Everton 4 Man City 0

But the nadir came on Sunday as Everton thrashed City 4-0 at Goodison Park to leave Guardiola’s side outside the Top 4 after 21 games of the season.

And Davies said that Koeman did not give him any special treatment before the match, as he simply told him to keep an eye on City’s attacking talents.

– In four of their last seven Premier League games, Manchester City have conceded with the first shot they’ve faced.

“He doesn’t have the players to play the way that he wants to”.

“There’s mixed emotions. I’ve got a lot of friends there, I played a lot of games for Everton and a lot of my family has got friends there, so it’s a big occasion for them, as it is for me”, he said.

He latched on to a mistake from former Everton defender John Stones and he made no mistake, in firing the ball between the legs of Claudio Bravo in goal to cap his brilliant Premier League debut.

Lookman, signed from Charlton Athletic earlier in the month, then produced an even more improbable fairytale in the 94th minute, latching on to the ball after a Stones error to smash his finish through Bravo after being on the pitch for just minutes. Good, honest managers are often not given the time that they deserve to really put their stamp on a side and turn results around, and the media are far too quick to condemn men to the sack. “I don’t doubt it”.

The hosts had the ball in the net after 10 minutes as Lukaku combined with Seamus Coleman to set up Mirallas but the flag was raised for offside. However had Davies not managed to head a Bacary Sagna header off the line before half time, the match could have swung in their favor.

Given the way his side were blown away by Mauricio Pochettino’s back in September, Guardiola will know that his men must hit the ground running next week. It is football. In football you sometimes don’t need to do many things to score.

“They scored straight after half-time and that is tough mentally for the players”.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalized late for Manchester United to salvage a 1-1 draw against fierce rival Liverpool in a result that damaged both teams’ Premier League title chances today. The first one is a 10-point gap and that is a lot of course. Sixth-placed United was 12 points off the leader. It might not be the way he truly would like to play or will end up playing, but for now Guardiola might have to move away from his preference for midfield control and figure out a way to get the ball forward into risky areas as quickly as possible.

“You can not plan a game like this”, said Koeman.