Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal: Erling Haaland scored a second-half winner to put a major dent in Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes.
Arsenal were fortunate to avoid a double blow as their Premier League title hopes were dashed by Manchester City on Sunday evening.
Rayan Cherki’s opener for Man City was quickly cancelled out by Kai Havertz in the first half as the Arsenal forward capitalised from Gianluigi Donnarumma’s mistake.
Erling Haaland then put City in front in the second half at the Etihad Stadium as they were able to see out the win and move to just three points behind Arsenal with a game in hand. While Arsenal still lead the Premier League, winning the title is currently out of their hands as they now turn their attention to their match against Newcastle United at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday (5:30pm kick-off).
While the Gunners lost crucial ground in the title race, they arguably should have lost a key player too as defender Gabriel Magalhães clashed with Haaland before gesturing in with his head. The Man City striker remained on his feet and Gabriel escaped with a yellow card, though there have been many incidents of a player being sent off for such an incident.
Fabian Schar was shown a straight red card for a similar incident involving Ben Brereton Diaz in a 1-0 win for Newcastle over Southampton last season. The Swiss centre-back was handed a three-match ban for violent conduct.
But as Gabriel was only booked and VAR didn’t intervene to overturn referee Anthony Taylor’s on-field decision, the defender is set to be available for Arsenal’s crucial upcoming matches, starting with Newcastle next.
The Brazilian scored a stoppage-time winner against the Magpies at St James’ Park back in September as Arsenal came from behind to win 2-1.
Gabriel ‘very lucky’ as Premier League issue statement
Sky Sports’ commentator and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville said during the live broadcast of the match: “Why did you do that Gabriel?! You can put your heads against each other.
“The minute you rock it back and throw it forward you usually get a red.
“I can’t believe that’s not a red to be honest with you. I don't think he's differentiated between what Gabriel and Haaland did."
Former Premier League referee Mike Dean explained: "I think they have both gone head-to-head, there's not excessive force by Gabriel but he has just put head his head toward a little bit more.
"I think the way the game has gone with those two, I think a yellow card is probably just about right.
"I wouldn't have been surprised had Gabriel been sent off, there is a movement. Looking at it again, Gabriel is very lucky not to get a red. He’s very lucky.”
The Premier League’s Match Centre issued a statement explaining the decision: “The incident was checked by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), and it was concluded that a yellow card was the correct decision. The Premier League's Match Centre official account wrote: "The referee’s call of no red card was checked and confirmed by VAR - with the action from Gabriel deemed not to be excessively aggressive or violent."
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