‘How is this a foul?!’
Manchester City fell 2-0 behind against Crystal Palace, this afternoon, but a Bernardo Silva strike and a hat-trick from Erling Haaland wrapped up a 4-2 comeback victory.
City went top of the table, ahead of Arsenal’s late kick-off against Fulham, courtesy of the win, but they had two big refereeing decisions that went in their favour.
The first came after 27 minutes when City were 2-0 down. Ederson saved a long-range strike and ran out to initiate an attack for the home side, his rolled pass was deflected and Palace thought they were 3-0 up, only for the whistle to blow.
How is this a foul??? Ederson shouldn’t roll the ball out with a bloke in front of him if he doesn’t want it blocked #MCICRY pic.twitter.com/AieFW87zF6
— Jasper Chellappah (@Jasperc53) August 27, 2022
Erling Haaland fortunate to avoid red card
Five minutes later, with City still 2-0 behind, Erling Haaland was given the benefit of the doubt, and avoided a red card, when he stuck a boot up to control a Kevin de Bruyne pass.
As the Belgian flicked a ball through, Haaland went high to take the ball down but succeeded in only crunching into the head of Joachim Andersen, who had nipped in to make a clearing header. Indeed, the Norwegian was not even cautioned for the challenge:
For those asking for the video
— Conrad Barreto (@conradbeckham) August 27, 2022
‘We are all proud today’ – Erling Haaland
Crystal Palace were 2-0 up at half-time, but Manchester City dragged a goal back with their first shot on target. Bernardo Silva had a dart and his effort was deflected by Jeffrey Schlupp past Vicente Guaita in the Palace goal.
After that, Erling Haaland took over. He scored his hat-trick in just over 20 minutes as he converted a Phil Foden cross, turned in a wayward John Stones shot and raced onto an Ilkay Gundogan pass to make it 4-2.
Haaland now has six Premier League goals in four games and is only 12 goals behind his father Alf-Inge’s all-time tally in the competition.
“A proud moment for me and my family,” Haaland told the BBC’s Match of the Day. “We keep going. These games are why I’m here – to turn things around when there are difficult times. [My dad] will probably say he had more goals in the Premier League than me so I will chase that!”
“It’s really important to have this kind of mentality and we should get it even more,” Haaland added. “There is more we can do on set-pieces. We have to keep working hard.
“It’s not easy to come to a new club, a new country so it has been a good start. I think we are all [his family] proud today.”
Elsewhere in the Premier League, former City star Raheem Sterling scored twice as Chelsea beat Leicester City, Liverpool thumped Bournemouth 9-0 and Manchester United defeated Southampton 1-0.
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