Premier League: Chasing City Host Everton in New Year’s Eve Clash

Manchester City vs Everton

Premier League champions Manchester City are set to say goodbye to 2022 as they host struggling Everton at the Etihad Stadium on New Year’s Eve.

The Toffees have lost their last three games in a row – including a heartbreaker against fellow relegation strugglers Wolves – and are in the midst of another relegation scrap.

And the Premier League 2022 betting odds will be significantly against them as they visit the home of the defending champions, who are looking to keep pace with Premier League leaders Arsenal.

Talking Points

Man City playing catch-up

Manchester City are playing catch-up atop the Premier League. As of this writing – City have yet to play their midweek match against Leeds – the defending champions are third in the table, eight points behind leaders Arsenal and one behind red-hot Newcastle.

City looked good in their first game back from the break as they beat Liverpool 3-2 in the EFL Cup. Erling Haaland, who scored an incredible 18 goals in his first 13 Premier League games, got back in the groove with a goal. Meanwhile, Kevin De Bruyne looked to have put his World Cup woes with Belgium behind him as he set up two of City’s goals.

City are unlikely to have star centre-back Ruben Dias back until after the New Year with a hamstring injury. It also might be a bit too soon for World Cup hero Julian Alvarez to make his return to the side, while Kalvin Phillips might need more time to get fit after Pep Guardiola publicly called him out for coming back from the World Cup overweight. But City should still have enough depth to make up for their absences for the time being.

Manchester City’s Premier League 2022 results at the Etihad have been excellent once again. They were absolutely dominant as they started with seven home wins in a row while scoring an astounding 27 goals in the first six games. But they have slowed down in recent games.

They went down to 10 men early against Fulham and needed a late Erling Haaland penalty to win 2-1. They were then stunned by Bournemouth, who scored deep into stoppage time to get the 2-1 win just before the break.

Everton facing another relegation battle

Everton suffered a huge blow on Boxing Day as they lost 2-1 at home to Wolves on Julen Lopetegui’s Premier League debut. Rayan Ait-Nouri scored deep into stoppage time to break Toffees hearts at Goodison Park.

That’s now three defeats on the trot for the Toffees, who are in the midst of another relegation scrap. They are just one point outside the relegation zone, with Wolves and Nottingham Forest close behind.

Everton went into the World Cup break on a putrid run of three straight games without scoring a single goal. They finally broke that drought through centre-back Yerry Mina, who was making just his second league appearance of the season.

But Everton’s problems in attack linger. They have scored just 12 goals, which is the third-fewest in the league. The fact that striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin remains sidelined despite the lengthy break is massively concerning, and summer signing Neal Maupay (just 1 goal in 11 games) has simply not delivered.

Everton are so short of options that they have turned to 20-year-old Thomas Cannon, who has come off the bench in their last three games in all competitions, in their desperate search for goals.

Everton have been especially poor away from home this season. They have won just one of their eight away matches thus far, with three draws and four losses. Moreover, they have scored just five goals in those eight games, and none in the last four.

History

Everton surprisingly had a lot of success against City when Pep Guardiola arrived to the Premier League in 2016. They held City to back-to-back 1-1 draws at the Etihad. And sandwiched in between, they handed Pep his heaviest defeat ever in domestic football with a 4-0 thrashing.

But since that draw in August 2017, City have gone on to demolish Everton. They have won nine straight Premier League matches against the Toffees, and they also got a 2-0 win in an FA Cup semi-final in 2021.

City again did the double over Everton last season. But after a 3-0 win at the Etihad, they laboured to a hard-fought 1-0 win at Goodison, with Phil Foden’s late strike giving City all three points.

Betting Tip

SBOTOP odds have Man City installed as massive 1.15 favourites to extend Everton’s losing skid. The Toffees have astronomical 12.50 odds to beat the champions, while a draw is 8.25.

Given Everton’s recent poor form, it’s fair to expect another comfortable City win. But it’s hard to see this match being excessively high-scoring.

Everton will be likely to set up quite defensively to minimise the damage that City can cause. And with City having just a couple of days in between games, they may not have the energy to completely trounce the Toffees.

 

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