Before a ball was kicked, many expected Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur to produce goals galore at the Etihad.
Sunday in itself was a day of madness. From Liverpool’s stunning 4-3 win over Fulham, drama in the South Coast as Aston Villa drew 2-2 at Bournemouth and Chelsea’s 3-2 win against Brighton.
There were goals everywhere. And Manchester City-Tottenham produced the same, but with added drama right until the very end.
The biggest talking point came when on-field referee, Simon Hooper, for some strange reason, waved play on after Erling Haaland was fouled inside his half, but as soon as the Manchester City striker put Jack Grealish through on goal, he blew his whistle.
As you can imagine, the Manchester City players, especially Erling Haaland, were angry and baffled by that call, with Spurs and Ange Postecoglou breathing a sigh of relief.
It resulted in the Premier League’s top hitman issuing one-word on Twitter after the game.
And, in response, Erling Haaland’s father, Alfie Haaland, posted the word ‘terrible’ on Twitter, in response to Simon Hooper, rightfully, waving play on, but wrongly, stopping it as soon as Jack Grealish was about to run through on goal.
Angry Erling Haaland after Manchester City 3-3 Tottenham
Manchester City punish themselves against Spurs
Yes, the Premier League champions have the right to be angry, frustrated and perplexed by Simon Hooper’s actions.
Normally, in those situations, the on-field ref would stop play straight away and then get criticised for not reading the situation and playing on.
But he actually played on, and then blew his whistle, which is something very, very hard to explain.
However, Pep Guardiola, Haaland and his team can only look at themselves because they should have had Spurs out of sight during those first 45 minutes.
They kept Ange Postecoglou’s side in the game, and in the end, they got punished for it with yet another Dejan Kulusevski goal.
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