City Watch: City make it three Premier League wins in a row before trip to Wembley

It’s been an incredible week for Manchester City since the win against Crystal Palace, and I couldn’t be more happy with the results and, in some cases, the performances as well. 

Following the thumping of Palace last weekend, City faced Everton for what would be the last trip to Goodison Park before the Toffees move into their new stadium.

This game had every reason to be a banana skin for the Blues, the emotion of the Everton fans moving away from their home had the potential to get the better of City, but it didn’t materialise. 

The game itself, I have to say, wasn’t any reflection of quality or creativity, it was actually very similar to the Man United game earlier this month; incredibly passive, with neither team really going for it.

Late on in the game, it was looking like a slam dunk 0-0, however, just like he did at Bournemouth in the cup last month, Nico O’Reilly stepped up and saved us, scoring late on before Mateo Kovacic made it two injury time. 

Like I say, the game wasn’t exciting to watch, but that was a huge result in the race for the top five, especially with Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa also picking up big wins.

Speaking of Villa, our toughest game left of the Premier League season took place against the Villans on Tuesday night. 

This really was the game that could decide City’s fate in terms of Europe next season, and it almost started in the worst possible way, with an old enemy, Marcus Rashford, hitting the post just 20 seconds in.

I was fearing the worst at this point, but Bernardo Silva, who has been rumoured to be leaving City at the end of the season, stepped up just seven minutes in to fire the ball past Martinez, giving the Blues an early lead,

The drama didn’t stop, though, as just a few minutes later, Ruben Dias took down Morgan Rogers in the box, prompting a VAR check and a penalty given. 

A lot of City fans in the ground and on social media were critical of the decision. 

I will say after watching it back, even though Dias doesn’t mean to trip Rogers, it was clumsy, there was contact and he was brought down, so I do think it was the correct decision, just a shame Rashford was the one who stepped up and equalised.

Villa took the opportunity to defend with their lives in the second half, clearly playing for the draw, which frustrated Pep and his players. 

I said to a few people sitting around me before the game that it was written to be a late Marcus Rashford winner, it just felt like the script for it.

I was half right, there was a dramatic late winner, but it wasn’t Villa…

Of all the players, Matheus Nunes stepped up in the 94th minute specifically 93:21, close to another time we know as City fans, to give the Blues a 2-1 victory late on, moving us into third, with Forest, Chelsea and Newcastle all still to play, but the win means top five is now in our own hands. 

It’s simple, win our remaining four games, we get Champions League next season.

Those conversations are for another column though, as now we prepare for a season defining game on Sunday, our FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.