Pep Guardiola will seek a further summit with referees’ chief Mike Riley after another moment of controversy left Manchester City’s title ambitions hanging by a thread.
City squandered a two-goal lead during a pulsating clash with Tottenham and that means they are 12 points behind Chelsea who on Sunday beat Hull 2-0.
The game, however, swung when referee Andre Marriner failed to award a penalty when Kyle Walker pushed Raheem Sterling in the back as he shaped to shoot; Tottenham promptly went up field and made it 2-2 through substitute Son Heung-min.
Pep Guardiola believes some decisions went against his side during the 2-2 draw with Spurs.
Guardiola was incandescent after the incident, screaming at fourth official Mike Jones.
There have been several issues in recent weeks that have left the Catalan bewildered and he met with Riley, the head of PGMO, earlier this month to air his grievances. But this latest episode has left Guardiola looking for more explanations.
He said: ‘What did Walker say? And for (Ilkay) Gundogan against Chelsea? It is the same argument as against Chelsea (in December). We lost as we missed a lot of chances. When that happens the influence of the referee is higher. When you score a lot of goals the referee doesn’t matter.
‘The rules here are the rules. So maybe one day Mike Riley will explain to me. When he (Sterling) is pushed, I don’t understand. Again, we lost (drew) as we missed a lot of chances. If we score a lot of chances the referee doesn’t matter.
‘When it happens, at the right moment the right decision is important. Sometimes it is not like this.’
Asked if he felt Sterling was conscious about going to ground, having had to accusations of diving in the past, Guardiola said: ‘I don’t know what people said about Raheem. I know you like honest people and I think people from other countries, we try to be honest as well.’
Walker admitted he had fouled Sterling, saying: ‘I wasn’t going to get [the ball] otherwise. You have to put him off as much as possible.’
Mauricio Pochettino, however, did not think the issue was so clear cut and explained: ‘This is England. We see that touch (in the back) all the time. It is a very different world here. But you cannot complain about the referee.’
The biggest complaint Guardiola had was about City’s profligacy in front of goal. In the same way Everton scored with all four of the shots they had last Sunday, so Tottenham converted the two opportunities that came their way. He is not, however, conceding the title.
‘I am never going to give up,’ said Guardiola. We are not going to achieve big targets this season because in performances we are not able to score goals. We are going to try and keep going but we create too much and get nothing.
‘This is the déjà vu game. It is the same all (through) the season. We missed a lot of chances. It was the same at Everton, the same against Chelsea. What can I say? I’m so happy with the performance of my players. When we play s***, I say we play s***. We didn’t deserve that.’
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