Phil Foden earned Manchester City a vital win as they battled to a 1-0 victory over Everton at Goodison Park.
A defeat to Tottenham last time out allowed Liverpool to close to within three points of City, and Pep Guardiola’s side looked in danger of slipping up once again for large periods of the match.
But with less than ten minutes to go, Foden capitalised on a disastrous error from Michael Keane to put his side in front and send them six points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Liverpool have a game in hand over City, but are not in league action this weekend due to the Carabao Cup final.
Both sides joined together in a show of support for Ukraine before the match, with a visibly emotional Oleksandr Zinchenko on the bench for City and Vitaliy Mykolenko among Everton’s substitutes. The City players wore ‘No war’ t-shirts as they walked out, while the home team were all draped in individual Ukrainian flags.
Kevin De Bruyne had a shot from distance comfortable saved by Pickford, and that proved to be as good as it got for City in an opening 45 minutes in which they were well below their best.
Everton meanwhile looked to be on the front-foot and press their opponents when the opportunity came. Jonjoe Kenny sliced an effort into the side-netting after Allan played him through, before Richarlison failed to take a huge chance as he drilled the ball straight at Ederson from 12 yards out.
Anthony Gordon whipped a free-kick over the bar in added time, as the sides went into the break level.
As the second-half went on, City cranked up the pressure on the Everton defence. Phil Foden and Joao Cancelo were twice denied in the space of ten seconds by Pickford, before the goalkeeper pulled off an even more impressive double save.
The first was from De Bruyne which he parried out straight into the path of Bernardo Silva, but Pickford was up quickly to keep out the Portuguese’s powerful strike.
As it looked increasingly like being another frustrating result for City, they took the lead. Silva’s cross took a flick off Holgate which seemingly sent it straight to Michael Keane, but he didn’t get his feet sorted and missed the ball completely.
That allowed Foden to round Pickford and put the visitors in front with eight minutes remaining.
City were fortunate to not concede a penalty shortly afterwards, as the ball bounced up and hit Rodri on the arm, but VAR decided not to overturn the referee’s original decision.
Everton were unable to stage a late comeback, suffering a defeat that leaves them 17th in the table while also doing Merseyside rivals Liverpool no favours in the title race.
