Jordan Pickford is Everton's hero as they hold Manchester City

To be fair, it is sometimes hard to know whether or not Jordan Pickford is deliberately pulling a funny face. The England keeper is permanently animated. But his pre-penalty antics in Everton’s draw at the Etihad had their roots in old-school gamesmanship.

Sticking a tongue out at your spot-kick adversary is hardly sophisticated mind games but, then again, nothing too cerebral is needed to distract Erling Haaland nowadays. And in truth, had Pickford been wearing a cap, he could have thrown it on Haaland’s lamentable effort from 12 yards.

Had Pickford gone the wrong way, Haaland’s penalty might just about have made it to the back of the net. The Norwegian’s tame penalty was the perfect emblem of the malaise that has taken hold of the Premier League in the past two months. But it was a moment that Pickford could rightly savour.

That is two in a row he has saved and he has now conceded only seven goals in his last 11 Premier League appearances. The seventh of those - one that earned City a point - was an early Bernardo Silva effort that took, from the home team’s point of view, a very fortunate deflection.

Penalty save aside, Pickford did not have a significant amount of serious work to do, such is City’s staggering dearth of confidence, but what he had to do, he did well, and his distribution was fairly exemplary.

In a strictly mediocre game, Pickford had a touch of quality. Clearly, the headline theme from this contest was City’s continuing charge into ordinariness. Fair enough. But Everton, in recent matches, have taken points from Chelsea, Arsenal and City.

They are not the prettiest side to watch but Sean Dyche has at least restored the difficult-to-beat element, even if attacking ingenuity is at a premium.

In the long term, Dyche’s pragmatism might not be enough to convince the new owners, The Friedkin Group, that he is the right man for what Everton fans hope is a brave new era.

And don’t forget, while this is a valuable point, it was only against a City side that is there for the taking week in, week out. And they probably should have stolen a win when presented with a late four-on-two counter-attacking opportunity.

But Abdoulaye Doucoure and Jack Harrison did not show the sort of clear thinking that characterised Pickford’s performance. And while Dyche might not be to the new owners’ liking, Pickford certainly will be.

He might be 30 years of age but Pickford is actually improving. Despite the funny faces, he is maturing.

If Pep Guardiola does hang around to see City through this trough and decides to get a new keeper in the summer, he could do worse than try and prise Pickford out of Everton. Haaland would rather have him as a team-mate, that is for sure.

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