Doku rescues 3-3 for City at Everton but Arsenal hold the title race
Jeremy Doku scored at the start of this match and at the end of it, the second a curling stoppage-time equaliser that rescued Manchester City a point at Hill Dickinson on Monday night. Everton, by then, had built a two-goal lead and could see the result of the season for them. They settled for 3-3, and so did the title race: City stay alive, but the gap to Arsenal closed only on goal difference, not on points.
City began the way a side chasing a title should: 89% possession in the opening twenty minutes, Rayan Cherki probing in the channels, and Doku breaking through two minutes before half-time. The Belgian collected a Cherki pass just inside the area, created space for himself, and curled past Jordan Pickford for a 1-0 lead.
A second-half collapse, then a stoppage-time rescue
Marc Guehi, signed in January to anchor City's back line, played a loose back-pass that Thierno Barry chased down. The Everton substitute, on for less than ten minutes, slid the ball past Gianluigi Donnarumma to make it 1-1 in the 68th. Five minutes later it was 2-1, James Garner curling in a left-side corner and Jake O'Brien nipping in at the near post to flick a header past Donnarumma. By the 82nd Barry had his second, tapping home on the break after City's defenders appealed for offside, the flag stayed down, and Everton led 3-1.
City's response began before Everton had finished celebrating. Mateo Kovacic released Erling Haaland with a through-ball that carved through the Everton back line, and the Norwegian chipped past Pickford for 3-2 a minute after Barry's second. From there, the visitors threw bodies forward. The clock ticked into the seventh minute of stoppage time before Doku, on the touch of a Guehi pass, curled in his second of the night to level the match. The home support, who had been preparing to celebrate a famous win, fell silent.
The title math now favours Arsenal
Arsenal sit on 76 points from 35 matches. City, after this draw, have 71 from 34. The gap is five points. City have four matches remaining, against Brentford, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Aston Villa. Arsenal have three left. Mikel Arteta's side need eight points from those three to make the arithmetic untouchable, and even fewer if they have the better goal difference when the dust settles.
It is still mathematically alive. It does not feel that way. City won only one point at Hill Dickinson when, for ninety minutes of football, they looked like a team that needed all three.
Everton's stadium-warming continues
Everton's first season at the 52,769-capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium has been a stop-start adjustment, but for eighty-seven minutes on Monday night the new ground was loud and convinced of itself. David Moyes set up to absorb pressure, trusted his defenders to hold a line, and was rewarded when the substitutions paid off. Then Doku struck in stoppage time, and the loudest stadium in the city went quiet at the worst possible moment.
City's title defence is not over on paper. After ninety-seven minutes at Hill Dickinson, it does not look closed. But the team that drew on Monday was missing the conviction of a side hunting down a leader, and Arsenal's grip on the title tightened by another notch.
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