Nine seasons, one change of fate. Take Manchester City out of 2009/10 to 2017/18 and Everton finish in the top four once: 2013/14, Roberto Martínez’s first season, on 72 points. For real those points were worth fifth. Without City they are worth a Champions League play-off place.
The rest of the decade is harder on them than on most. Everton took 26 points off City in 18 league games: seven wins, five draws, six defeats. Every one of those points comes off. In 2010/11 and 2012/13 that cancels the free place, the one every club below City gets when City leave, and Everton finish exactly where they did for real. In six seasons the free place is all they get, and in 2013/14 that alone is enough for fourth. Only in 2014/15 do they climb past anyone else: ninth, not 11th.
Then there is the money. City paid Everton £81.5m in reported fees for three players: Joleon Lescott, Jack Rodwell and John Stones. In a table without City, that money goes as well.
2010/11
Four wins, then nothing to show
Everton beat City 2–0 at Goodison on 16 January 2010 and 2–0 at City on 24 March. Then they did it again: 2–1 away on 20 December 2010 and 2–1 at home on 7 May 2011. Four league meetings in a row, four wins, 12 points.
Both seasons they took six points off City: in 2009/10 as many as Tottenham and Manchester United, in 2010/11 more than any other club. In 2009/10 losing them still leaves Everton seventh on 55, not eighth: the free place and nothing more. In 2010/11 they were the only club to beat City twice, so the only club to lose six. 54 becomes 48. They stay seventh, level on points with Fulham, who take sixth on goal difference.
2012/13
Liverpool catch up
Everton were never below seventh all season. They finished sixth on 63, above Liverpool for a second season running, which had not happened since 1937.
The rebuild takes four points, more than it takes from any other club that season: the 1–1 at City on 1 December and the 2–0 win at Goodison on 16 March. That leaves 59. Liverpool draw level and pass them on goal difference for fifth. Everton stay sixth.
2013/14
Fourth, on the same 72
David Moyes left for Manchester United, and Martínez took over on 5 June. His side lost both games to City: 3–1 at City on 5 October, and 3–2 at Goodison on 3 May, the afternoon City went top with two games left.
Two defeats, so nothing comes off. Everton keep all 72 points, and with City’s place gone that is fourth: three clear of fifth, nine behind the champions without City, and into the Champions League play-off round.
One of the players who got them there came from City. Gareth Barry had played 34 league games in City’s 2011/12 title side. He arrived at Everton on a season-long loan on deadline day in September 2013 and started 32 league games. On 9 July 2014 he joined for good, on a free, out of contract.
2016/17
Stones, and a 4–0
Stones left for City that summer for £47.5m, the largest of the three reported fees. In the league Everton took four points off City: a 1–1 at City in October, when Stekelenburg saved penalties from De Bruyne and Agüero, and a 4–0 at Goodison on 15 January, Everton’s largest Premier League win over City.
Both results come off. 61 becomes 57: sixth, not seventh, the free place and no more.