Silva strikes positive note in face of shortening odds

Everton yesterday lost their fourth Premier League game out of seven played, and the media certainly think the knives are being sharpened for his head. While there is no shame in losing 3-1 to the defending champions Manchester City, it was the previous three against Aston Villa, AFC Bournemouth and Sheffield United that will give you odds of between 5/4 to 13/8 that he will be the next manager to get the sack.

Speaking after the game yesterday though, Marco Silva was defiant that his got better as they grew into the game.

“We didn’t get the most important thing in football, as you know, which is the result, but we got some positives for sure from the game.

”Analysing the game, we didn’t start like we wanted to. They started the game strong, faster with the ball than us, more aggressive than us.

”Until the goal they scored, the first, they were clearly better than us. After that we showed that reaction and desire to challenge them and try and get a different result.

”The reaction was really good and after that the game was more balanced with the possession and the quality they have to break that immediate pressure in some moments.”

Silva acknowledged he made some tactical tweaks at the break aimed at creating more chances, and it worked with Everton finishing up with eight shots on goal, the most mustered against City all season, and more than the Blues have managed in the last three games combined.

“At half-time we changed one or two things, in the way we had to press a little bit more when they came inside our block, and we did that in the second-half the game went more balanced and we had a big chance with Mina in that moment.

“They scored that free-kick but even after that we created two big chances with Dominic Calvert-Lewin to equalise the game.

”Unfortunately the chances we created we didn’t score, they were more clinical than us and they get the result. It is possible we deserved more from this game than we got.”

Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola complimented Everton for their effort in making things difficult for City.

“[We were] absolutely outstanding. At Goodison Park it’s always difficult, first half we started incredible the first 20-25 minutes, we created chances and scored. After that we had a lot of problems to control out left side with Gylfi Sigurdsson, they had one more player there, we had a lot of problems.

“But we created from wide areas in the second half and we had the quality of Riyad Mahrez for the goal.

“Everton have fast players, they caused a lot of problems at the back, so I’m delighted because we want to go for this league and try to win it again.

”In the second half, except set-pieces and conceding free-kicks and long balls we played again good. I had the feeling we had clear chances but not many for the last control, we arrive in positions with Sterling or Mahrez and the control could be better. Ederson made two incredible saves at 2-1.”