“The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance” is the title of a best-selling book by Manchester City CEO, Ferran Soriano.

As you can guess, it’s about the importance that strategy off the field has in achieving success on it.

By chance, tomorrow’s early EPL kick-off is between City and Everton so it seems appropriate to mention it.

At first glance, a top v bottom clash might not seem mouthwatering enough for a Chinese New Year dinner time but this fixture will not be lacking in spice.

Everton fans are sure to enliven ‘the Emptyhad’ with their salty chants and banners even if the team gets a hiding.

They will not fail to remind a global audience that although the playing field resembles a billiard table, it is anything but level.

As the entire football world knows, Everton have been docked 10 points for a relatively minor indiscretion while City are still at large with 115 charges dating back to 2009 against them.

While the Toffees, founder members of the Football League, face relegation and perhaps even oblivion, City are free to make history.

A date for a hearing has been finally agreed, we were informed last month, but it may not be until 2025.

By which time, City may well have become the first club ever to win the English League title four times in a row. Even a double treble is being whispered about.

That would be a repeat of last season’s League, FA Cup and Champions League triumphs – such is the feeling of inevitability when it comes to Manchester City.

Nope, most of their goals don’t go in by chance.

They have some of the best players and one of the two top managers in the game.

They have been building to this point incrementally since 2008 when the Abu Dhabi United Group took over.

Soriano came on board in 2012 when City spread their wings and started the City Football Group, buying up smaller clubs around the world.

They now have 13 and one of them, Girona, has grown to challenge Real Madrid for supremacy in Spain.

City are also the most-watched club in the United States.

From a mid-table ‘cock-up club’, that is some strategy.

But if it is found to be flawed, it will not count, be expunged from the records and become known as one of the biggest cons in sporting history on the podium with Ben Johnson, East Germany and the old Soviet Union’s drug cheats.

That would be some legacy.

In contrast, Everton were slapped with another charge before their appeal for the first one had been heard.

They may have to wait until the end of the month before knowing their fate.

That would be almost a year since they were first charged within days of the 115 charges were laid upon City.

They could have an anniversary dinner and tell each other how differently they’ve been treated.

Peace conferences and heavyweight title fights have been easier to arrange than City’s hearing.

The only explanation the EPL has given is to say, “the case is complex.”

If the discrepancy in dealing with two equal members of the EPL strikes you as being odd, it’s because City don’t just have better players than Everton, they have better lawyers.

They are deliberately dragging this out which is what they did when charged by UEFA and actually managed to get off many offences because they were ‘time-barred’.

That, too, was their strategy.

Meanwhile, the EPL has created a rod for its own back.

It has acted like a bully to what its CEO Richard Masters called “small clubs” – Everton and Forest – but allowed City’s lawyers to run rings around them.

And so the perception in football that there’s one law for the rich and another for the rest is reinforced.

If ever there’s a time for neutrals to get behind an underdog, it is Saturday’s match although the portents are not great.

The two clubs met as recently as late December when City ran out comfortable 3-1 winners at Goodison Park.

Everton have slumped back into the relegation zone after looking as if they’d be safe even without a reduction in their punishment.

In contrast, City have begun their annual charge to the title ominously early. They’re on it now, having won 12 of the last 13 games in all competitions.

Everton are once again finding goals hard to come by with just 26 – the third worst in the division.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin has reverted to being a non-scoring striker while Erling Haaland is easing his way back after a month on the sidelines.

Not quite as rampant as last season, the Norwegian still has 14 from 17 games to be joint-top scorer with Mo Salah.

And with Arsenal having taken points off Liverpool, City could go top before either of their two main rivals play.

Still, the ball is round and upsets abound. Luton Town could survive, Jordan reached the Asia Cup final and sixth-tier Maidstone are still in the FA Cup.

More goals go in by chance on the field than off it. Whatever happens in court, teams fade, Pep will leave one day as Klopp is doing, and no strategy can stop that.

Time to shout for Everton.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.