Somewhere in London, a celebrated former Everton midfielder may have raised a toast to his old club. Manchester City avoided a damaging defeat with virtually the last kick of the game at Everton but two dropped points handed Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal the advantage in their pursuit of a first league title in 22 years.

Jérémy Doku opened the scoring in magnificent style and ended the scoring in similar fashion in the 97th minute – six minutes of stoppage time had been signalled – to rescue a point for Pep Guardiola’s visitors. They had been stunned by a second half Everton fightback that saw David Moyes’ team take a 3-1 lead through substitute Thierno Barry’s second goal of the night. But Doku, curling a sublime shot around Jordan Pickford after collecting a Phil Foden corner outside the area, extended City’s unbeaten run to 12 matches and showed this team will not disappear without a fight.

Guardiola’s visitors were comfortably in the ascendancy but ahead only through Doku’s exquisite first-half goal when Barry struck either side of a Jake O’Brien header to turn the contest and the title race.

The penultimate away game of City’s title challenge may have represented an awkward assignment but this looked a good time to play Everton. Moyes’s hopes of securing European qualification in his first full season back in charge have faded since Virgil van Dijk’s 100th-minute winner in the recent Merseyside derby. A second successive stoppage-time defeat, at West Ham last weekend, dented those prospects and morale further. The large number of empty seats around Hill Dickinson Stadium supported that view and the loss of Idrissa Gueye to a muscle injury sustained in training removed a key component from the Everton midfield.

For 25 minutes the contest resembled a training-ground exercise of attack versus defence as City dominated proceedings with ease. Everton could only have been deeper had they fallen into the dock beneath their feet. But it was a little too comfortable for City, everything was too tame, and it was only after the hosts began to threaten that Guardiola’s contenders found the urgency required to make their superiority count. Antoine Semenyo created the game’s first chance of note for himself after Jordan Pickford had parried a shot from Rayan Cherki.

Semenyo collected the rebound and slalomed between three blue shirts before dragging a shot across the face of goal. With Doku and Nico O’Reilly tormenting Everton right-back Jake O’Brien, Semenyo and Matheus Nunes doing likewise on the opposite flank against Vitalii Mykolenko, it appeared a question of when, not if, City would edge in front.

Everton finally ventured out of their own half when O’Brien released Merlin Röhl in space down the right. The German, brought in to replace Dwight McNeil on the wing with Tyler Dibling again overlooked, swept a fine cross towards Beto at the far post but Gianluigi Donnarumma was just able to tip the ball behind the incoming striker. Beto managed to collect and shoot on the turn but his effort deflected out for a corner off Abdukodir Khusanov. The bear had been poked.

City’s breakthrough was worth the wait. Doku was involved at the start and finish of a flowing move from left to right. Tim Iroegbunam, Gueye’s replacement in the Everton midfield, had a chance to clear but was stopped in his tracks by Nico González.

The visitors worked the ball out to Cherki on the right, who found Doku lurking in space outside the Everton penalty area. The Belgium international switched play on to his left foot, opened up his body and curled a stunning finish around James Garner and into the top right-hand corner of Pickford’s goal.

It was a stunning finish from an increasingly influential player – and Doku’s fifth goal involvement in five matches – and understandably left Guardiola in raptures in his technical area. But the goalscorer was fortunate to escape injury moments later when caught on the ankle by a full-blooded challenge from Michael Keane as the pair chased a 50-50 ball down the left-wing.

Keane took the man first and the ball second as he slid in on the winger. Michael Oliver deemed it a yellow-card offence only. After a brief check, the video assistant referee Paul Howard supported the on-field decision. Keane could consider himself fortunate.

Everton were a different proposition after the interval. Moyes’s side performed with an intensity and positivity that had been absent before the break. City’s defence, along with their title challenge, wobbled in the face of both. Marc Guéhi produced a well-timed tackle to prevent Beto racing through on a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall pass but the visitors’ rearguard was increasingly vulnerable to the penetrating runs of Iliman Ndiaye. Fortunately for them the Senegal international’s finishing did not match his approach work. Ndiaye forced Donnarumma into a low save that was not followed up by Röhl and then shot straight at the keeper after a mix-up between Nunes and Guéhi let him through on goal.

Guéhi would not escape from his next mistake. The City defender intercepted a Röhl pass that was intended for a clearly offside Barry but miskicked straight to the Everton substitute, who beat Donnarumma from close range. The equaliser was initially disallowed by the assistant referee but as Guéhi had controlled possession and was under no pressure from Barry it was allowed following a VAR review.

Five minutes later Everton were ahead when O’Brien rose between Gonzélez and Guéhi to head home a James Garner corner at the near post. Barry extended the home side’s lead with a tap in after Röhl’s shot deflected into his path off Khusanov. City were in disbelief but reduced the arrears straight from kick off when Mateo Kovacic dissected Everton’s central defence and Erling Haaland clipped a superb finish over Pickford.