Manchester City vs Everton

Defending Premier League champions Manchester City entertain relegation-fighting Everton in a high-stakes fixture at the Etihad Stadium.

Reluctant to surrender the Premier League title to Arsenal, second-placed Manchester City thumped Leeds United 3-1 in midweek league action to maintain a five-point deficit on the table-topping ‘Gunners.’ However, Brentford stunned Pep Guardiola’s men at the Etihad last time out, claiming a 2-1 victory to knock the ‘Cityzens’ down from an 11-match winning home league streak. Keen to rectify that mistake, the back-to-back champions can fall back on their impressive run of just one defeat in their final league game across the last 21 calendar years (W11, D9). After losing four home league meetings against Everton in succession between 2008 and 2010, they’ve gone unbeaten in their last 11 top-flight H2Hs at the Etihad (W7, D4), including an overwhelming 3-0 triumph in this corresponding fixture in 2022/23.

In the meantime, Everton suffered a late heartbreak on Boxing Day as Wolverhampton Wanderers’ stoppage-time winner condemned Frank Lampard’s men to a third consecutive Premier League defeat. With Lampard facing an uncertain future at Goodison Park, the ‘Toffees’ will be out to defy their underwhelming eight-game away record in the Premier League this term (W1, D3, L4). However, since beating rock-bottom Southampton 2-1 in early October, they’ve lost three of their subsequent four league matches on hostile turf (D1), failing to get on the scoresheet on each occasion. Stuck only one point clear of the drop zone, Everton can only rely on their six-game unbeaten Premier League run on New Year’s Eve (W4, D2) to inspire some confidence about pulling off a sudden turnaround.