Soccer
Erling Haaland had a penalty saved by Jordan Pickford to ensure Manchester City’s struggles continued as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Everton on Boxing Day.
Pickford produced a brilliant penalty save in the second half to earn the visitors a point and the England goalkeeper has now kept out his last two spot-kicks faced in the Premier League, having also denied Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon in October.
Bernardo Silva, sporting the City armband, fired Pep Guardiola’s side into a 14th-minute lead when his sliding cross deflected in off the boot of Jarrad Branthwaite.
But Everton dragged themselves level nine minutes before the interval through Iliman Ndiaye’s stunning finish, with the Senegal attacking midfielder expertly punishing some slack City defending.
The draw means City edge up to sixth in the standings, but they may not end Thursday in that position with seven further fixtures still to be played, including Newcastle and Aston Villa – the two teams directly below them – doing battle.
Everton, meanwhile, are up to 15th, increasing the gap between themselves and the bottom three to five points.
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Guardiola will have seen their Boxing Day fixture against Everton as a good chance to return to winning ways, but they were met with a stern defensive display that had recently stopped Arsenal and Chelsea in their tracks.
City have now won just one of their last nine Premier League matches (D2 L6), having won 16 of their previous 18 games beforehand (D2), while since the start of November, only Heidenheim (28) have conceded more goals than the Citizens (26) across Europe’s top five leagues.
Haaland netted 10 goals in his first five Premier League games this season but has since scored just three in his last 13, underperforming his expected goals (xG) by a league-wide total of 5.2 in that time (3 vs 8.2 xG).
His penalty today was the first time he’s seen a goalkeeper save one of his Premier League spot-kicks, with his other 16 being either scored (15) or hitting the woodwork (one).
Pickford saved his seventh Premier League penalty for Everton, the joint most for the club along with Tim Howard. In Premier League history, only Brad Friedel at Blackburn Rovers (10) and Jussi Jaaskelainen at Bolton Wanderers (nine) have more penalty saves at one club.
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