CROWD Pep’s fans
MANCHESTER CITY’S fans answered Pep Guardiola’s call to arms. It was his team that didn’t turn up.
After Guardiola’s poorly thought out invitation for the City faithful to fill The Etihad, it was rocking as fans made their voices heard.
The Catalan was sheepish after the champions produced a performance that suggested the head of the supporters’ club had a point when he told Guardiola to stick to coaching. City’s only effort on target came when Phil
Foden’s last-minute header was brilliantly saved by Alex McCarthy.
Raheem Sterling poked home the rebound to send the fans into a frenzy only for a VAR check to confirm the assistant referee’s belief the City striker was offside.
Guardiola said: “We weren’t good in the build-up. We lost simple balls in our process. We weren’t clever today. It was a bit sloppy.
“We didn’t not win because we didn’t have a centre-forward. It was because the process wasn’t enough to give them chances.
“We had just one shot on target but there were blocks in the six-yard box.
“But the reason we played like this was because we didn’t produce the process from the back four.”
Defeat would have been cruel on Saints. Guardiola was right about one thing – Ralph
Hasenhuttl’s visitors were a stubborn proposition.
In fact, they will be wondering why they didn’t fly back to the south coast with three points.
Southampton suffered their own VAR agony on the hour when referee Jon Moss awarded a penalty for Kyle Walker’s challenge on Adam Armstrong – only to change his mind after being summoned to the pitchside monitor.
Hasenhuttl said: “We had the feeling it was not a clear wrong decision so the ref should not have overruled it. But he did and
it’s a pity for us because we have to accept it.
“We know if we wanted to win we had to have the perfect day and tactically and football-wise it was nearly perfect.
“To not get a penalty from the referee was not perfect.
“When you play like we did in the second half and hear the crowd starting to boo, you know you’re doing something right. The only thing that was missing was the final punch.
“We had some very good moments and we should have killed them off. That is the only criticism.” The first chant that greeted Guardiola and his team was, ‘We’re not really here’ at the start of a tough afternoon.
For most of the first half it was the hosts who did a disappearing act as Southampton camped in City’s half.
Eventually, a sweeping move involving Ilkay Gundogan, Sterling and Gabriel Jesus ended with Bernardo Silva sliding in just too late to convert the Brazilian striker’s cross.
And Jesus’ crashing half-volley was then headed away by Jan Bednarek before Saints saw fellow defender Jack Stephens limp off eight minutes before the half-time interval.
But City didn’t improve after the break, a string of sloppy passes giving Saints encouragement that they could land a shock.
Guardiola had seen enough before the hour and summoned Kevin De Bruyne from the bench to try to win the game.
By the time the Belgian was stripped his task might have changed, with Moss having a change of heart about his red card for Walker’s vital challenge on Armstrong after the striker had tricked his way past Ruben Dias. Foden and Riyad Mahrez also came on but Southampton’s grip on the game only slipped briefly when Foden’s downward header was saved by McCarthy and Sterling turned the ball home only for the offside flag to kill the celebrations.
Hasenhuttl said: “I was thinking, ‘That’s not fair, not now.’
“I was hoping it was offside but the longer the VAR takes the more nervous you become thinking it could be a goal.
“We deserved to get something, I thought.”