Guardiola aims unprompted dig at Arteta after Man City vs Spurs controversy
Pep Guardiola appeared to take a swipe at Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta after he was asked to address the late controversy which marred Manchester City 's enthralling 3-3 draw against Tottenham on Sunday.
Tottenham trailed 2-1 at the break after surrendering an early lead against the Premier League champions but restored parity through Giovani Lo Celso. And they left The Etihad with a share of the spoils after Dejan Kulusevski cancelled out Jack Grealish 's late strike in a dramatic finale.
However, the match was overshadowed by a late blunder from referee Simon Hooper, who pulled play back for a foul when Grealish was through on goal despite initially allowing play to continue.
The incident sparked a furious reaction from Manchester City players, particularly Erling Haaland, who left the pitch in a rage as soon as the full-time whistle had been blown. But Guardiola went one step further by aiming a barb at Arteta, who has voiced his frustrations over several officiating decisions this season.
"Next question," He said bluntly when he asked about the incident by Sky Sports. "I will not do a Mikel Arteta comment. The referee will now whistle after saying play on, after the pass then whistles. So I don’t know.
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"We created a lot of chances, we were aggressive. Football is like life, sometimes you don’t get what you deserve. Congratulations to Spurs for the point. That is football."
He continued: "Spurs played incredibly well against Aston Villa but lost the game. We were not able to do it, we have to continue."
Join the debate! Do you think Hooper made the wrong decisions? Let us know here.
Pep Guardiola aimed a barb at Mikel Arteta after Manchester City's 3-3 draw with Tottenham (Sky Sports)Guardiola was then asked about Haaland's reaction to the incident and whether or not he shared his frustration. He added in response: "He [Haaland] is a fantastic player, he had the chances and sometimes that doesn’t matter. That is football.
"The support was incredible today. Maybe next time we will be better. How many chances do they create? Not much. On to the next. Go for it."
While Guardiola was reluctant to be drawn into a debate, Hooper's decision was scrutinised on Sky Sports by analysts Micah Richards and Roy Keane. The former said: "I don’t understand. The ref had a good game, until this moment. He puts the whistle to his mouth, stops, waves it on. And then stops the play. Which I don’t understand. He should’ve let play go on, Grealish is one-on-one with the keeper."
Keane also felt that Hooper made a mistake, adding: "It is a poor call, Jack is through on goal. He’s got that wrong, for some reason he’s blown the whistle. City will be critical of themselves for letting Spurs off the hook, don’t blame the referee for that one."
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