Haaland has another notch, but Manchester City are awarded a point by the referees. I’m obviously biased, Gerrard raged after the game

Manchester City were the dominant team against Aston Villa on Saturday, but unfortunately for them, Pep Guardiola’s charges couldn’t convert all but one of their chances, which could have cost them all the points in the end. In the end, they were only helped by the linesman who waved away a non-existent offside.

The dominance of the Citizens is beautifully illustrated by the statistics of ball possession (72.3%) and shots (13 to 3). But the only one who managed to assert himself was Erling Haaland, whose goal was set up on a platter by Kevin De Bruyne’s centre.

The Norwegian hitman notched his 10th goal, which he managed to score in only his 6th league game. It wasn’t enough to get three points, but his performance is breathtaking and if it continues like this, the Premier League record for most goals scored in one season, held by Andrew Cole (1993/94) and Alan Shearer(1994/95), will probably fall. We’re talking about the 34 goal mark.

But Manchester City had a few more chances in the game, the biggest ones were thrown away by De Bruyne, who missed once and then hit the crossbar from a direct kick.

All of this resulted in Leon Bailey coming through in the 74th minute, who was served the ball on a golden platter by Jacob Ramsey. And that wasn’t all!

Subsequently, Coutinho also managed to get his shot through, but unfortunately he only fired after the referee’s whistle, who reacted to his colleague’s wave for offside. However, the subsequent footage showed that it was not an offside.

“I saw a legitimate goal, but I’m obviously biased. The referee did the same thing in the Kona game against Crystal Palace,” reacted an exasperated Steven Gerrard to Sky Sports after the game, for whom this is the second major snub from the referees this season.

However, refereeing and VAR is under a lot of criticism in England now that they have had problems in other games on Saturday, not to mention previous blunders that few can understand.

Be that as it may, Aston Villa have to take the draw with all ten hands given the way the game unfolded. Next week they will face currently last-placed Leicester, while the Citizens will face Tottenham.

Source: Sky Sports, Whoscored