John Stones has criticised Everton’s supposed ‘time-wasting’ following this afternoon’s 1-1 draw against Manchester City at the Etihad. City piled on the pressure throughout the second half, but saw any momentum broken regularly by a combination of Everton’s game management, a number of injuries and a technical malfunction for one of the assistant referees – forcing referee Andy Madley to add 11 minutes on at the end or normal time. And Stones, who spent seven seasons at Goodison Park before joining City for nearly £50million in 2016, cut a frustrated figure after the final whistle when accusing the Toffees of time-wasting and breaking up play as part of a game plan to curb his side’s momentum.
John Stones said: “I don’t really know what to say. I feel like we’ve lost two points. That’s football. We controlled the game for the majority of the time and had a lot of chances but couldn’t seem to get that goal. It’s difficult to take after the game. We showed great character to keep fighting and pushing. It was a bit of a scrappy game. I’m very pleased with how we played. The result doesn’t reflect that. When the game is so disrupted, a lot of time-wasting, that was part of the plan and we had to deal with that. We did and kept creating chances but it didn’t come off. We have to take the positives. We had to go for it after that and go for as many players high up the pitch as possible. We definitely did that and had some great chances to win the game at the end. At the other end, it gets overshadowed how we defended. We conceded two shots all game but it’s overlooked because of that incredible goal. On reflection we’ll be more positive when we look back I’m sure.”
