Pep Guardiola railed against Premier League referees after Manchester City’s victory over Wolves, despite experts agreeing that the referee for Saturday’s match got his most important decision right.
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Manchester City had a relatively easy home game against bottom club Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday, with title rivals Arsenal taking just six minutes to take the lead through Omar Marmoush.
But there was a controversial moment later in the half, when the referee dismissed penalty appeals after the ball hit Yerson Mosquera’s arm.
The VAR team recommended an on-field review, but referee Farai Hallam stood by his initial decision. Hallam was making his Premier League debut, so there was certainly a lot of pressure on him at the time.
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Pep Guardiola was unsympathetic and could be seen ranting at the referees on the pitch after the match.
The Manchester City manager then reacted dramatically to questions about the penalty decision after the match, refusing to answer and shaking his head in an exasperated manner, before ranting about other decisions in the game.
“Listen, if you and I run along the side, at our own pace, and they push us and (we) fall, it’s diving,” Guardiola began. “But the speed with Jeremy (Doku), it only touches a little, he can’t control himself at that speed. Do you know how many fouls they think is diving, from Jeremy?
“At the beginning of the season they tell us that with long balls, when the central defender goes over the shoulders of the forwards, it will be a foul. They are right. Do you know how many fouls Erling Haaland commits?”
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Regardless of whether Guardiola is right about those incidents, the big penalty decision seemed to be the right decision.
“I don’t agree with Pep, I don’t think that’s handball,” Alan Shearer told Match of the Day. “The defender is in a natural position, Mosquera. How is he supposed to keep his balance? And he’s only a meter away, Marmoush.
“Then you have two experienced referees in the VAR who told him ‘we think you have made a clear mistake, you have to go check it on the monitor’.
“And to be fair to him, I think he made the right decision. He says ‘no, I don’t agree with you.’ Despite his inexperience, despite it being his first game, he’s brave enough to say ‘no, I’m going to make a different decision, I’m going to stick to my decision and I’m not going to move.’
“He was right in that decision and in several others as well.”