As Manchester City’s players and coaches celebrated a crucial win in front of their travelling fans, Nico O’Reilly was happy to loiter in the background at Goodison Park.
Before long, the shy youngster was being pushed to the front as City’s supporters chanted his name.
O’Reilly is proving to be an unlikely trump card in City’s bid to secure Champions League qualification from the Premier League, with the 20-year-old midfielder popping up to score the first of the team’s two late goals in a 2-0 win at Everton on Saturday.
The victory lifted the soon-to-be-deposed champions into fourth place. The teams finishing in the top five will qualify for next season’s Champions League and City is far from sure of being among them after a huge regression following an unprecedented four straight titles under Pep Guardiola.
With Aston Villa beating Newcastle 4-1 later Saturday, only two points separated third place (Newcastle) and sixth place (Villa) with five games left.
O’Reilly, a tall, Manchester-born kid who came through the City academy, had barely featured for City this season until a defensive injury crisis led to Guardiola playing him out of position at left back.
Not only has he been defensively sound, he's also scoring. There were two goals in a come-from-behind win over second-tier Plymouth in the FA Cup last month, while he netted his first Premier League goal last weekend in a big win over Crystal Palace.
On Saturday, O'Reilly swept home a cross from fellow full back Matheus Nunes to break the deadlock against Everton in the 84th minute. Substitute Mateo Kovacic added another in stoppage time.
“He is very humble and shy — he doesn’t talk much,” City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan said of O'Reilly. "That is something good when you’re new. He is observing and trying to learn what other players are doing.
“In terms of talent and quality, not just his size but playing in a position that isn’t natural for him at left back, he’s been doing amazing in recent weeks."
O'Reilly is not the first midfielder that Guardiola has converted to a left back at City. There was also Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
“He’s an attacking midfielder and when you play as a full back, when the transition is quick, you can arrive there,” Guardiola said. “He is always there.”
City went above Nottingham Forest, which dropped to fifth place in its improbable bid to get into the Champions League. Forest visits Tottenham on Monday.
Villa scores after 33 seconds
The race to finish in the top five got even tighter after Aston Villa crushed Newcastle, helped by a goal after 33 seconds by Ollie Watkins.
Watkins, who was picked ahead of Marcus Rashford, also set up Ian Maatsen for Villa's second goal, before an own-goal by Dan Burn and an edge-of-the-area strike by Amadou Onana.
Newcastle defender Fabian Schar's header made it 1-1.
Man City hosts Villa on Tuesday in what Guardiola has called a “final.”
Chelsea, three points behind Villa in seventh, visits Fulham on Sunday.
Mbeumo and Wissa score again for Brentford
There were concerns about where Brentford’s goals were going to come from when star striker Ivan Toney left for Saudi Arabia last summer.
Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa are ensuring Toney is barely being missed.
Mbeumo scored twice to move to 18 goals for the campaign and Wissa netted for the 16th time as Brentford beat Brighton 4-2 in a match between teams in mid-table.
There was more than 20 minutes of stoppage time in the second half, partly because of a clash of heads between Brentford’s Yunus Konak and Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke in added-on time that required both players to get lengthy and careful treatment.
Van Hecke was given oxygen while being carried off the field on a stretcher to applause from the crowd.
Joao Pedro was sent off for Brighton in the second half for elbowing Brentford defender Nathan Collins.
Southampton's target
Already-relegated Southampton will not be the outright worst team the Premier League has ever seen.
A stoppage-time equalizer by Lesley Ugochukwu earned the Saints a 1-1 draw at West Ham and nudged the last-placed team to 11 points — the same number Derby County had in the 2007-08 season. That remains the lowest points total in a single Premier League.
Southampton has five more games to get ahead of Derby's total.
Richards sees red
United States defender Chris Richards was sent off for collecting two yellow cards in Crystal Palace's 0-0 draw with Bournemouth.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press
