Bookmakers and Pep lose confidence after 4-0 defeat by Everton

This is a guest post by Maxime Lebail.

This past weekend City fell foul of their 5th Premier League defeat of the current season, losing 4-0 to an overtly energised Everton side. Stats wise Manchester City have shown over 50% possession per match (the only Premiership side this season to achieve this) but have conceded a goal from their opponents first attack in 4 out of the last 7 games they’ve played.

Bookmakers cut odds on Man City title, betting forecasters say top 5 finish still possible

The defeat saw some bookmakers lose confidence in this current Man City side, with Ladbrokes and William Hill both giving them 17/14 to win against Spurs in their next match this coming Saturday. The bookies have them as 5th favourites to win the Premiership, though Chelsea and Liverpool will surely have something to say about that. They still have some fans however, with top sports betting forecasters like http://www.parieraucanada.ca/ and others still giving City a chance for Top 5 finish overall, which in all fairness they still have a good shot of maintaining being only 2 points behind Arsenal who are currently fourth.

City manager Pep Guardiola also had his confidence shaken a little and with Chelsea also winning at the weekend who can blame him, 10 points is a lot of points after all. Against Everton though Man City started the match out confidently but soon enough some familiar patterns started to emerge. Unable to finish any of their own chances, they then had their defence broken apart every time Everton went on the offensive. While Pep refused to blame anyone for the defeat, he has told the lads to “forget about the Premier League title this season”.

Top pundits also slated the City defence and cited John Stones lack of performance as becoming a recurring problem after his mistake led to Ademola Lookmans goal. Yaya Toure and Gael Clichy also came under fire after both losing balls that eventually led to goals.

Guardiola tells players to focus on next game after telling team to forget Premiership title

Pep has told the players that they need to “Focus on the next game and try to do our best to win and after that at the end of the season we our going to evaluate how our level and performance was, how was the coach, how were the players and after we are going to decide.”

They’ll have a tough match against Spurs, currently second in the table and only 3 points ahead of City. Having just hammered West Brom 4-0 this past weekend, Tottenham will be looking to do the same to City should the opportunity arise. Let’s hope Pep gets the team settled this week and playing the kind of explosive football we know Man City are really capable of.