Amadou Onana leaves Everton wanting more as Man City strange chants hide Jordan Pickford truth

Tough night for huge promise (part one)

Jarrad Branthwaite and Amadou Onana are a couple of huge, emerging talents in this Everton side in more ways than one but after rather different performances from the pair, this couple of man mountains both ended up playing close up roles in the goals that saw this contest slip away from the hosts.

It was particularly unfortunate for Branthwaite who, in what has been a breakthrough season for him, has been the Blues stand-out performer of the campaign so far. A string of the biggest, baddest strikers in the Premier League have been routinely swatted aside by the young Cumbrian this term and after surviving an early drop of the shoulder from Phil Foden, who presented him with an all-together different kind of challenge, he looked to have settled well into his surroundings here against the albeit Erling Haaland-less most potent forward line in the business.

Jordan Pickford’s no-look pass was unforgiving for Branthwaite as not only would he have not been expecting it, the ball came at him at pace. It was also lamentable that it subsequently fell to the feet of Bernardo Silva, one of the few players so skilful and composed as to always punish you in such situations but such is the steep learning curve at this level.

Everton player ratings after Jordan Pickford howler and one poor vs Man City

What Everton and City supporters did at FT shows truth after more VAR chaos

Tough night for huge promise (part two)

If Branthwaite can count himself unlucky, what can we say about Amadou Onana and Manchester City’s penalty?

Certainly the player has the support of his manager Sean Dyche who described the awarding of the spot-kick as “incredible” and a decision that could be debated at length but