DEAN SEES RED OVER ‘FARCICAL’ SILVA GOAL
BY THE time Storm Christoph had given way to Storm Dean at the Etihad last night, Manchester City were stepping up their title charge and Aston Villa were feeling sicker than ever.
They had come back from a Covid crisis straight into a monsoon and a City onslaught. For the best part of 80 minutes, Villa withstood it.
They put bodies on the line, battled through driving rain and, yes, rode their luck.
Just when it seemed it might be enough to earn a remarkable point came the moment of controversy.
Was Rodri offside when he ambushed Tyrone Mings to steal the ball off the Villa man? Clearly.
Was it a new passage of play because Mings had taken a couple of touches? Apparently so.
But offside, like the handball rule before it was changed earlier this season, is confusing players and infuriating managers.
Smith, for one, was apoplectic after Rodri was ruled onside and fed the ball to Bernardo Silva.
City’s false nine for the night had four defenders around him but he worked the space for a shot and dispatched a stunning effort inside Emiliano Martinez’s right-hand post.
It was a wonderful goal but also the spark for what happened next. It has been a torrid few weeks for Smith.
Villa have not played since their last visit to Manchester at Old Trafford on New Year’s Day after nine players and five staff tested positive for Covid, and they had only trained for three days.
Smith could not have asked for more from his team, and this felt like a kick in the teeth. He made his feelings known to referee Jon Moss and got a yellow card. He persisted and then got a red.
‘It was a farcical decision,’ said the Villa boss.
‘I’ve not seen a goal like that given. It needs to be looked at. I don’t think anyone in the stadium thought it was a goal.
‘I thought they would go over to the VAR screen. I saw the incident and saw it was kicking off, so I asked the fourth officials if they got juggling balls for Christmas. I still don’t understand the rule.
‘I don’t think anyone can tell me why it’s been given. He (Rodri) took advantage of an offside position. What is Tyrone meant to do? Can you stand 10 yards offside now?’
There was some support and sympathy from Pep Guardiola.
Would the City manager have been upset if that goal was given against his team? ‘Yeah,’ he replied. ‘There is VAR here, no?
‘So, I don’t know the rule or the situation but they analysed it.’
Villa’s resistance was broken and it was perhaps no surprise that City scored a second goal in the 90th minute.
Matty Cash raised an arm to handle Gabriel Jesus’s header from a Riyad Mahrez cross. Moss pointed to the spot and Ilkay Gundogan stepped up to convert.
‘A header from a yard out that has hit his arm,’ seethed Smith. ‘That’s not handball. Ridiculous.’
Amid the rancour it was easy to forget that City had gone top of the table for the first time since August 2019 and are unbeaten in 16 games in all competitions.
The good news came at a cost with Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker going off injured.
City will feel that it shouldn’t have taken so long, and a contentious decision, to see off Villa here.
They had chances throughout and Martinez was in fine form. Ezri Konsa and Cash both blocked efforts from the excellent Phil Foden, Mings got in the way of shots from De Bruyne, Gundogan and just about anybody else you care to mention.
City pushed again in the second period and Joao Cancelo clipped the bar from 20 yards. But the crucial strike came from Silva.
‘He is one of the most intelligent players I’ve seen,’ gushed Guardiola. ‘It was a fantastic goal.’
“I don’t think anyone thought it was a goal”