Iliman Ndiaye Manchester City claim made after what he did for Everton

Iliman Ndiaye would get into the Manchester City team in favour of their array of stars after his performance for Everton, according to Paul Robinson.

Robinson, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live as quoted by the BBC live text [26 December], has argued neither Jeremy Doku nor Savinho would get ahead of Ndiaye if he were an option in Pep Guardiola's squad.

Ndiaye equalised late in the first half with an outstanding finish to cancel out Bernardo Silva's opener, before Jordan Pickford denied Erling Haaland from the penalty spot after the break to preserve a credible 1-1 draw.

"Everton have a player in Iliman Ndiaye who would get in the Manchester City team, he is that good," Robinson proclaimed.

"Today, he would get in over Savinho and Jeremy Doku."

Everton went to Man City confident of a result

Everton approached the Etihad against the out-of-sorts champions off the back of two hard-fought goalless draws against title challengers Arsenal and Chelsea.

With the fixtures getting only marginally smoother on paper with the in-form Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth coming next, the Toffees have raised their level of confidence to what we saw at the back end of last season.

This has played a huge part in convincing The Friedkin Group that Sean Dyche is at least the man to steer the ship towards that much-needed stability and Premier League status in the coming months.

Based on recent weeks, Everton have very little to worry about in that regard. Players like Ndiaye have had a point to prove in the top flight and done it excellently - the quality he possesses was fully on offer.

There were several other excellent individual displays which will have pleased Dyche, and the Blues could easily have stolen all three points late on but for their denial from a 4v2 break forward.

Everton must now navigate the January window unscathed and move forward as the unit that can stop even the very best of opponents.

In other Everton news, the Toffees could make another signing from Lyon this winter.

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