In the 18th round of the 24-25 Premier League season, a focus match was held at the Etihad Stadium, with Manchester City hosting Everton. Despite creating numerous scoring opportunities, Manchester City could only manage a 1-1 draw with their opponents, failing to secure all three points. After the game, Manchester City defender Akanki expressed his dissatisfaction with the result in an interview with Amazon, believing that the draw was not fair.
In this game, Manchester City showed a strong desire to attack from the opening stages. In the 3rd minute, Manchester City won a tactical corner kick opportunity, with Foden making a precise cross from the left, and Gvardiol heading for goal, but unfortunately the ball hit the post and bounced out, failing to give Manchester City the lead. However, just 11 minutes later, Manchester City broke the deadlock. Doku faced two defenders on the left flank and showed off his excellent individual ability. He cleverly broke through and sent a slanted pass, with B seat rushing in front of Bransvit and shoveling the ball, which flew into the far corner after a deflection, giving Manchester City a 1-0 lead over Everton. Guardiola celebrated with a fist pump on the sidelines, as if he had already seen the dawn of victory.
However, football matches are often full of variables. In the 36th minute, Everton got a great counter-attack opportunity. Doucoure crossed diagonally at a 45-degree angle to the back post, where Akanki missed his clearance and Lewis leaked a man at the back post. Ndoye took advantage of this opportunity and scored with the outside of his foot to level the score. Ortga watched the ball go into the net, his face filled with helplessness.
After the start of the second half, Manchester City continued to strengthen their attack, trying to take the lead again. In the 51st minute, Savigno broke into the penalty area and was fouled by Mikolenko, with the referee decisively awarding a penalty. However, Haaland's penalty was bravely saved by Pickford, followed by Gvardiol's header across, with Haaland heading in to score, but the referee signaled offside first, invalidating the goal. This series of blows had a significant impact on the morale of the Manchester City players.
Despite this, Manchester City still created many scoring opportunities in the subsequent game. In the 69th minute, Harrison crossed from the bottom, with Doucoure sweeping in from the back post, the ball deflecting off Lewis' leg, almost giving Everton the lead again. In the 75th minute, De Bruyne came on as a substitute for Doku, injecting new vitality into Manchester City's midfield. However, despite their outstanding performance in attack, Manchester City were unable to score again.
After the game, Akanki expressed his dissatisfaction with the result in an interview with Amazon. "I don't think the draw is a fair result," he said. "We created a lot of chances, but unfortunately we only scored one goal and lost one for no reason. I think we should have scored three or four goals in this game, but the ball just didn't want to fly into the goal. We tried to attack and then lost possession, such things should not happen. We need to believe that we can win the game until the last moment."
Regarding the team's current state and title race situation, Akanki also gave his opinion. "The season is not over yet, but currently winning the title is not our goal," he said. "We need to be steady and play well game by game. Focus on the next game against Leicester City, with our current form, the game against Leicester City will not be easy. We need to focus on the positive aspects, we have done many good things, our defense and offense are great, but we haven't把握好机会，不然我们可以进3-4球。"
After this game, Manchester City's ranking on the leaderboard temporarily rose to sixth place, but there is still an 11-point gap from the top of Arsenal. For Manchester City, who are aiming for the championship, such a point difference is undoubtedly a huge challenge. However, as Akanki said, the season is far from over, and Manchester City still has enough time to adjust their state and catch up on points. In future games, Manchester City needs to cherish every scoring opportunity even more, while strengthening the stability of their defensive end, in order to hope to regain the throne of the Premier League championship.
In addition, this game also exposed some problems in Manchester City's offensive end. Although the team has a group of powerful forwards like Haaland and B seat, when facing dense defense, Manchester City often finds it difficult to find effective means to break the goal. How to solve this problem in future games will be a key issue that Guardiola and the Manchester City coaching staff need to consider. However, with Manchester City's strong overall strength and deep bench depth, they are sure to overcome difficulties and rediscover the feeling of victory.