2 reasons behind Manchester City's emphatic 3-0 win over Everton in the Premier League

Manchester City defeated Everton 3-0 in a Premier League match at the Goodison Park on Sunday, May 14. Ilkay Gundogan once again underlined his class by scoring a brace and Erling Haaland scored the other goal.

With that win, the Cityzens now have 85 points from 35 matches, which is four more than Arsenal's tally. The title is now City's to lose, as Pep Guardiola's side look all set for their fifth league title in six years.

The Cityzens made four changes to the starting XI that started against Real Madrid last Tuesday, with Julian Alvarez, Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez, and Phil Foden all coming in.

On that note, let us take a look at two reasons behind City's win on the day.

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#1 Playing long balls and crosses into the box

Manchester City struggled to break through Everton's defense for the initial half an hour, but things started to change as they began playing long aerial balls into the box. Both of their goals in the first half came from such crosses.

Gundogan's brilliant first touch and decisive back-flick from Riyad Mahrez's cross broke the deadlock. A couple of minutes later, Gundogan turned provider as his cross from the left was headed in by Haaland for his 52nd goal of the season. Haaland managed only a couple of touches on the ball before scoring the goal, as the other City players failed to engage him properly.

Moreover, the Everton back-four defended dourly for the first half an hour. However, as the Manchester City central defenders started playing long balls to stop allowing the Everton defense enough time to regroup, things started happening for the Cityzens.

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#2 Manchester City defense holding firm

Manchester City started playing with a back-four, but Aymeric Laporte started shifting to the midfield while they have possession like John Stones usually does for them. However, the remaining three defenders did their job really well to help City maintain yet another clean sheet.

Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias contained Dominic Calvert-Lewin with their astute marking. On a couple of other occasions, Kyle Walker tracked Calvert-Lewin down with his searing pace to negate the threat.

Gundogan scored yet again in the second half to seal the deal for the Cityzens, but their defense remained water-tight even after that. At this rate, it seems almost impossible for Arsenal to cut down the four-point deficit even if they go on to win their remaining matches.