Roberto Martinez has won only two points in 12 Premier League games against Manchester City as a manager (W0 D2 L10).
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Last year’s runners-up have been, arguably, the league’s star performers so far, with two 3-0 wins – against West Brom and Chelsea – and many are tipping them to claim a third Premier League title already.
Well, we’ll start with Everton, I’m hoping to be able to see us replicate last weekends performance.
“We have a tough away game at Everton and we have to work hard because we know it is going to be difficult at Goodison Park“.
The key for Everton is not only keeping City’s key players quiet, such as David Silva and Sergio Aguero, but also exploiting the space.
“When you perform as a team, you are always going to see certain individuals with enormous talent shining”, Martinez said.
Manchester City haven’t won nine top-flight league games in succession since September 1912.
Manchester City are now on an eight-game winning run in the Premier League, their best PL run of wins since January 2014. But trips to Goodison Park are notoriously tough, and with Everton unbeaten in their two matches – the latter of which was a 3-0 win away at Southampton – confidence will be running high in Roberto Martinez’s squad, particularly as it seems they’ve finally beaten Chelsea off in the fight to keep John Stones.
Martinez credited a fine team showing after overseeing success at Southampton, rather than Romelu Lukaku’s double, and feels a similarly well-rounded display will be needed against City.
It speaks volumes for their struggles at the start of the campaign that Chelsea’s highest rated player according to WhoScored.com after two matches is second choice keeper Asmir Begovic (7.09), who is likely to lose his place to the returning Thiabut Courtois at the Hawthorns nonetheless. The Spaniard has been instrumental in Manchester City’s impressive start to the season, playing a part in the majority of their goals this season.
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Its looks as though we might be able to head into the game on Sunday with no fresh injury concerns. But it’s impossible to overlook the creativity of Ross Barkley in the Everton midfield and Fernando will have to change his mindset from last week to deal with Barkley’s movement and creativity.
