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

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

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

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

Pickford has made big penalty saves for England on the international stage and this was seventh spot-kick 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 joy of the travelling supporters.

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

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

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

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

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

“But for Haaland to miss that penalty speaks a bit about where the confidence is in this team at the moment.”