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6th April 2024
08:02pm BST
Fans have been slating a referee decision during Manchester City’s clash with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, on Saturday. Ian Wright was one of those calling out refereeing inconsistencies.
The incident occurred just before half-time, when the score was at one goal a piece and everything was to play for.
In the 44th minute, City defender Josko Gvardiol appeared to stumble just inside the box, and took Palace attacker Eberechi Eze out just as he was about to jump for a header. There were big appeals from a number of Palace players, as well as manager Oliver Glasner.
Many fans who had either watched the game or seen a replay of the tackle, saw it as Gvardiol clearly denying Eze a goal-scoring opportunity, and that a penalty should have been awarded by the game’s lead official Paul Tierney. Instead, no foul was given and city went on to win the game 4-2 in the second-half, thanks to goal’s from Rico Lewis, Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne.
One Twitter user with the handle @LFCMarcelo posted a clip of the tackle, accompanied by the caption: “Gvardiol blatantly tackles Eze but since he plays for Man City, he is allowed to do that. Great job, Paul Tierney.”
One other user commented underneath that the decision not to give a penalty was an “absolute joke”, while another wrote: “Problem is onfield referees don’t want to make any big calls so leave it to VAR who in turn don’t want to make any big calls. System needs to change dramatically!”
Former Arsenal and Crystal Palace striker Ian Wright took to Twitter to comment on the incident too, and made a reference to a similar foul given against Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot on Thursday evening, which resulted in a penalty for Chelsea that Cole Palmer scored to level the game. Chelsea went on to win that game 4-3 thanks to a strike from Palmer just minutes later.
The 60-year-old wrote: “Dalot was clumsy and was punished, so Gvardiol was clumsy and no pen?”
The decision to hand Chelsea a penalty on Thursday night didn’t come as much of surprise to the game’s commentators on TNT Sports.
Former Sunderland and Rangers player Ally McCoist, he was surprised that the incident was even reviewed by VAR at the time, and said: “Let’s get on with it. What they don’t realise is, because of the pace that Madueke is running at it doesn’t matter if it’s a slight touch. It will knock him off balance because of the pace he is moving at.”
Pep Guardiola’s City are now level on points with Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table following today’s win. Liverpool play Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
At Villa Park, meanwhile, Brentford went 2-0 down to Aston Villa only to score three in a row to surge 3-2 ahead. Villa levelled, though, and Brentford teammates Ivan Toney and Nathan Collins clashed at the final whistle.
Toney seemed irate that Collins played out the clock, at the end, rather than punting the ball over the top for him to chase.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Arsenal beat Brighton 3-0, Everton had a valuable win over Burnley, West Ham beat Wolves and Luton defeated Bournemouth.
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