Pep Guardiola made it clear who was to blame when Manchester City lost points to Nottingham Forest and lost in the Premier League title race with Arsenal.
Manchester City have lost their lead in the Premier League after Chris Wood’s late goal prevented Pep Guardiola’s side from winning against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground last night (February 18).
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola threw a tantrum at the referee off the touchline and was booked. The Spanish teacher said that Man City should be awarded a penalty of 11m because of Joe Worrall’s Erling Haaland shirt pull.
But after cooling down his anger, Guardiola accepted the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest was caused by his own players after missing many unbelievable opportunities. The away team Man City held the ball up to 84% in the first half, but Bernardo Silva’s thunderous finish was the only goal that the Etihad Stadium team concretized their overwhelming.
After the break, Haaland, Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte all missed opportunities that any team could successfully capitalize on. In the end, the bitter green Man received a healing attack 6 minutes before the end of the match. Substitute Chris Wood cushioned the ball close to the wall to level the score 1-1, making the City Ground go crazy.
This is the third time this season that the Blues have lost points against a team that has only hit the target once. After reclaiming the top of the Premier League table by beating direct competitors Arsenal 3-1, Guardiola’s men once again looked up to the Gunners” above them. Arsenal are currently 2 points ahead of Man City, and have played less than 1 match.
Coach Pep Guardiola bitterly shared after the game: “Man City dropped points because they did not score more goals. And we could have defended with more energy in front of goal, too.
The way we played was excellent. City should have led 3-0 in the first half but then we conceded a goal and dropped the points. We had a good win against Arsenal. Today we played even better against a defensive team with nine players in their box.”
Pep Guardiola was referring to Erling Haaland’s close-range strike from just 1m from goal as he continued: “But when you miss so many chances just a meter from goal… what can I say? After games like that, you don’t say anything to the players. You just go home, go to sleep and think about the next game.”
Man City’s next match is a trip to Germany to meet RB Leipzig in the Champions League. Pep Guardiola will hope his strikers can be more thoughtful and cool in finishing. Everyone thought Man City would defeat Nottingham Forest, but the home team never waved the white flag.
In the first half, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan both had good opportunities but could not take advantage. 4 minutes before the two teams entered the break, Grealish dropped the ball lightly for Bernardo Silva to shoot like a free-kick from 25 yards to open the scoring for Man City. Forest goalkeeper Keylor Navas could have done better but the Costa Rican made up for it in the second half.
Phil Foden was passed by Gundogan to double the lead for Man City in the face of Navas, but he slipped. Despite slipping, Foden still tried to pass to Haaland but was stopped by the Nottingham Forest defender in time to break the ball. And in the 65th minute, a tense Pep Guardiola received a yellow card for his reaction to Worral’s tackle on Haaland.
Pep Guardiola said: “Why did Erling Haaland fall when he was facing the keeper? Maybe it was a bit of a foul, maybe not, but that’s why I complained to the fourth referee and I got a well-deserved yellow card.
Nottingham manager Cooper unleashed Wood on the field with 11 minutes left and the New Zealand striker on loan from Newcastle shone. Brennan Johnson and Morgan White-Gibbs worked well together before the ball was sent into the far post for Wood to cushion the ball close to the net into the net of Man City. It was too important a goal for Nottingham Forest and it also “devastating” Man City.
Coach Cooper said: “We planned to stay with the game for as long as possible. Man City is probably the best team in the world at domestic level, but we wanted a moment of our own and it was a great goal.”
