Everton turned up the heat on North West rivals Manchester City with a great performance which saw Everton do the double over them and continue their status of bogey side.
After being injured in the Bolton game Victor Anichebe misses out and is replaced by Osman. Saha comes in for Yakubu.
Manchester City started the game the brighter with Tevez being the main man with everything going through him.
His dominance was highlighted as he skipped through the defence on the end of a pass by Steven Ireland but to Everton`s relief Howard managed to smother the ball at the feet of Tevez fairly despite the howls for a penalty from City fans.
By no means were Everton not in the game. Leon Osman had a left footed effort from outside the area narrowly miss Givens goal after a great piece of control with his right foot.
Micah Richards and Barry got in on the action but their efforts were spurned.
The game was going pretty much all City`s way with wave after attack coming at Everton`s defence and long spells of possession for Manchester City it began to look as if Peter Walton`s half time whistle couldn`t come quickly enough.
Then in a rare burst down the wing Tim Cahill was brought crashing down by a clumsy challenge by Barry.
Mikel Arteta took the resulting free kick from close to the by line. It was cleverly worked back to Leighton Baines who whipped the ball in with pace from the edge of the area and was met by the header from aerial supreme Tim Cahill whose 5 goals this season have all come from his head, highlighting just how good in the air the little Aussie is.
After the goal the match often threatened to turn nasty with some full blooded challenges flying in from all directions, there were a few booking for either side including Given who sprinted the length of the pitch to remonstrate with the officials to get Arteta booked for a challenge on Tevez. There was a lot of that kind of unsporting behaviour with hands being waved for Everton players for to booked.
Everton went into the break 1-0 up.
Predictably City came out hard at the start of the 2nd half however Everton defended well and caught City on the break well with Saha and Osman shooting on Given`s goal.
Tim Cahill then showed his quality with his feet as his delicate right footed chip left Given scrabbling as the ball drifted narrowly wide.
Mancini threw on Santa Cruz in place of highly rated Adam Johnson.
Richards and Wright Phillips both had shots in and around the area both of which didn`t cause Tim Howard any trouble.
He did seem to have enough problems as it was as he was evidently struggling with a back injury after the colliding with a post whilst trying to save a header from Barry.
Jagielka and Distin were therefore given goal kicking duty.
Howard was down for a considerable length of time after falling heavily onto his back whilst trying to claim a cross. However he bravely soldiered on thus keeping sub Nash on the bench and prolongs his wait to break his 5 year wait for Premier League action.
Moyes left heads being scratched when he took of lone striker Saha and replaced by Rodwell
Then Everton took advantage of the counter attack when Rodwell broke down the wing and came inside the defender and played a neat ball across the area which was left by Cahill and it was run onto by Arteta who passed the ball into the net with an accomplished finish that highlights his good run of form of four goals in four games.
There was then a bust up between the two managers when the ball went out of play. Moyes was waiting to make a substitution when Mancini barged into him and tried to wrestle the ball from his hands resulting in a touchline bust up.
As the game went into its latter stages it mainly seemed like each teams were just going through the motions are the City of Manchester Stadium promptly emptied before the 4th official showed there was going to be 4 minutes of extra time to be played.
Player Ratings
Howard
7 fought on when he has injured and made some great saves.
Neville
7 Was relatively solid at right back and wasnt exposed very often
Distin
7 Was surprisingly solid at CB despite having Tevez running at him.
Jagielka
7 Had a bit of a better game but tends to play the ball long when he sound maybe be looking to feed the midfield.
Baines
7 Great cross for the opening goal. Everton seem to have realised that we cant cross so we now take the corners short to great effect.
Osman
6 Seemed to go missing at some points.
Heitinga
8 Great solid performance in the central mid
Arteta
8 Another great performance by Mikel and a well taken goal.
Pienaar
6 Had bells kicked out of him again so couldnt really be his creative self.
Cahill
8 Better, much better a timely goal for him as he looked to really be on the slide.
Saha
4 Literally the worst player on the pitch he did a grand total of bugger all. The Yak should have started over him.
Yobo
Came on for two minutes so cant rate. Applause for the mini afro he was sporting
Rodwell
6 Good little pass across the box
Manager Rating
7 Starting Saha was a mistake but taking him off for Rodwell proved to be a master stroke. Would have liked for him to stand somewhat stronger to Mancini
Opponent Rating
7 Set his team out well and they caused us problems all game. They just caught us on a good day and failed to take their chances.