Never in doubt. A 5-2 thriller last week raised hopes that Pep Guardiola's side had rediscovered their attacking touch, but this game looked to be heading for a dour draw before two goals in the last 10 minutes saw Pep Guardiola's side pick up a priceless victory.
Goodison Park is always pitched as a difficult place to go, and David Moyes has worked wonders since returning. They have lost just one of their last 12 league matches and recent results include a home draw with Arsenal and an away win at Nottingham Forest - two teams higher than City in the table at kick off.
It's just that, since that shock 4-0 shellacking Guardiola suffered in his first season here, City have always found a way to win. They have generally needed to in order to stay where they want to be in the title race.
For a long time, it looked like this City team simply weren't as fussed without as much on the line. The first hour of the game was played out at a pedestrian pace from both teams who aren't facing any immediate danger in the league.
It hasn't gone unnoticed in the last few months that City have added a new drill to their warm-up, with full-backs and wide players taking turns to tee up their teammates in the middle. It was on show again at Goodison, only for all of those patterns to go out of the window once the match started.
Four changes from the Palace win should not have rung any alarm bells, with one enforced by Ederson's injury and three brought in for the specifics of this match. It felt harsh on James McAtee to be dropped to the bench, and even more so when Bernardo Silva started on the right and wasted a number of promising positions.
As a result, the positives of City dominating possession and making sure the only noise out of this grand old stadium came from the away supporters became more of a negative as the afternoon progressed with Jordan Pickford barely tested. Everton could not get much change out of their tactic of testing Matheus Nunes and Nico O'Reilly in the air, but grew into the game as they realised how blunt City were.
James Tarkowski hit a post from a first-half corner, and as Omar Marmoush went to bring the ball down outside the box and start an attack Ilkay Gundogan needlessly cleared it to nobody instead.
O'Reilly told Gundogan to leave a bouncing ball in the City box, then made no attempt to move towards it.
O'Reilly stooped to head in a City corner at the back post, only for Nico Gonzalez to leather it high and wide just before it reached him. The frustration from the players was evident every time, yet for so long the play never got any more cohesive.
Finally, as the second half wore on and Tarkowski unfortunately pulled his hamstring, City began to find some space. Savinho and Marmoush started to find some time on the ball and make Pickford feel like he was in a game.
Even as the game went into the final 10 minutes, Marmoush looked to have scuffed the best chance after working himself into the box. However, as the ball recycled City finally remembered their warm up drill.
Silva pointed to where he wanted Nunes to go on the edge of the right-hand side of the box, promptly played it to him and the makeshift right-back drilled in a low ball that O'Reilly made sure he got on the end of. The ground was stunned, and before anyone could recover substitute Mateo Kovacic lashed in a second.
In ten minutes, another tough away day turned in to a perfect result and tees City up for the visit of Aston Villa on Tuesday. As the players went to celebrate at the end, O'Reilly was pushed forward to take the acclaim of the fans, who had a new hero to serenade.
City will likely have to play better to beat Villa, but their chances look better with O'Reilly on the pitch.
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