DAVID PLATT urged City fans to trust Roberto Mancini to make the right decisions and keep the champions on course to retain their title.
The Italian has made some inspired substitutions and tactical changes during his three years at the Etihad.
Yet when he opted to replace Carlos Tevez with Sergio Aguero midway through the second half it was greeted with boos by sections of the home crowd.
Mancini even had an angry exchange with supporters sat near his dug-out who felt an out-of-sorts Edin Dzeko should have been replaced.
But his coach believes frustrations boiled over because City were not winning — and that is a sign of just how far the club have progressed.
Platt said: “I don’t think it is new in football. People pay their money to watch a match and everybody has opinions.
“Certainly there’s expectancy levels now from ourselves and the supporters. And that is healthy because that level wouldn’t be there if we didn’t win trophies.”
As for Tevez being hauled off with 22 minutes remaining, Platt added: “It is not quite as simple as one for one sometimes.
“When you are making subs, you’ve got to look at everything as a whole.
“Everton are an aerial threat at set-pieces so we are sat there thinking ‘we want to get Sergio on but what do we do? Leave one striker on, do we take a striker off, do we play with three strikers.”
City have made a habit of struggling against Everton and Mancini has taken just four points from a possible 21 against them since taking over.
They were also the last team to win at the Etihad in the league — two years and 37 matches ago. So perhaps the fact they got a point here should be seen as a sign of City’s progress.
Next Sunday’s Manchester derby against United almost looks easy to City fans compared with a match against the Toffees.
Yet according to Everton defender Phil Jagielka, it is already a two-horse race for the title even though the season is only 15 games old.
The England defender had an outstanding afternoon and said: “The way results have gone this weekend, you would say it is going to be between the two Manchester clubs.
“It is a tough one. We played Manchester United at the start of the season and they struggled because they didn’t have any defenders.
“But City have got a wealth of talent. If they can get through these coming months and are still in touch or at the top of the league then they are going to be a pretty hard team to beat.”
United will make the short trip across town with a three point lead over City — who in turn are seven clear of the chasing pack.
Amazing when you consider neither club have yet to hit the heights of previous seasons.
City are unbeaten, just as they were at this stage last season, yet the goals and wins are not coming quite so readily.
Platt, 46, said: “A lot of comparisons have been made with our form last season. But the amount of goals we were scoring last season was alien.
“I don’t think anyone was going to hit those heights on such a consistent basis.
“We’re unbeaten after 15 games — but last season we lost our 15th game at Chelsea. In many ways, we haven’t hit top gear yet but we have been solid.”
City made a weary start to this game — as they have on plenty of occasions in matches this season — and it took a goal from the Toffees to spark them into life. Leighton Baines’ cross produced a bullet header from Marouane Fellaini, which was quite brilliantly saved by Joe Hart — however the big Belgian bundled in the rebound.
City pulled level just before the break when they were awarded a soft penalty as Fellaini tugged Dzeko’s shirt and Tevez scored from the spot-kick.
The champions were far better after the restart, Maicon went as close as anyone with a drive.
But Everton could have nicked it as Nikica Jelavic’s last-gasp free-kick was awkward for Hart but the keeper just managed to turn it around the post.
David Moyes believes his team have shown they are a match for anyone in the country over the last week with draws against Arsenal and now City.
The Everton boss said: ''I think the game against Arsenal, as much as this one against City, shows we can have a go.
“Whether we will ever have enough to be right amongst those teams when it comes to it... I don’t know. “But we’re not a million miles off them on a Saturday, we can be quite close to them.”
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Source: TheSun
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