Manchester City made a perhaps fatal mistake in the Premier League title fight and only managed a draw at Everton FC – and that was still lucky.
At 3:3 (0:1) on Monday evening (May 4th, 2026), the Toffees, who can still dream of Europe, were even ahead until deep into stoppage time. Jérémy Doku made it 1-0 for City (43′) before Everton turned the game around in the second half. Thierno Barry (68th) equalized, Jake O’Brien (73rd) and Barry again (83rd) added two goals before Erling Haaland shortened the score in the 83rd minute. In the 7th minute of injury time, Doku scored again to make the final score 3-3.
Arsenal now five points ahead
Arsenal are now five points ahead of City at the top and have the better goal difference. The Skyblues still have a catch-up game to play, but the championship is no longer in their own hands.
From the kick-off, the guests took command in the brand new Hill Dickinson Stadium and sometimes had ball possession values of over 90 percent. Jéremy Doku in particular kept doing what he wanted on the left wing, initiating one dangerous City attack after another. But what his colleagues did with his assists had nothing to do with legitimate title ambitions: nine of the first ten shots on goal didn’t even reach national goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s goal.
Then Doku does it himself
But shot number eleven was possible. Doku had drawn the right conclusions from the incompetence of his teammates, who only had three half-chances through Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo (both 18th minute) and again Semenyo (21st). After the Dutchman had otherwise come almost exclusively from the left, he changed sides shortly before the break and circled the ball from the half-right into the left corner.
Little had come from Everton up to that point, Gianluigi Donnarumma only had to intervene once: Ex-Freinurg player Dominik Röhl had broken through on the right flank and crossed sharply into the middle: Italy’s national goalkeeper punched the ball away just in front of Beto, who was ready to shoot (32′).
Keane’s frustrated foul should have resulted in red
The Toffees’ lowest point in the first half was not the otherwise concentrated offensive harmlessness, but rather a reckless, health-endangering frustration foul by central defender Michael Keane, who was completely overwhelmed in terms of play. Since he never had to help himself against Doku in terms of sport, he cleared him two minutes before the break with a brutal vehemence that could have resulted in a serious injury.
Doku had to be treated for a long time, but was able to continue playing – Michael Oliver, on the other hand, should not have allowed Keane to do that. But the experienced referee left it with a yellow card, which was checked by the VAR but, as is so often the case on the island, not returned and replaced by red.
Haaland like a foreign body
The only thing Everton did well in the first half was shadowing top scorer Erling Haaland. The Norwegian had almost no contact with the ball at all, repeatedly made runs deep, but had no connection to the game or to the people around him.
Even in the second round, Doku, Semenyo or Cherki were unable to put Haaland in the spotlight. And after an hour, the hosts finally realized that something could definitely happen that evening. The first counterattack via Beto and Iliman Ndiaye fizzled out, but Ndiaye should have scored in the 65th minute: Donnarumma had dived early, but the Everton striker, who appeared free in front of him, shot at him.
City is badly flawed in defense
But the people in front of him didn’t have the keeper’s strong form. Shortly after Everton’s great chance, Marc Guehi wanted to clear a situation with a back pass, but he starved miserably: Barry, who had just been substituted, sprinted between them and pushed the ball into the far corner.
Completely unusual for the former champion: it was not only in this scene that panic broke out in the defense. One ball loss suddenly followed another, Guehi and the equally overwhelmed Abduqodir Khusanov were completely beside themselves. O’Brien was completely free with his header from a corner and nodded in to make it 2-1, shortly afterwards Barry added the third goal again after preparation by the strong Röhl.
Haaland scores directly in return
But Everton spent a little too long celebrating and missed the backwards movement on the through ball into Haaland’s path – the Norwegian scored in direct return with his first chance of the evening with a lob to make it 2-3.
City then pushed hard for the equalizer, which was actually achieved in the 7th minute of stoppage time: As with his first goal, Doku got too much space on the edge of the penalty area and actually scored the ball to make it 3-3.
