Man City 1-1 Everton: Erling Haaland penalty miss sums up run

After Toffees striker Iliman Ndiaye had canceled out Bernardo Silva’s opener, the decisive moment came in the second half when Vitalii Mykolenko tripped Savinho in the box.

During the VAR check, it was a battle of wits with Everton captain Seamus Coleman receiving a yellow card for trying to trip Haaland, who had the ball in hand.

The booking ultimately appeared to be a well-deserved one for the team and Pickford appeared to revel in his big moment, bouncing up and down his line, sticking his tongue out before bending low to the right to push the ball away.

Pickford has made big penalty saves for England on the international stage and this was his seventh spot-stop since joining Everton in 2017.

Such is City’s luck at the moment that they managed to recycle the ball and Haaland headed in but it was ruled out for offside, much to the delight of the traveling supporters.

Haaland had scored 15 of his 16 previous penalties in the league, with the second hitting the woodwork, while this was the first he had seen saved.

“It’s good from the analysts to give him as much benefit from as many penalties as they can,” Dyche said of Pickford’s save. “Credit to him for making the right decision at the moment.”

Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “Pickford is good at putting pressure on the strikers. Haaland must have felt the pressure there, this place went quiet.

“It was a decent save but a really bad penalty. He didn’t whip it around like a left-footer should. A bad penalty but a good save.”

Former England defender Matt Upson added on Amazon Prime: “It was a brilliant save from Pickford. He relishes situations like this. He doesn’t make life easy for the penalty taker.

“But Haaland missing that penalty speaks a little about where the confidence is in this team at the moment.”