Since handing Pep Guardiola one of his biggest career losses, featuring a storming Tom Davies solo run that to helped seal an emphatic 4-0 win in January 2017, Everton have failed to pick up three points in any of the following 17 fixtures between themselves and Manchester City.
In addition, since the appointment of Roberto Martinez in 2013, The Toffees have only managed to win in two of the following 27 against the eight-time Premier League champions.
By contrast, during his first stint at the club, between 2002 and 2013, David Moyes looked upon this fixture favourably.
Despite a 3-1 loss in his first edition of the tie away in Manchester, as well as failing to win any of the next three versus the Citizens, the Scotsman would go on to pick up 12 wins in 27 games, drawing four and losing 11 in his 11-year tenure.
Everton’s inability to pick up points in this fixture since the current bosses’ initial departure has been a thorn in the side of every manager since. Despite subjectively fine performances on a number of occasions, the People’s Club have lacked the cutting edge to turn leads to wins and draws.
This has led to a huge drop off in terms of the points picked up per game. Between 2002-2013, The Blues would average 1.81 points per game thanks to their draw and win percentage being higher than their losses.
This has since fallen to just 0.4 since 2013, making it their worst tally against any side. Spurs and Liverpool are their next two least favourable opponents with 0.6 and 0.7 points per game respectively.
Perhaps as more evidence of the difference in quality for the squads in the two contrasting eras, Everton managed to score on average 1.27 goals a game. This number has since plummeted to just 0.8, failing to score in 7 of the last ten editions of the fixture.
On the other end Moyes’ side would only on average concede 1.04 goals a game, this number has now jumped to 1.92 with City managing to find the back of the net 23 times in the previous ten fixtures.
In the 199 meetings between the two sides, only 1% of wins have come in the 27 matches played between David Moyes departure in 2013 and his return in 2025. Despite being only marginally better, the Scotsman has managed 6% of the wins, picking up points 60% of the time.
Gabriel Jesus is the fixtures’ top goal scorer, netting on eight of his 13 appearances. The next active player with the most goals is unsurprisingly Erling Haaland’s four. Everton have failed to contain the Norwegian giant in all four of his appearances against The Blues.
As if figuring out how to stop the league’s top scorer wasn’t hard enough on his worst days, despite having statistically his poorest start to any of his four campaigns since joining City, the leagues current top scorer still has nine goals in just seven matches.
With five goals in five consecutive games, this leaves him just shy of the halfway point in his journey to breaking Jamie Vardy’s record of scoring in 11 consecutive games.
As Everton are still lacking Jarrad Branthwaite, James Tarkowski having his worst statistical start to a season and the Toffees still lacking a recognised, match fit right back, Haaland will be licking his lips at the opportunity to extend his run to six.
