Everton 1-1 City: A point gained or two lost?

This was something I looked at for my piece for The Metro.

Immediately reflecting on today's 1-1 draw then perhaps the emotion should be one of satisfaction. After all, this was a game that over the course of the 90 minutes was a damn good tussle; two teams going at one another, City largely in control but a spirited Everton throwing aside their recent struggles to cause plenty of problems.

The difficulty with this approach though is that is hard to view a single game through the prism of a whole season. To decipher whether it was a valuable point earned, or, conversely, two points lost cannot immediately be judged.

Given the way in which the match unfolded though, the feeling of frustration that built during the final minutes and which crystallised at the sound of the whistle points to the latter.

And this was the overriding feeling. Whilst inevitable is not quite the right word perhaps despite some first half struggles I never felt that City wouldn't score. 11 shots in the first half (despite none on target) pointed to this, and so it proved.

To then concede a goal so soon after taking the lead was a disappointment; particularly in the manner that it was conceded. Against an Everton side too who were low on confidence on the back of a run of defeats.

Pellegrini clearly felt this was an opportunity lost though:

"We are not happy with a point because we had three or four clear chances in the first 25 minutes which could have decided the game. But we didn't finish well so after that, the second half was closer and Everton improved in their performance, and scored from a set piece.

"If you had said at the beginning of the game we would draw against Everton away, then maybe it is not a bad result, but because we had so many chances we are not happy with the draw."

How does one form a judgement in this case? Does losing the lead automatically mean it is points dropped, or does the opponent or historical struggles at Goodison Park come into play? How about Chelsea's result?

What about the performance itself? This was a good game to watch. Both sides going at each other and City, for all the lack of a clinical edge in attack, controlled the game for the most part and extended their unbeaten run. This wasn't like the Burnley game where the points were thrown away.

Frustrating? Yes. But my feeling is that is more a 'good' point than a 'bad' one.