Pep Guardiola believed that his boys showed Mancunian spirit in snatching a point from Everton despite being a man down for more than half of the game. But he will be left haunted by memories of last season if he looks at the game as another two crucial points dropped at home.
City dominated Ronaldo Koeman’s new look Everton from the start but were faced with a massive stumbling block after Kyle Walker had been harshly sent off, as they were already trailing at this point.
Sterling latched on to a volley late on to equalise and make sure City did have something to show for their efforts.
While Guardiola was pleased with the spirit on display, he was left frustrated with the team failing to capitalise on their dominance.
“Nobody can say we didn’t try,” said the City manager. “But like always we analyse about the result.
“It was good because they fight, but we didn’ twin.
“We never give up and showed the spirit of the Mancunians.”
Guardiola added: “We are here for the results to win games.
“We didn’t win, but we made everything to win.
“I prefer to win the game but we were not able. It was similar to a lot of games last season.
“It’s sad because we want to start good at home, but we were not able. We had a lot of chances again.
“The result was not good enough.
“We create chances before the goal – three or four.
“We tried to find the way to attack them and we did. They arrived once and scored a goal and that can happen.
“In Brighton, they arrived once in one corner, they have a chance and we were out.
“Today they have a chance, so our average is good in the amount of opportunities on target or close to target is good.
“What we can do is try to create chances. Maybe one day we will change.
“Last season we (converted) 16 percent (of chances).
Silva struck the post following an exquisite pass from Sergio Aguero and the Argentine himself had a shot cleared off the line. City need to find their scoring boots sooner rather than later as the games will come thick and fast and sides can punish them for the complacency in front of goal.
City visit Bournemouth next weekend and will hope to pile more misery upon the cherries who have not had the best of the starts to the campaign, losing both their matches so far.
