The final emotion for Everton, at the end of a rollercoaster night, was that of frustration.<\/p>\n
Frustration with Monday\u2019s match officials, who denied midfielder Merlin Rohl a second-half penalty and played on for Jeremy Doku\u2019s 97th-minute equaliser, but also with themselves for the concession of another added-time goal and yet more dropped points.<\/p>\n
When Thierno Barry scored on 81 minutes, David Moyes\u2019 side appeared to have this game won. They would have deserved their victory, too, after a spirited comeback saw them overturn a 1-0 deficit to lead 3-1 with nine minutes of regular time remaining.<\/p>\n
At that stage, Hill Dickinson Stadium was bouncing and on course for its finest night yet. But barely 15 minutes later, the mood had soured considerably.<\/p>\n
Moyes remonstrated with referee Michael Oliver and his officiating team on the pitch at the end. After being subjected to earlier chants of \u201cPremier League, corrupt as f***\u201d when Doku scored his second, Oliver and co were roundly booed as they headed to the tunnel and again on exiting the stadium just before 11pm.<\/p>\n
Everton players had their head in their hands at full time. Doku had shushed the home supporters after his brilliant late goal, while the jubilant response from the City bench to that goal saw an irate reaction from nearby supporters.<\/p>\n
But judging by the sombre faces of City players as they trudged onto the team bus at the end, nobody was all that happy after a thrilling, chaotic draw that hands Arsenal the initiative in the Premier League title race and keeps Everton as outsiders in the race for Europe.<\/p>\n
This was Everton at their best at times, but also close to their worst.<\/p>\n
Moyes bemoaned their passive first-half performance, which saw them dominated by a potent City side that has few peers on current form.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n\n David Moyes was left frustrated with his team after a chaotic encounter with Manchester City (Stu Forster\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Everton lacked numbers in attack and an out ball, with players regularly crowded out as they looked to clear. After 15 minutes, Pep Guardiola\u2019s men had recorded nearly 90 per cent possession.\u00a0 Wave after wave of attack was repelled by last-ditch defending and some luck, but it always felt like the dam would eventually break.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was probably the poorest we have played here, certainly against the better teams this season,\u201d Moyes told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n His message at half time had been to get \u201ccloser\u201d to City, showing them slightly less respect and ruffling them physically. Everton played direct, competed for second balls and forced mistakes of the kind you would not expect from City, with defender Marc Guehi gifting substitute Thierno Barry an equaliser.<\/p>\n Seizing on further errors in the City half, wide men Iliman Ndiaye and Merlin Rohl started to cut through at will. The former missed two golden chances.\u00a0They ended with an expected goals total of 2.7 to City\u2019s 1.5, the highest tally of any side to face Guardiola\u2019s team in a league game this season.<\/p>\n Rohl, making his first league start since mid-January, had been tasked predominantly with shadowing City left-back Nico O\u2019Reilly. But, as he told reporters post-match, Everton also worked in the week on utilising his pace in behind. Internal metrics have benchmarked the 23-year-old loan-with-obligation signing from Freiburg as one of the fastest players in the league and it was from his burst and dragged shot that Barry put Everton 3-1 ahead.<\/p>\n \n Merlin Rohl was instrumental in Everton\u2019s third goal (Michael Regan\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe were giving our best in the first half but they made it pretty hard for us,\u201d Rohl said.\u00a0\u201cIn the second half, we got one or two good situations.\u00a0Then the fans are coming, the atmosphere is coming. They get a little bit nervous.\u00a0We are pressing higher, we are winning balls.\u00a0Then there\u2019s a different rhythm to the game.<\/p>\n \u201cEven when I was not playing, I knew that he (Moyes) would trust me at some point. I just needed to be patient. But I think it was just a game where you have the O\u2019Reilly situation. He\u2019s really a player who wants to go forward. Everyone knows about my pace. There was some space and I was really happy to get two or three situations where I can use it.\u201d<\/p>\n Guardiola\u2019s side were unbeaten in 11 in the league. Everton had not won against Monday\u2019s opponents since a 4-0 victory in January 2017, with 14 of the previous 17 games ending in defeat.<\/p>\n That long, barren run should have ended on Monday night. And yet Everton again showed fragility when it mattered.<\/p>\n Doku was brilliant for goals one and three, but Erling Haaland\u2019s second, more or less straight from kick-off after Barry had put Everton 3-1 ahead, was a disaster from a defensive perspective. One pass from Mateo Kovacic dissected the Everton centre-back pairing of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane, with the the pair on their heels, and by the time they responded it was too late.<\/p>\n Doku\u2019s equaliser deep into stoppage time felt like the logical, gut-wrenching conclusion for this Everton side right now.<\/p>\n 100. 92. 97.<\/p>\n In each of their last three games, Moyes\u2019 team have succumbed to added-time goals, costing them a total of four points. The Scot will know those moments could end up defining Everton\u2019s season, or at the very least shaping how it concludes. A win on Monday would have taken them level on points with Brighton & Hove Albion in eighth.<\/p>\n Add those four dropped points to Everton\u2019s total and they would be level with sixth-placed Bournemouth. These are the fine margins on which the season could be defined.<\/p>\n The shame was that they had done so well to show resilience, fight back and put themselves in such an advantageous position in the first place.<\/p>\n Before the game, and especially at half-time, Everton would no doubt have viewed a draw against the title-chasers an unexpected bonus. But up two goals with nine minutes of regular time to play, anything other than a win is also a disappointment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe let ourselves down because we defended the second goal so poorly,\u201d Moyes said. \u201cWe should be doing enough to see it out.\u201d<\/p>\n It could have been worse for Everton. But it should also have been so much better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/05\/05014416\/GettyImages-2274504979-scaled.jpg\")
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