"I think we played well compared to other matches" - Akanji defends Manchester City's performance in draw against Everton

Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji has defended his team's performance in their 1-1 draw against Everton on Boxing Day. The reigning Premier League champions managed to secure just a point at home against Sean Dyche's side on Thursday, December 26.

Bernardo Silva scored in the 14th minute to give Pep Guardiola's side a 1-0 lead which was canceled out by Iliman Ndiaye in the 36th minute. With another draw, Manchester City have now won just one of their last 13 games across competitions.

Despite yet another poor result, Manuel Akanji insisted that the Cityzens fared pretty well against Everton in comparison to their recent games. He urged his side to do everything in their powers to secure a win against Leicester City on Sunday, December 29. Akanji said, as quoted by Tribal Football:

"We had plenty of chances to score goals. Their goal came out of nowhere. Second half we had the penalty chance, we created opportunities but the ball didn't want to go in. We played really well. Maybe you see it differently but I think we played well compared to other matches."

"This can't happen that we nearly conceded the counterattack late on. Otherwise we defended well as a team and attacked great as a team. We have to keep going, the next chance is against Leicester," he added.

On Manchester City's title hopes, Akanji insisted that it is not their target at the moment. He said:

"The season is not finished but it's not a target for us at the moment. We need to focus game by game and the next game against Leicester City will not be easy as well now, in the shape we are in."

"We need to focus on the positives. We did a lot of things great. We defended well and we attacked well, but were not able to finish as well as we wanted to or we could have scored three or four goals," the Switzerland international added.

Following their draw against Everton, Manchester City find themselves seventh in the table with 28 points in 18 games. They trail league leaders Liverpool by 11 points having played two more games.

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Pep Guardiola opens up on Manchester City's plans for January transfer window

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has claimed that the Cityzens have already started planning for the winter transfer window. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager has claimed that his players have requested for signings in January.

The Cityzens have gone through an incredible run of poor form this season and have won just one of their last 13 games. Guardiola is missing a number of key players because of injuries, with Rodri being the biggest miss.

Ahead of his side's Boxing Day fixture against Everton, Pep Guardiola said on Amazon Prime:

“If we can, we have to add players in January… definitely! We struggled especially at the back, in the middle. I think even the players asked ourselves… we are going to add some players?! Please!"

Manchester City had a pretty silent summer transfer window last time out having only signed Savinho and Ilkay Gundogan. They made several big sales in the form of Julian Alvarez, Joao Cancelo, Sergio Gomez among others.