When Manchester City won the Premier League title in May 2014, their last away game of the season was at Everton and they needed a win to maintain their goal difference advantage on Liverpool.
It was a strange atmosphere, with some Toffees' fans unsure whether they even wanted their side to win as it could hand their bitter Merseyside rivals an advantage in the title race. But there was no doubting that the Everton players wanted the victory and, with City holding onto a 3-2 lead in the second half, they almost salvaged a point before Joe Hart's brilliant fingertip save denied Steven Naismith.
Everton boss Roberto Martinez described it afterwards as the "save of the season" and City went onto win their final two games and claim the title.
Two-and-a-half years on, and with Hart exiled on loan to Italian side Torino, new City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo endured a miserable day on his first ever appearance at Goodison Park. The most startling statistic was that Everton had four shots on targets in the 4-0 victory on Sunday -- and scored four goals.
The Chilean has constantly been in the spotlight since his £17 million move from Barcelona and life isn't getting easier with more damning stats showing how tough he is finding it in England.
Bravo has conceded 14 goals from the last 22 shots on target he has faced in the Premier League, which is worse than any other keeper in the top flight. That means 64 percent of those 22 shots on target ended up in the back of the net.
In comparison, from the last 22 shots, Manchester United's David De Gea conceded 18 percent; Chelsea's Thibaut Courtois 23 percent; Arsenal's Petr Cech and Tottenham's Hugo Lloris are on 27 percent. Even Liverpool's much-maligned 'keepers Simon Mignolet (27 percent) and Loris Karius have considerably better stats (32 percent).
Stats can be misleading, of course, and Bravo can't take the blame for those figures alone. They don't show the quality of the chances against him and certainly City's defence were largely culpable for leaving him exposed in the defeat at Everton.
The club have conceded 26 goals in the Premier League -- more than any of the title rivals and considerably more than the top two Chelsea (15) and Spurs (14). They also regularly concede the opening goal from the opponents' first attack of the game -- Romelu Lukaku's opener was the fourth time in the last seven games that has happened.
Bravo was brought in because of the quality of his passing but even that has taken on a nosedive since his move to the Etihad. His pass success percentage stands at 71.5 percent -- considerably better than Hart's 52.6 percent for last season, but lower than his 84.3 percent with Barca in La Liga last season.
Moreover, his footwork has been criticised -- most notably when he fluffed a clearance in City's 4-0 Champions League defeat at the Nou Camp on Oct. 19, gifted the ball to striker Luis Suarez, was forced to stop his goal-bound effort with his hands outside the box and was shown the red card.
The 33-year-old hasn't made many major errors since joining the club but a couple of handling mistakes have seen the criticism mount.
ESPN FC pundit Craig Burley described him as "poor and edgy" on his debut after he dropped Wayne Rooney's free kick to allow Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score in the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford on Sept. 10. And even Pep Guardiola felt the need to defend him after he conceded a controversial goal in the 2-1 win over Burnley.
Bravo insists he takes no notice of the criticism. "I'm calm as always," he said after the 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Dec. 18. "This is a collective effort. When things don't go well it's everybody's responsibility and when you get [good] results it's exactly the same. We will see at the end of the season if the work has paid off."
But a run of clean sheets and some consistently good performances would certainly do wonders for the keeper and City's stuttering title challenge.
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