Manchester City miraculously survives Everton's trap in the Premier League

Everton dealt a painful blow to its guest Manchester City with a thrilling 3-3 draw in the 35th round of the English Premier League, on Monday evening, in a clash that carried major repercussions on the title race and hopes of European qualification.

City squandered the opportunity to reduce the gap with Arsenal, who are at the top of the table, and their score is 71 points in second place, 5 points behind Arsenal.

However, if City manage to secure the points of their postponed match against Crystal Palace, the gap with the Gunners will be reduced to two points with three rounds to go.

On the other hand, David Moyes' side increased their tally to 48 points in tenth place, to equal Chelsea in ninth, and miss a precious opportunity to advance in the race for European seats after being three goals to two until the last moments.

Manchester City entered the match as the favourites to win, based on a strong run of results and an unbeaten record against Everton in recent years, as they sought to tighten the noose on leaders Arsenal.

Everton, on the other hand, went into the game under the pressure of needing to make amends after two painful losses, with a clear ambition to move closer to European qualification.

Jeremy Doku opened the scoring for City just before half-time (min. 43) with a superb strike, after constant pressure from Pep Guardiola's side, who looked to be the most dominant side in the first half.

But the game was turned upside down in the second half, as Therno Barry took advantage of a defensive error from Juihi to level the score in the 68th minute.

Jake O'Brien then added the second goal with a header after a corner kick (73'), amid protests from City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Everton continued to press and Barry added a third goal (min. 81), taking advantage of a new defensive confusion, which put the hosts in a relatively comfortable position before the final minutes.

Erling Haaland quickly reduced the deficit as he scored the second goal (83') following a pass from Mateo Kovacic.

The final minutes witnessed great tension, with several warnings and substitutions from both sides, at a time when City tried to press with all its might, until they succeeded in adjusting the result 3-3 through Doku again in the 90+7th minute.

Manchester City doubts Everton's goal

The match witnessed  a refereeing situation that raised many questions among sports fans about the validity of the goal scored by the Frenchman Thernaud Barry in the net of goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 68th minute of the second half.

Syrian refereeing  expert Jamal Al-Sharif revealed his opinion on the validity of Barry's first equalizer, saying: "Merlin Roll gave a through pass to his teammate Therno Barry, who is in an offside position, because he was ahead of the last second defender, Mark Gehey."

"Therno Barry was offside, but he didn't engage in active and effective play, because he didn't intervene with his opponent Marc Gueye to prevent him from playing the ball or affect his ability to play the ball, or he also didn't have a clear attempt to play the ball that wasn't close to him at all, and then the ball went comfortably to the Manchester City defender, who played the ball deliberately because he was in control of the ball and could pass it to his goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, but his pass It was not accurate and it was unsuccessful."

Al-Sharif concluded: "The assistant referee was in a hurry to raise his flag that there was an offside case on the Everton player, but an understanding was reached with the main referee, and the decision was fixed, and the goal scored by Therno Barry in the 68th minute of the second half was fixed, and therefore the final decision to count the first equalizer in favor of the Everton team against Manchester City was correct."

Premier League standings table

With this result, Manchester City raised its score to 71 points, leaving them in second place behind leaders Arsenal with 76 points, with a game less for the Citizens, while Everton came in 10th place with 48 points.

Premier League standings table after Manchester City's stumble against Everton and the end of the 35th round

The Premier League standings table is as follows:

1- Arsenal 76 points.

2- Manchester City 71 points.

3- Manchester United 64 points.

4- Liverpool 58 points.

5- Aston Villa 58 points.

6- Bournemouth 52 points.

7- Brentford 51 points.

8- Brighton 50 points.

9. Chelsea 48 points.

10. Everton 48 points.

11. Fulham 48 points.

12. Sunderland 47 points.

13- Newcastle United 45 points.

14- Leeds United 43 points.

15- Crystal Palace 43 points.

16. Nottingham Forest 42 points.

17. Tottenham 37 points.

18. West Ham 36 points.

19. Burnley 20 points.

20. Wolverhampton 18 points.