Man City 2 Everton 0: Battling display pleases Kompany

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany hailed his side’s patience after second half-goals from Mario Balotelli and James Milner gave Roberto Mancini’s men victory over Everton on Saturday.

Balotelli and Milner, both second-half substitutes, settled the lunchtime encounter to hoist City up to the top of the Premier League table ahead of Manchester United’s trip to Stoke City on Saturday afternoon.

“We have never had an easy game against Everton,” Kompany told Sky Sports. “I thought defensively we looked good today and we’re really happy with the performance. We didn’t let ourselves get surprised. Sometimes it’s just a matter of patience and the goals will come.

“We have played maybe one bad 45 minutes in the whole of the league – against Fulham away. Today we didn’t maybe impress but
we did what we had to do.”

Balotelli made the breakthrough after 67 minutes when his deflected shot from just outside the box flew past goalkeeper Tim Howard after Sergio Aguero had teed up the striker with a back-heel.

And James Milner made the three points secure two minutes from time when he poked home David Silva’s sumptuous through ball after Everton’s Royston Drenthe had sloppily conceded possession.

City boss Mancini admitted his side were made to work hard by a resilient Everton and was thrilled to secure the victory.

“I think when we were 2-0 up at Fulham we finished playing for 15 minutes,” said Mancini. “We thought it was finished. We were also unlucky.

“Everton is a good team. It was really difficult. It was hard to win this game. We had a lot of shots and we were unlucky in the first half. The second half we got better.”

Manchester City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, Nasri (Savic 83), Barry, Toure Yaya, Silva, Dzeko (Balotelli 60), Aguero (Milner 78).

Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Neville (Drenthe 73), Fellaini, Rodwell, Osman, Coleman (Vellios 81), Cahill (Saha 66).