Everton v Manchester City Head To Head

Manchester City visit Everton on Saturday looking for a third straight win on the blue half of Merseyside to keep the pace with rivals Liverpool at the top of the table.

City go into the match on the back of last weekend’s 8-0 thrashing of Watford, while Everton suffered a home defeat to Sheffield United. The blues are twelve places and six points ahead of their hosts in the Premier League, so on paper City should win, but what do the stats say?

Goodison Park, But Not So Good Results

Saturday’s game will be the 23^rd Premier League meeting between the two sides, but the stats don’t make happy reading. The blues have won just six of those meetings, drawing sixandosing11, including a four match losing streak between January 2010 and March 2013, where City scored just one goal throughout that run. If you look back further, the blues have won just seven matches since the beat the Toffees 1-0 at Goodison in October 1981, so it’s safe to say Merseyside is not a happy hunting ground for the blues.

The Early Years Also Not So Great For Blues

Everton v City is a fixture that goes back well over 100 years, with the first meeting on Merseyside coming in April 1900. As you would expect, the blues lost that match too, with City on the end of a 4-0 thrashing. More misery was to follow and over the next 26 years, City would achieve a solitary win – 3-0 in April 1906.

Blues Need The Goals

It goes without saying that if the blues are to get anything from Everton they need to score, but that also applies to drawing. There have only been six goalless draws in this fixture in the 119 years they have played against each other, the last coming in December 2003.

The blues have failed to score at Goodison in the Premier League on nine occasions, while keeping just three clean sheets, and two of those have been in the last five seasons. Encouragingly, City have scored two or more in their victories, and have had a two goal margin at some point in the match. Given City’s recent goal-scoring record, that could be a good sign for the blues today.

Record Wins, Heavy Defeats

Everton are one of four teams to have inflicted City’s record league defeat of an 8-goal losing margin. The Toffees thrashed the blues 9-1 in September 1906, but have only scored four or more on six occasions since. City’s biggest win at Everton is 6-2 in September 1928, which ended a 15 match winless run at Goodison.

Everton Links

In the summer, Fabian Delph became the latest player to play for both City and Everton. Over players that have played for both clubs include Peter Beardsley, Peter Beagrie, Sylvain Distin, Joleon Lescott, Gareth Barry and Richard Dunne. Further back in time, Peter Reid, Wayne Clarke, Adrian Heath and Alan Harper all joined City after playing for the Toffees, while Andy Hinchcliffe went the other way in 1990. And even further back, Joe Royle, who would also manage both clubs, made 232 appearances for Everton, before moving to City in 1974.

Talking of former managers, a mention has to go to Howard Kendall, who managed Everton for six years between 1981 and 1987 and arrived at City in 1989 to begin a pre-Premier League mini-revival. With City fans dreaming of a return to the good times, Kendall suddenly returned to Everton in November 1990 when Colin Harvey was sacked, saying City were an affair but Everton was his marriage.