seven-game sequence have come via a single-goal margin, with four of them seeing the winners on the day open the scoring inside the first 15 minutes.