Manchester City had to be satisfied with only being able to get one point when they hosted Tottenham Hotspur in Week 14 of the 2023-2024 Premier League, on Monday (4/12/2023). Playing at the Etihad Stadium, Man City was held 3-3 by the visiting team.
Because of the draw, Man City has now dropped to third place in the 2023-2024 Premier League standings with 30 points. Meanwhile, Tottenham is stuck in fifth position with 27 points.
In fact, Man City fell behind first through Son Heung-min’s quick goal in the sixth minute. However, it wasn’t long before Son scored an own goal in the ninth minute and made the position equal again.
At the end of the first half, Man City managed to take the lead thanks to Phil Foden’s goal in the 31st minute. The first half ended with The Citizens’ lead.
Entering the second half, Tottenham tried to equalize. These efforts bore fruit, because in the 69th minute Giovani Lo Celso scored a goal for The Lilywhites and made the score 2-2.
In the 81st minute, Man City took the lead for the second time thanks to a goal from Jack Grealish. However, at the end of the match Tottenham were able to score another goal through Dejan Kulusevski. As a result, the score 3-3 was the final result of this fierce match.
Erling Haaland became angry with the referee in the Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur match, Pep Guardiola understands. According to Guardiola, Haaland’s reaction to referee Simon Hooper was normal.
The golden opportunity was created by Haaland’s breakthrough pass to Grealish who was standing one on one with Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. However, Hooper actually blew his whistle to give a foul because before Haaland sent his sweet pass, he fell.
Suddenly his decision immediately made Haaland angry. The Norwegian bomber was really disappointed with the decision Hooper had made. After the match, he even tweeted harsh words on his personal Twitter account accompanied by video footage of Hooper giving the foul decision.
Responding to Haaland’s angry reaction to Hooper on the pitch, Guardiola also defended him. The former Barcelona coach considered that this was normal. According to him, all Man City players also had the same reaction to their bomber.
“That’s normal. “His reaction with the other 10 players was the same,” said Guardiola, reported by the Manchester Evening News, Monday (4/12/2023)
“The rule is that you cannot talk to the referee or the fourth official while on the field. Otherwise, you will be removed from the field. So we should have released ten players today,” he continued.
The reason is, the referee’s decision was quite detrimental to Man City because it is not impossible that the opportunity Grealish got would result in a winning goal. Guardiola even said that Hooper would have been equally disappointed if he had been a player for The Citizen in that match.
“So of course he (Haaland) was a little disappointed. “Even the referee, if he were playing for Man City today he would be disappointed by that action, that’s for sure,” said Guardiola.
