If Manchester City held on to a draw against Chelsea (1-1), the Cityzens could have equalized well before. But Erling Haaland, not really inspired this Saturday, was the author of a big miss in front of Petrovic. An action to which Pep Guardiola returned with irony.
Erling Haaland is indeed a human, capable of missing a big opportunity alone in front of goal. Top scorer in the Premier League with 16 goals, the Norwegian did not shake the net against Chelsea (1-1). The Cityzens, however, needed their star to escape the Blues’ trap.
>> Relive the clash between Manchester City and Chelsea
After conceding a goal from Sterling, Manchester City had a number of chances to equalize. In the 78th minute, Haaland was abandoned by the opposing defense and saw his header go wide of Petrovic’s target. A very rare failure from the former Borussia Dortmund man.
Asked by Sky Sports on this action, coach Pep Guardiola preferred to be ironic by drawing a parallel with his own playing career: “I played 11 years and I scored 11 goals, so I can’t give too much advice to Erling (Haaland ). He will score the next goal.”
Manchester City loses points
If the Skyblues finally equalized via Rodri at the end of the match, they still lost two precious points in the title race. With their big victory against Brentford (1-4), Liverpool are four points ahead of De Bruyne’s teammates. Arsenal, who also won against Burnley (0-5), are two units ahead of the Cityzens.
When analyzing the clash against Chelsea, Guardiola admitted that his team failed in their first act: “It was a good game. In the first half we were not very good, in the second half , we were very good. We had chances and we were better in the second half. Erling Haaland and the third in the Premier League will have to get their act together on February 20 against Brentford (at 8:30 p.m.).