Koeman hails Blues' resilience following battling draw

To in any way denigrate the achievement of the team today by saying we were lucky or whatever is out of order. Enough of them applied themselves in full to earn the point.

I'm more than happy to leave it to Koeman to sort out any player he deemed could have done more. I ain't clever enough to do that, so well done lads, keep developing, and we WILL win something for the record books.

Stekelenburg was outstanding and I'm keen to know who the last goalkeeper was who went to either Man City ground and saved two penalties in a game.

We fought well today and every player rose to the challenge. Some stupid tackles by the captain to gift the penalties but I'll praise Lukaku for a world class goal. Well done, work in progress, and I'm right behind this manager.

According to the Echo "Maarten Stekelenburg made history in Everton's 1-1 draw at Manchester City by becoming the first Blues keeper to save two penalties in a match in 95 years. The Dutch international saved from Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero either side of half time as Ronald Koeman's side ended City's 100% home record this season. It is a feat that had not been achieved by an Everton keeper since Tommy Fern saved two penalties in Everton's 2-1 win at Sunderland on Boxing Day 1921."

I don't know how often two penalties have been saved down the years but apparently:

"Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes set a new Premier League record by becoming the first person to save two penalties in two different games. The 35-year-old saved two spot-kicks from Saido Berahino in Watford's 1-0 victory over West Brom, while in April 2010, the Brazilian stopped two penalties from Darren Bent in Tottenham's 3-1 defeat to Sunderland."

What a strange comment to make?

If we had won the game, I would have said it was very much deserved. There won't be many teams going to City and coming away with a goalkeeper performance as good as that.

Lukaku's goal on it's own was worthy of the three points. I'm afraid you're stuck in last season mode!

With the exception of two tackles, sensible decisions were made all day in high pressure situations.

Koeman got his tactics spot on.

Someone on the coaching staff needs to explain the offside rule to Deulofeu

But I am a answering my own question – he saved one from Carbonne and then he hits it over the crossbar for the second so technically not two penalties saves. Then Hibbert failed to clear and Watson got tied up with Carbonne, giving away a penalty that Robbie Blake steps up to take... which Paul Gerrad saves BRILLIANTLY!!!!

Alexandersson became a hero too as he put Everton in front with a great shot after 70 mins.

Then unbelievably, just 60 seconds later, a second penalty is awarded to Bradford – this time for handball! Carbonne steps up to take it this time... and fires it OVER THE BAR!!!

I would guess that, by the time Ron has finished acquiring the players he wants who will be comfortable playing his style of football, no more than 5 of the starting team today would stand a chance of being in it and he has done a remarkable job in a short space of time to get the defence solid.

Next step is to sort the midfield as we have too many players there who either aren't good enough for the very top or are way too inconsistent and must therefore be moved on.

Stekelenburg and my namesake were outstanding today – and our grit and team spirit managed to make up for a number of ineffective performers.

Many on the live forum were critical of how we played but Ron cannot turn this around overnight – he needs a couple of seasons and his job is to be difficult to beat first and add the finesse and pretty stuff later and he appears to have achieved the first bit now.

"...be difficult to beat first and add the finesse and the pretty stuff later..."

Sounds like an extract from the David Moyes manual. To be fair to the man, he did exactly that and got us into the Champions League.

I think we will learn from this and moving forward it should give confidence. I feel for Ross and I'm worried for him. I want him in our team but I'm not sure Koeman does. A great result, let's do Burnley.

I think City got some cheap penalties. City should have had a yellow card or two for diving.

Anyway, very good fighting spirit today.

I agree totally, a well deserved point. Not many teams are going to get anything from that ground. City played well and will blow away most other teams when they're on that form.

I would have taken being only 4 points off the top after only being managed by Koeman for 8 matches at the start of the season all day long. Well done, Blues.

We were right under the cosh second half but I could not help but notice how poor Deulofeu was. He was shocking. His lack of commitment and determination in his defensive game deservedly got him the hook in the 2nd half. He is a fraud and he does not kid anyone with his defending shadows and space. He did not win a tackle all day.

Infuriating, but his highlights reel shows what he can do.

It was like the Alamo for most of the match against a team without Aguero and that had lost to Spurs and drew with a Championship team in Celtic. Unfortunately I don't share the same optimism as most of the posters on here.

Don't forget, they missed two penalties and a wonder save stopped it being four. Let's see how the teams we are competing with for the top places get on when they play them!

