A notoriously tough venue for top teams in recent years, the City boss was happy to tick this game off this season’s fixture list.
“In the first half, we started well and were incredible for 25 minutes,” said Pep.
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“After that, we had problems with Sigurdsson and trying to control him.
“Everton have incredible players up front and experience in the middle and a good manager, so we knew it would be a tough game.
“Every season it is difficult at Goodison Park. With the ball we were outstanding.
“They had chances, but we had chances too, it was this kind of game. Football is sometimes unpredictable.
“We had a problem in the first half with our high pressing - they had one more player on our left side. It was between 25 to 35 minutes that we had problems.
“In the second half we showed, better quality. After Liverpool’s result, it was important to reduce the gap back to five points.
“We created problems, arrived in perfect positions, attacking their full backs, but we were not so clinical like we were against Watford.
“We had to defend incredibly well at times as they are very strong from set-pieces but Fernandinho and Ederson helped us a lot.
“We want to win this league again.”
The boss also admitted he will continue to rotate his squad with four competitions to aim for.
The Catalan believes keeping his players as fresh as possible is the best option with such a long campaign ahead.
“I want to make everyone involved. I want to let them play everybody,” he said.
“Everybody wants to play – I understand completely, but it’s the only way to maintain the level for 11 months.”
