If Erling Haaland's admission of guilt after Manchester City's recent defeat to Aston Villa was an attempt to get himself into better shape, it hasn't worked. His and his team's struggles continue in a haze of aimless, aimless football.
Here Haaland's standout mistake made the news: a missed penalty early in the second half. Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford saved but the penalty was desperately weak and when Haaland headed in during the ensuing burst he was a meter offside.
The Norwegian great now has one Premier League goal to his name since November 9, while City's disastrous run now stands at one win in all competitions from thirteen games. Of the 18 league games Pep Guardiola's defending champions have played this season, they have won only eight.
Here, against an increasingly ambitious Everton, City were surprisingly directionless. They started both halves of the game well and after a quarter of an hour they took the lead thanks to Bernardo Silva.
But it seems that Guardiola's team lacks leadership both on and off the field and when the rhythm abandons them in a match they have no idea how to try to recover it. City look physically exhausted and mentally exhausted.
Ghost footballers lost in the fog of Boxing Day and the more it goes on, the more we wonder if Guardiola will wake up one morning and realize it's time to let someone else try.
Erling Haaland missed a penalty and Manchester City lost even more points at the Etihad
Jordan Pickford saved but the out-of-form striker's effort was desperately weak.
Pep Guardiola's men continued their miserable run as they were dominated by Everton.
Everton were a decent opponent here, but nothing more than that. A City team playing at 75 per cent would have beaten them, but this version is nowhere near that and that particular percentage is only heading south.
Once Everton's young prospect Iliman Ndiaye equalized towards the end of the first half, Sean Dyche's team were as likely to win this match as they were to lose it. City didn't really threaten again after Haaland's miss and Everton could have done it in the end when they managed to squander a four-on-two counterattack with just a minute of added time left.
The city is not in shape, shape or fun, but it had a lot of energy and purpose from the beginning. Everton were the team that seemed a little slow as they were locked in and under pressure.
The difference from City's point of view was the speed with which they could move the ball. With Jeremy Doku and young Brazilian Savinho eager to push forward from wide positions and Haaland living off the shoulder of Jarrod Branthwaite, Guardiola's side were as threatening as they had been for some time. It's true that they were working with a pretty low bar.
City almost took the lead in just the third minute when they won a corner from the left side and substitute central defender Josko Gvardiol rose unopposed to head against the near post when he would have expected to score.
That moment served to cheer up the local fans a little and, as a comeback, City took advantage of it. Savinho beat two defenders to cut in from the right and save Pickford with a low left-footed shot at the near post. Then, in the fifteenth minute, City scored.
It was a fairly simple move as Doku held the ball and his position on the left and waited for Silva to run over Branthwaite's shoulder. When he did, he looked a little wide to shoot with any kind of hope, but when he did, Branthwaite couldn't completely block it and the ball spread strangely and slowly across the goal and into the far corner.
Branthwaite should have done better and Pickford perhaps could have done better too. But the city didn't care. It was only Silva's second goal since August and it was overdue. The city celebrated with all the enthusiasm you would have expected.
Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford denied Haaland to keep the score level in Manchester
Everton's Iliman Ndiaye had equalized with a brilliant finish shortly before half-time.
Ndiaye found the top corner after a ball from the right broke through the City defence.
Pickford was able to comfortably deny Haaland's tame penalty and keep the score level.
Everton had not enjoyed a single attacking foray at this point and there was no initial reaction. Haaland bullied Branthwaite as he had done before in the 27th minute, only to be forced to deflect Pickford's run from goal.
Then, in the 34th minute, a long ball to the Norwegian was worked by Phil Foden. If Silva's first shot with the outside of his left foot had been placed one foot to the left, City would have been two goals up. But he swerved and left us wondering why he hadn't touched it first or used the other foot.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of that decision, City regretted it soon afterwards when Everton broke through to level the match. All Dyche's team had managed up to that point was a half-volley from Idrissa Gueye that had been easily saved by Stefan Ortega in the City goal.
But when Manuel Akanji missed Abdoulaye Doucoure's cross in the 37th minute, the ball found its way to Ndiaye, who controlled it with a touch and half-volleyed it beautifully back past Ortega and into the top corner.
The beauty of the goal was in its timing. Ndiaye lost his balance with his weight shifting backwards, but still managed to find the power to beat the goalkeeper. It was a fabulous effort from a really talented young player.
City's confidence is fragile at the moment and this is the sort of thing that happens when that is the case. It was a credit to them, then, that they started the second half strongly as Gvardiol hit the foot of the post with another header before Pickford saved low with Savinho's foot and Mateo Kovacic drilled in the rebound.
Savinho was a threat with his directness and in the 52nd minute it paid off. Vitaliy Mykolenko's challenge was reckless and high as his opponent lunged at him in the penalty area. Referee Simon Hooper awarded the penalty, but only he will know why he did not show the Everton defender a second yellow card and send him off.
Haaland's penalty was too close to Pickford and the fact that he was offside when he headed in the rebound probably summed up his current problems. What's more, Foden was behind him in a lateral position and if Haaland had left the ball, his teammate would probably have scored.
Bernardo Silva had given City a perfect start to the game when he scored at the near post.
Silva was congratulated by his teammates after breaking the tie on Thursday
From then on it was all a bit of a huff and puff from City. Before the penalty there was intense football, like at the beginning of the first half. But once again it didn't last long. There didn't seem to be anyone in the home shirt capable of really dominating the game. With just under a quarter of an hour remaining, Guardiola brought on Kevin de Bruyne and that seemed almost like the last throw of the dice given the lack of quality and experience on the home bench.
The best chance of the period after Haaland's missed penalty had fallen to Everton when Doucoure volleyed a Jack Harrison cross into the near corner of the goal, only for Rico Lewis to block it. And so it more or less went for Everton as they closed in on another valuable point. Stay in the game and try to break away from the purpose when possible.
They almost found a way through with seven minutes remaining when Nathan Ake, battling an injury, was unable to prevent a ball from returning into the path of Orel Mangala 22 yards out. When the first shot came, it hit Akanji and, frankly, could have gone anywhere. He missed the pole by about a foot.
City were given six added minutes to turn one point into three. It seemed like a lot. Lewis could have been the hero almost immediately, but he had a decent chance over the bar from inside the penalty area. Then Everton broke well but could not make the overload count. From there, the game was over and its last significant act included Foden, last season's double player of the year, being booked for a shirt pull to prevent an Everton breakaway. It seemed appropriate.