Graeme Sharp had a succession of top class forwards to help him; Adrian Heath, Andy Gray and Gary Lineker. If Lukaku had a high quality partner up front he and we would create and score even more goals.

Tom (#21), I agree Deulofeu was very poor. While he was on the pitch it looked like we were playing with ten men. How he can be preferred to Mirallas or Lennon is beyond explanation.

I have to say Yes; we defended for most if not all the game. I cannot see a time when Koeman puts up with a player who cannot do both unless they offer something outrageously good in return; this puts Ross closer to the door in my mind.

As his attacking output has dried up, his inability to defend becomes a burden, to the extent Cleverley and McCarthy might well have edged in front of him in the pecking order – certainly for games against big sides, and possibly for the foreseeable future.

Can Ross get his act together?

Those tactics required huge concentration and we deserved our point. Williams was fantastic. Koeman's hooking of Deulofeu, pushing Bolasie up the middle, made a big difference and shows once again talented management. The one real disappointment for me this season has been Deulofeu; I expected so much more as I really rate him.

What a fantastic effort from the boys. Whatever luck we had was well deserved... as they say, "you make your own luck".

Sheedy was a bit like that... albeit way above Ross in ability. I recall Howard Kendall saying to Reid and Bracewell "Just win the ball and give it to him – he will do the rest" – but I don't recall Ross ever doing that either. His best moments are when he gets space so he can run at defences but teams know this and so close him down and without that space he becomes a bit redundant.

A ToffeeWebber – can't recall his name – suggested a while ago that he be tried as a striker and I can understand that as he can hold and shield the ball, has a good shot, and would lay the ball off, rather than look for through balls to play high, which he tends to delay and they are generally cut out.

I like him and find it painful to see him struggle but this to me is Ron's biggest challenge – can he sort out what could be a huge talent before he peters out completely???

As for Deulofeu, I can't see him surviving long with Ron – again, he has huge talent but his application, work rate and pure guts are all sadly lacking which no doubt explains his failure to impress in Spain. Is there potential for him to develop these aspects of his game? He would be a smashing player if he could... but he's leaving it rather late!

Come on Ross, at least put that shift in to keep goal-side of an attacking player, to keep jockeying. And we've seen you put in a few tackles this season – brace yourself and build the confidence to tackle more often. I wonder if there could be some sort of aversion therapy re his fear of tackling, if fear is the factor.

I am sure the biggest headache for Koeman is the lack of goals apart from Lukaku. The rest of the forwards (Mirallas, Barkley, Deulofeu, Lennon, Valencia) just lack goals and at some point we have to find an alternative for when Lukaku doesn't score. I didn't mention Bolaise as when Koeman signed him, he said that he would have to greatly improve his goalscoring record. Before joining, he had only scored 9 goals in 3 seasons.

The only other forward is Kone but, apart from coming on as sub against Yeovil and scoring twice, he hasn't been involved. And obviously Koeman has already told Niasse that he has no future here. Again, in midfield there is a distinct lack of goals as Gana, Barry, Cleverley and McCarthy contribute very little to the goal tally.

But I am sure that Koeman will rectify these problems over time; he has started well by making our defence look really solid. Even though Man City dominated possession, Everton did really well in restricting them to only a couple of half-chances during the game.

I'm wondering if he was about to give another penalty to City if they hadn't've scored! It looks like Barry has his arms over the shoulders of an advancing City player?

There is no in-between here. Very ropey ground. And if to enhance the point, Barry should have been booked for it too.

Well done, boys.

Allegedly, Don Donavon, the Everton captain, was complaining that the referee should bring a white ball because the daylight was getting dimmer. Davie said to his captain, "It's not a white ball he needs, it's a white stick." Davie was immediately sent off.

Still only 21? We seem to be critical of players yet they had Sterling who wasn't any better. We also had a decent spell in the second half that shows what our potential is. Against the lesser teams like Liverpool and Arsenal we will hold our own.

Although Lennon chipped in with 5 goals last season, he is not generally a goalscorer. He got 26 goals in 267 games for Spurs.

I remember being at the Etihad a few years ago when we had no forwards and Tim Cahill played up front on his own – what a pain he was that day. Check out his latest goal if you haven't seen it yet!

The Spanish kid has time to change, although I don't think he will ever become more robust than he is.

