Manchester City face hard grind to secure Champions League spot following defeat to Everton

For all the money spent by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a talent for making life unnecessarily complicated remains and the next few days will be far more arduous following this defeat.

Victory at Goodison Park would have enabled Roberto Mancini to rest the legs of his key men against Tottenham tomorrow night, with the FA Cup final against Stoke to come on Saturday.

But after surrendering a lead that revealed a worrying weakness for crosses, which will have been noted by Tony Pulis, who could not even venture to the toilet without being grilled by supporters about Matthew Etherington’s hamstring, the visit of Spurs retains important.

It may be a little removed from the Champions League decider that was the penultimate match of last season but there will be no shortage of tension at Eastlands.

Mancini plans to bring Carlos Tévez, sidelined with a hamstring problem since April 11, on for up to half an hour against Harry Redknapp’s side but even that may be thrown into question if the game is not going City’s way.

The City manager, who was involved in an ugly exchange with Phil Neville after the final whistle, maintains that a six-point lead over Tottenham with a vastly superior goal difference and three games remaining means that fourth place is not a major concern.

“I am not worried but I am disappointed because, if we had won this game, [the race for fourth] was finished and we could have prepared very well for the final but now we are thinking only of Tottenham,” Mancini said. But the nature of City’s collapse under Everton’s second-half onslaught – they conceded both goals from headers – will give Rory Delap and Stoke’s own list of potential NBA recruits plenty of encouragement.

Nigel de Jong, who has been nursing a hip problem, is one who might have been spared tomorrow night but the Dutchman is certain that 35 woeful minutes will not disrupt City’s attempts to end their 35-year trophy drought.

“We have now got to grind through the Tottenham game before the Cup final and that will be hard,” De Jong said. “It is our own mistake and we just have to get our heads clear again. This is a very important week for the club, the players and the fans. This is do-or-die for Manchester City. Fourth place is in reach and everything is in our hands.

“We just have to win that game against Tottenham, we then have a chance to be FA Cup winners after 35 years but we just have to learn from this game.

“We just have to think what we did wrong, take the mistakes out and if we do that, we can be in fourth place and FA Cup winners.”

In the opening period at Goodison, the excellent David Silva and Yaya Toure combined to pull the hosts apart regularly and it was they who worked the opener, with the Spaniard slipping through for the Ivorian to finish with a cross-shot.

But again they simply seemed to stop doing what was so productive and Everton forced their way back, with Sylvain Distin heading in from Mikel Arteta’s free-kick and Leon Osman beating Vincent Kompany to glance in from Neville’s cross.

At the final whistle Aleksander Kolarov accused Seamus Coleman of elbowing him, resulting in Mancini and Neville having to be pulled apart as they roared insults at each other.

Moyes has come out on top in each of his four meetings with Mancini and the closest the Italian has come to any sort of victory was ripping the ball from his counterpart’s grasp at Eastlands last season.

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Manchester United 1 Everton 0: match report

Javier Hernandez edged Manchester United to within seven points of a record 19th league title with late winner at Old Trafford following a nervy encounter with Everton.

Hernandez, a £7m signing from Chivas de Guadalajara last summer, took his tally for the season to 19 goals when he headed in Antonio Valencia’s far post cross on 84 minutes.

Everton had seen two penalty appeals rejected by referee Peter Walton prior to the goal and will feel aggrieved at emerging with nothing for their efforts.

But with four games left to play – including fixtures at Arsenal and at home to Chelsea – United now know that two wins and a draw will confirm the title.

With the Champions League semi-final against Schalke looming on Tuesday, Ferguson gambled on wholesale changes to his starting line-up in order to rest key players ahead of the trip to Germany.

But with Everton’s recent form seeing them climb to seventh in the table, such tinkering was always likely to be a risky tactic against David Moyes’s team.

As has been proved on numerous occasions already this season, the likes of Jonny Evans, Darron Gibson and John O’Shea lack the quality of the more established players that they replaced and it showed as United struggled to put Everton under any sustained pressure.

The home side did not even test Everton keeper Tim Howard until 29 minutes had elapsed, but the former United number one did well to deny Javier Hernandez following his snapshot from Wayne Rooney’s pass.

Everton were unfortunate not to win a penalty on 36 minutes, however, when Evans’s clumsy challenge on Jermaine Beckford went unpunished by referee Peter Walton.

Moyes’s team were then denied what appeared a certain penalty on 56 minutes when Rio Ferdinand bundled substitute Victor Anichebe over on the edge of the six yard box. Once again, Walton ignored Everton appeals.

United were certainly riding their luck, but with Everton looking comfortable at the back, Ferguson replaced Nani with Michael Owen on 63 minutes in an effort to find a crucial goal.

And Owen, who has scored just once in the Premier League this season, almost put United ahead when his effort from Fabio’s cross was deflected onto the near post by defender Sylvain Distin.

Everton also went close, though, when United target Jack Rodwell forced Edwin van der Sar into full-stretch save to push his 20-yard strike past the post.

United appeared to be heading for a draw they simply did not want when Hernandez saw a header brilliantly tipped over the bar by Howard on 81 minutes.

But the Mexican striker won the game three minutes later with a brave header at the far post that left Howard beaten and moved United nine points clear of Chelsea and Arsenal.

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Everton boss David Moyes is a target for struggling Aston Villa

By Sportsmail Reporter
Last updated at 1:01 PM on 27th March 2011

Aston Villa will put Everton manager David Moyes top of their short list this summer, with Gerard Houllier set to leave even if the club survive in the Premier League.

Chief executive Paul Faulkner said their ‘best chance of staying up is with Gerard’, but they have reserve-team boss Kevin McDonald available as a caretaker if results continue to slide.

Target: Everton manager David Moyes is top of Aston Villa's shortlist

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