Manchester City did precisely what Pep Guardiola warned they should not: drop more points in the attempt to overhaul Arsenal and retain the title. The champions could be classed as dominant but just not ruthless enough against an Everton whose possession percentage never rose above 30 but whose feistiness made this a bad-tempered – and productive affair for them. Erling Haaland’s 21st Premier League strike opened proceedings and equalled the best from a City man since 2015-16 when Sergio Agüero registered 24. The hosts, though, never killed off their opponent and so on one of their rare raids Demarai Gray’s sublime long-range goal secured a draw. Afterwards the Catalan had a moan about officiating while trying to claim he was not having a moan. He pointed to how Rico Lewis was booked in the midweek win at Leeds while Jack Grealish had not drawn the same after being fouled, positing this when asked about Haaland’s yellow card for scything down Vitaliy Mykolenko. “It’s the Premier League, not a problem for me,” Guardiola said. “It is a strategy for the opponent and if the referee does not do anything, I cannot intervene. If we are going to talk about Haaland – yeah, yellow card, definitely. [But] I know what happened with Leeds, first yellow card for an 18-year-old boy when before it was Jack Grealish three, four times down and nothing happened.” Now came the withdrawal. “How many years have I been here, I complain about the referees?” Guardiola said. “I don’t have a relationship with the referees, I don’t want to do the meeting [with them] – I send my assistant. I don’t want to be there. We are Manchester City, we have to do our best – it is yellow card for Erling: I said to him [at half-time], ‘Be careful, we cannot play 10 against 11’ . But he was a bit angry for the first action on his ankle.”’ This came 40 seconds in when the No 9 went down with Ben Godfrey in close attendance before, a little later, Haaland’s 21st strike of a phenomenal season arrived: Grealish floated across Everton’s D and rolled the ball to Riyad Mahrez. A classic body-swerve removed Mykolenko and the Algerian tapped to the centre-forward whose hooked finish might have been cleared by Conor Coady if Jordan Pickford had not pushed the ball away from him and in. Kevin De Bruyne was having an afternoon in which he sought his silkiest form while still being a menace. A medley of misplaced passes caused enough frustration for him to take out Amadou Onana in a half that featured four other bookings – Bernardo Silva, Haaland, Nathan Patterson and James Tarkowski. The visitors’ gameplan was to try to knock City about and snatch a goal. Given how seasoned Guardiola’s unit is this seemed a touch desperate from Frank Lampard and showed up a lack of tactical invention, though it would yield the desired dividend. Following a delay of around six minutes to fix an assistant referee’s headset, Grealish and Alex Iwobi clashed and the England man could be heard yelping. While no sixth yellow card was waved, it did appear when, later, Onana took out Rodri. The Spaniard was chief culprit for Everton’s unlikely equaliser, ceding the ball to Idrissa Gueye who passed to Gray. After a run – and slip – down the left he unloaded a rocket beyond Ederson. As the home crowd raised the volume De Bruyne, Mahrez and Grealish all unloaded in a packed area but Pickford made at least one match-saving stop. At last Phil Foden, Ilkay Gündogan and Julian Álvarez were thrown on by Guardiola but despite 11 added minutes this was too late, Rodri missing a golden chance to head the winner. “You have to ride your luck a little here,” said Lampard, who after Boxing Day’s loss to Wolves needed this result. City, meanwhile, go into 2023 seven points behind leaders Arsenal and facing a battle to retain their title.