Mirallis seems to be set in his ways.

And then we have Bolasie who seems to be a mix of all three of them.

We've still got a long way to go but all the signs are there. Koeman is a top class manager who knows the game inside-out, has been there, done that and has the T-shirt to prove it. At last, we can start looking forward with definite confidence rather than just clinging to hope.

The future's bright, the future's Blue (led by a man in orange).

As if that's not bad enough, he now has you-knno-who in charge of his national team. I suspect therefore that he's lost a lot of heart and, while I have little sympathy given his massive salary, I hope Koeman can re-program into a consistently useful goalscoring striker.

In the results-driven business that is the Premier League, I would obviously expect the end result to at least equal that which was achieved! Any takers?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so all I could suggest is that McCarthy should have started instead of Deulofeu. Our midfield was finding it tough before he came on to help.

Well done to the manager, well done to the team for a thoroughly outstanding performance – and of course a BIG BIG well done to Maarten Stekelenburg in goal who was simply awesome! The love affair with Everton is now back on!!!!!!!!

Of course we would need some luck with regard to keeping key players fit but I'm certainly optimistic that the foundation is in place.

I also cannot stand the way he throws his arms in the air appealing decisions. Track back and win the ball back.

"Any of you care to enlighten me (and maybe educate Koeman in the unlikely event he reads TW) what your selection, formation, tactics etc would have been? In the results-driven business that is the Premier League, I would obviously expect the end result to at least equal that which was achieved! Any takers?"

My team would have been Stekelenburg, Coleman, Jagielka, Williams, Michael Caine (making his much overdue comeback in the role of John Colby from Escape To Victory), Barry, Gueye, Koeman (R), Barkley, Lennon, Lukaku.

Tactics would have been 'make it up as you go along' and 'remember to stick tight to that bastard who was given loads of room to score their goal in the real world' and we would have defo won 2-1. Guaranteed, without a shadow of a doubt.

However, Jagielka would have clumsily conceded a third penalty that Stek would have stopped dead in mid air by merely lifting his hand, like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, so the ball just hovered there, possibly rotating for a little while, before plopping straight down onto the pitch. "EEES MISSED IT! MAN CITY 'AVE MISSED FROM THE SPOT!! AGAIN!!!!", Carragher would have excitedly screeched before belatedly mumbling something about 'dat bloke in de goal' maybe having had an itty bitty part to play in things. Maybe.

Wasn't he a Blue?

Best pundit out there by a mile in my opinion.

Great touch by Bolasie to send Rom away and how many players over the last 10/20 years could do what Lukaku does like that quite well, yet many on here want rid of him.

Anyway, my real issue here is with Deulofeu. We all want him to do so well as the lad has so much talent but you can tell a lot by his body language. The lad is 22 now and is captain of the Spanish U21 team which you would imagine means he shows leadership, commitment and a while to win.

I'm sorry, folks, but if you watch him off the ball or when he loses it, his attitude stinks. I saw on Saturday he often throws his arms up or shrugs when he loses the ball or points to someone else to tackle back for him. He rarely does the simple pass or go for a one-two, which with his pace he should be using so much more. I know it sounds too simple but surely a quick pass to Rom to feet and run in behind could bring the lad a lot more chances to score.

His workrate for a fit young talented player is atrocious and I think Koeman has really tried to be patient with him and fit him in. Now I can see why he was targeting more wide players in the transfer window.

Like many have said here, I cannot understand why he hasn't given Lennon more of a chance as he will work much harder than Deulofeu or Mirallas and get good balls into Rom.

Deulofeu looked so pissed off when subbed on Saturday, as if to say why me again? That was his big chance to perform but, besides the one great shot that he hit, did he do anything else all game?

If I was not getting many matches, week-in, week-out, and then I got a start, I'd bust my ass to at least work hard and cut out the childish attitude. You can see now why he didn't do so well on loan in Spain and it is going to take a huge attitude change from him if he wants to succeed.

On another note, Bolasie has got 3 assists now and it should be more considering some of the misses we have had like Barkley's header a few weeks back.

Premier League Assists

We should now be a very confident bunch and in many ways a very hard game was what we needed. Spurs was too early and we have not played anyone near the calibre of Man City.

We should be able to claim 6/6 points in the next two games, not unrealistic. One slight doubt is our ability to break sides down. We will have the ball on Saturday – can we score with it?

COYB