Everton keeper Jordan Pickford’s cheat sheet revealed on WATER BOTTLE as he saves Haaland’s penalty
EVERTON star Jordan Pickford’s cheat sheet was exposed on his water bottle before saving Erling Haaland’s penalty against Manchester City.
Pickford, 30, has been very impressive for the Toffees in recent weeks amid another season that sees Sean Dyche’s side fighting another battle to avoid Premier League relegation.
The England goalkeeper was called upon after 53 minutes to defend a 1-1 scoreline at the Etihad after team-mate Iliman Ndiaye cancelled out Bernardo Silva’s opener.
Savinho cleverly nicked the ball past Vitalii Mykolenko who fouled him inside the area and gave away a penalty kick to City.
Haaland, 24, took on the spot-kick and appeared determined to ease Man City’s woes that had seen them losing nine of their past 12 matches across all competitions – of which they only won one.
The star striker refused to be put off by Everton captain Seamus Coleman, who whispered something in his ear and got booked.
And Pickford tried his best to put the Norway international off with a funny face, similar to the one usually seen by New Zealand rugby stars during an intimidating haka as he stuck his tongue out.
Unlike Coleman, the goalkeeper’s strategy seems to have worked as he lunged to his right and palmed Haaland’s shot away with relevant ease.
The Norwegian than headed the ball to the back of the net but was caught offside.
However, cameras caught Pickford looking at his water bottle before the spot-kick.
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And it had a cheat sheet on it showing where City’s most usual penalty takers shoot the ball most.
The camera caught a side of the bottle showing shooting percentages by Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku, Jack Grealish and Mateo Kovacic.
Numbers showed Foden mostly shoots on the goalkeeper’s left, Doku on the right, Grealish in the middle and Kovacic on the right.
The other side showed Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan as well as Silva’s stats.
And it got the ex-Borussia Dortmund superstar’s numbers absolutely correct as it showed him shooting down the right 55 per cent of the time.
Pickford proved to be the hero as he saved a valuable point for Everton.
City, on the other hand, are with only one victory in 13 matches across all competitions, of which they lost nine.