December 03, (THEWILL) – Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, refused to directly criticise the controversial refereeing decisions that denied his team a last gasp winner against Tottenham Hotspur while answering questions from reporters.
The two teams played out an enthralling 3-3 English Premier League draw at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. With the scores level deep in injury time, referee Simon Hooper initially allowed play to continue after a foul on Erling Haaland before blowing up moments later just as Jack Grealish looked set to score.
The decision sparked furious protests from City players and manager, Pep Guardiola. However, Guardiola refused to criticise the referee’s actions directly, saying “Next question. I will not do a Mikel Arteta comment.” He was referring to Arsenal manager, Arteta, recently being charged for misconduct over comments about match officiating and VAR.
While disappointed with the refereeing decisions, Guardiola praised his team for an “incredible performance” against a strong Tottenham side. City twice led during an eventful, contest thanks to an own goal from Son Heung-min and a Phil Foden strike, but were pegged back by goals from Son and substitute Giovani Lo Celso before Grealish looked to have won it late on. However, Dejan Kulusevski stooped to head home a dramatic 90th minute equaliser for Spurs.
The result leaves defending champions, City, three points behind current EPL leaders, Arsenal, while it earned Tottenham a valuable point to stay firmly in the top four discussion.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
