Everton 1 Man City 3: Champions fight back from a goal down to ramp up pressure on Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa
RYDER CUP hero Tommy Fleetwood watched his golfing pal Pep Guardiola get Manchester City back on course.
The newly-crowned world champions have been below par for the last few weeks domestically – winning just one of their previous six games.
And that rough patch looked set to continue as Evertonian Fleetwood saw his team take a first half lead.
But second half goals from Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez and Bernardo Silva ensured they remain handily placed on the fair way.
City returned to the UK on Saturday after winning the World Club Cup in sweltering Saudi Arabia the previous night.
They proudly sported the gold FIFA badge on their shirts for the first time to mark their fifth trophy in seven months.
But the question was do they still have the appetite and hunger to do it on a windy night at Goodison.
The answer – in the end – was yes, thanks to a sparkling second half show. But for a while it was in some doubt.
It should have been much more straight-forward as they failed to turn their early dominance into goals.
A Jack Grealish cross was stabbed goalwards by Alvarez – but Jordan Pickford made a smart save at his near post.
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Foden pounced on some indecision from James Tarkowski but then blasted his shot over the angle.
Matheus Nunes saw his low shot saved by the legs of Pickford and the England keeper got up to deflect the rebound from Alvarez wide of the post.
And the Three Lions number one had to be alert again to save a toe poke from his international team-mate Grealish.
City had been in total control for the opening 28 minutes but then somehow found themselves behind.
Their fans would have rolled their eyes as this is becoming the story of their season.
And this time, they only had themselves to blame as it was a comedy of errors from the treble winners.
Silva failed to control a pass from Manuel Akanji and then Rodri stumbled as he played the ball into the feet of Dwight McNeil.
His low cross was turned in from close range by Harrison – who was once an employee of the City Football Group at New York City.
At one point, Guardiola even had a look at signing him but declined and he joined Leeds instead.
Perhaps the former England Under 21 man had a point to prove as he almost added a second with a curling shot which Ederson clawed away at full stretch.
The worry for City was that the Toffees had not lost once they have taken the lead in Sean Dyche’s time in charge.
And their task got more difficult when former Everton defender John Stones hobbled off after a last ditch tackle on Beto.
What would have frustrated both him and Guardiola was that the giant striker was clearly offside but the linesman waited until the passage of play was over to raise his flag.
Pep is in no doubt how important the centre back is to his team and already he has missed large parts of the current campaign.
Already without Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne, Jeremy Doku and Ruben Dias, he looked distinctly unimpressed with the officials at the break.
The former Barcelona boss had one of his worst days at City boss seven years ago next month when his team slumped to a 4-0 defeat at Everton.
They have won their last seven trips here since – but this was shaping up to be a similarly damaging evening.
Whatever he said at the interval seemed to work as his team had more purpose after the break and were level soon after the re-start.
Bernardo Silva slipped the ball back into the path of Phil Foden who thumped a low shot from 25 yards that caught out Pickford.
The keeper took a step to the right and then had too much to do as he flung himself to his left and got nowhere near it.
Now the home side were up against it – and it felt like it was a matter of time before City completed the turnaround.
Sure enough, just after the hour a goalbound effort from Nathan Ake struck the arm of Amadou Onana.
The Belgium international was unlucky as he was only a couple of yards away – but he did have his arm up – and the VAR upheld the decision of John Brooks to award a penalty.
Alvarez thumped the penalty straight down the middle and Pickford could not get enough on it to keep it out.
Even then sub Dominic Calvert-Lewin could have levelled as he got to a Harrison cross but turned it the wrong side of the post.
But the visitors finally had breathing space when Pickford’s clearance from near the touchline was charged down by Alvarez.
The keeper found himself in no man’s land and knew when the ball fell to Silva he could be in trouble.
Sure enough the Portuguese maestro chipped in with the kind of precision that Fleetwood would no doubt have appreciated.
Foden – who was outstanding all night – could even have added a fourth as his piledriver smacked the post.
City’s rivals should be in no doubt – that’s why they’re world champions.