Manchester City suffered a potentially decisive setback in the Premier League title race as they were held to a thrilling 3-3 draw by Everton.
City, unbeaten away at Everton since 2017 in Guardiola’s first season in charge, looked to be on course to effectively stay neck and neck with Arsenal when Jeremy Doku gave them the lead in sublime fashion in the 43rd minute.
Yet a disastrous 13-minute spell in the second half turned the game in Everton’s favour.
First Thierno Barry pounced on an awful backpass from Marc Guehi to level matters, before Jake O’Brien completed the turnaround with a near-post header from a corner.
Barry punished more dreadful City defending to make it 3-1, but Erling Haaland provided an immediate response at the other end.
Still, it looked as if Everton had done enough for all three points. However, after conceding 90th-minute winners against Liverpool and West Ham, Doku broke their hearts with almost the last kick of the game as he curled a stunning right-footed strike beyond Jordan Pickford, at least salvaging something from City’s first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
It means City trail Arsenal by five points having played a game fewer and now require a similar slip-up from the Gunners across their final three games to be in a position to reclaim the title.
Manchester City suffer huge title setback
City dominated possession for much of the first half without truly testing Pickford, Antoine Semenyo dragging a shot across the face of goal and wide before then blazing an effort over the crossbar.
Rayan Cherki also fired over after good work down the left from Doku, who broke Everton’s resistance when he engineered space for himself just inside the area and bent an unstoppable effort into the top-left corner.
Yet City did not carry their momentum into the second half, with Gianluigi Donnarumma forced into two fine saves to deny Illiman Ndiaye.
There was nothing Donnarumma could do as Everton were gifted a route back into the game by Guehi, who laid the ball on a plate for Barry to equalise in the 68th minute. The goal was initially ruled out as Barry had been offside from an initial ball forward, but a VAR review deemed Guehi’s backpass was part of another phase of play.
Five minutes later O’Brien completed the turnaround, heading home James Garner’s near-post corner with claims from Donnarumma that he was impeded falling on deaf ears.
Donnarumma was required to thwart Ndiaye again, but the third goal from Everton arrived as a slip from Mateo Kovacic while defending a throw-in allowed Merlin Rohl to stroll into space down the right, with his wayward shot turning into the perfect delivery for Barry to tap in Everton’s third.
Haaland produced a devastating reply with a wonderful lofted finish from Kovacic’s throughball, but City appeared to have run out of ideas in search of their third.
Yet the inspiration arrived from the outstanding Doku in the 97th minute. Having beaten Pickford with his left foot, he this time cut onto his right and found the far corner from the edge of the area to give City a crumb of comfort and slightly dampen the mood in North London.
