I’M BACK IN THE GOAL ROUTINE SAYS ERLING
JAMES TARKOWSKI reckoned Everton were the victims of an incorrect refereeing decision that ultimately led to defeat at Manchester City.
The Toffees centre-back (right) claimed the corner from which the champions scored their opener should not have been given as it came off the head of City star Ruben Dias. “We got punished by a dubious corner,” said Tarkowski.
“For me, Dominic Calvertlewin was trying to head it one way and I think it was Dias
ERLING HAALAND relished being back on the scoresheet and vowed to help City extend their winning run.
Victory over Everton was City’s 10th in a row in all competitions, with Haaland’s brace his first goals since November 28 after a two-month injury lay-off.
“It’s good to be back,” said the Norwegian, who took his goal tally for the season to 21. “I missed that feeling. I’ve been missing it a lot, so it’s good to be back.
“We just need to be up there and we know what we need to do. We need to keep on winning.
“We’ve been winning a lot whilst I’ve been injured so we just need to keep going and doing that. We’re up there, but there are several other good teams. We’re good as well and we have to take it game by game. “We knew what was going to happen, we knew it was going to be tight, but we managed to turn it in our favour. It was a difficult game but we’re a really good team and we managed to win for an important three points.” City defender John Stones echoed team-mate Haaland and said: “It was all about getting the three points. I say it every season but we focus on the next one now.”
City’s 10 victims in that winning run were Urawa Red Diamonds and Fluminese in the Club World Cup, Everton, Sheffield United, Huddersfield (FA Cup), Newcastle, Spurs (FA
Cup), Burnley, Brentford, and Everton again.
Six of those 10 victories for City’s manager boss Pep Guardiola (left) came with a clean sheet. trying to head it the other way.
“It goes where Dias heads it and then they get the corner again. So, once again, another decision goes against us but there’s nothing we can do about that.
“I just don’t feel like there’s many that have gone our way. I don’t remember sitting back and thinking: ‘Oh, that’s gone in our favour.’
“Then you go and speak to the ref and it’s like: ‘We’ll look at it.’ Well, it’s no good looking at it now, is it? We need you to look at it on the pitch and get it right. They say: ‘We apologise for this, we apologise for that,’ but that’s not good enough. It doesn’t give us a draw or a point or a win or whatever it is.
“So it does feel like a lot has gone against us more than for us. That’s the way this season has been so far for us.”
Everton’s next game is at home to struggling Crystal Palace a week today.