'Like a box of frogs': The former Manchester City star loved what Jordan Pickford did before the Erling Haaland penalty

Goalies tend to be a little crazy and Jordan Pickford is no different.

But what happened after Everton Gloveman's bizarre act proved there may be a method to the madness after all, as he helped his team to a 1-1 draw at Manchester City.

Pickford was looking to keep a third consecutive clean sheet for the Toffees as they traveled to the Etihad to face the defending Premier League champions. City on Saint Stephen's Day.

Unfortunately for Pickford and the Everton backline, those hopes were dashed just 14 minutes later. Bernard Silva opened the scoring.

However, Sean Dyche's team responded just 22 minutes later through Iliman Ndiaye, who made a sweet shot with the outside of the boot inside the area.

City would have another golden opportunity to take the lead again shortly after the break when Savinho was brought down inside the area by Vitaliy Mykolenko.

Erling Haalandwho has scored a goal in his last six league games, would be the man in charge of taking the penalty.

As expected, the Everton captain Seamus Coleman He did his best to mentally play with the Norwegian and received a yellow card for his troubles.

But it was a rather singular act by Pickford that may have caused the damage in the end.

Before Haaland took the penalty, Pickford made a variety of strange faces to try to dissuade Haaland.

At first, this didn't seem to faze Haaland as he took a deep breath and fired towards the goal.

However, Pickford had done his homework and produced a superb save low to his right to deny Haaland his 14th league goal of the campaign.

4

4

Haaland had the ball in the back of the net when he headed in the rebound, but was called for offside.

Once the linesman raised the flag, Pickford threw a cheeky wink in the direction of his Toffees teammates.

Speaking in the talkSPORT comments, Danny Mills and Sam Matterface I loved what they saw from the Everton goalkeeper.

“I just watched the replay before the penalty,” Mills said.

“Jordan Pickford like sticking your tongue out early and then dancing a little in front of him too. “It's a bad penalty.”

Matterface replied: “It's the right way, Pickford made another save and then gave his defense a little nod. And he gave the Everton fans a Christmas present.”

4

Mills called Pickford a 'character', adding: “And I think that's why, you know, it can have the Marmite effect, but you know what, when he's in your team making saves like that, you definitely love it.”

Matterface responded: “He's a real bouncer, though, isn't he? I mean, he's a character like you say, but he's…let's just say quirky.”

Mills said, “Like a box of frogs.”

Pickford's penalty save on Haaland was not only his second of the season, but his second in a row, having denied Anthony Gordon when Everton faced Newcastle in October.

Before the clash against the Magpies, he had only one save on goal in the previous 20 he had faced in the Premier League.

The result means Everton have drawn against Arsenal, Chelsea and City in a row, while the Citizens have won just once in their last 13 games in all competitions.