Guardiola fumes at red for goal hero Sterling
AMID the chaos of Manchester City’ s celebrations, Vincent Kompany walked over to Benjamin Mendy, his new £52million teammate, and calmly said: ‘Welcome to the Premier League.’
It was one of those games that demonstrated the pants- on- head madness of this division, where a player can score a winner seven minutes into the five allocated for stoppage time and then get sent off for celebrating.
That’s what happened to Raheem Sterling, who is fast writing himself into the role of saviour in ropy City performances. Six days ago it was a late goal to scrape a point against Everton and here it was an even later one to beat Bournemouth.
From there, he went charging to the sidelines in an eye- bulging frenzy, revelling in the strike that completed the comeback after Gabriel Jesus cancelled out Charlie Daniels’ first-half entry for goal of the season. The City supporters came forward to join him and the referee, Mike Dean, evidently did not like what he saw, giving Sterling his second yellow card in the space of five minutes.
Dean will no doubt contest he was sticking rigidly to his rules, but it was one of those decisions, in one of those moments, that seemed rather heavy handed. Certainly, City manager Pep Guardiola was miffed, having already lost Kyle Walker to a dodgy suspension against Everton.
‘ I would like someone to comment,’ he said. ‘If you cannot celebrate with the fans the best solution is not to invite the fans. So at the end of the game, you score a goal, you can imagine how happy the guy is, and the team, they want to go with our fans.
‘I would like someone to explain about that.’
It was a grumble wrapped in relief, for this was a game in which City had 70 per cent of the posses- sion but also might have lost. Quite aside from trailing to a Daniels goal of pure power from the most absurd of angles, they were also saved by a post when Josh King shot at 1-1 in the second half.
‘If you ask me about my impression of the game I’m going to tell you they were better than us,’ Guardiola admitted. ‘ It was not easy but we continued playing, we kept going and always tried to play and at the end we found our goal.’
That goal meant an unbeaten start to the season and seven points from nine, but already there are questions to be asked, particularly of a defence which was boosted by more than £130million of reinforcements in the summer, yet coughed up numerous opportunities here. The attack will forever create chances, as it should with such insane riches that they could put Sergio Aguero on the bench, but City will need to be far tighter at the other end if they are to win the title.
How Guardiola achieves that remains t o be seen, given he switched to a four-man defence in this game after going with a three in the previous two. He also made four changes to his side, with Mendy, Danilo, Bernardo Silva and Sterling coming in for John Stones, the suspended Walker, Leroy Sane and Aguero.
Of those stepping in, Mendy, on his debut, and Danilo were given almost complete licence to roam forward from left and right-back, a dynamic that made for fast attacks but left plenty of space for Bournemouth counters when possession was lost. They played well and looked dangerous, particularly Mendy, but the covering operation will need to be addressed. Also on City’s agenda will be the Aguero situation, given the surprise of his demotion to the bench. Just as last season, Guardiola does not seem convinced by a striker who by every measure is one of the best in the world. He cut a sulky figure on the sidelines until his introduction on 66 minutes, with Guardiola saying the decision was based on wanting an extra man in midfield.
It wasn’t necessarily an indictment of Aguero’s defensive qualities, but it was hardly an endorsement.
In any case, they could have had 12 in the side and they would not have stopped Daniels’s opener.
It was sensational, a thunderbolt from the left edge of the area that went in off the bar after following one of those beautiful low-to-high trajectories. ‘Incredible,’ said Eddie Howe. ‘I didn’t expect him to shoot from there and didn’t expect it to go in either.’
Jermain Defoe, making his first start, then volleyed at Ederson when Nicolas Otamendi and Mendy left a big hole at the back, before Jesus levelled following a lovely through ball from David Silva.
Jesus and Bernardo Silva then missed decent openings before King and Otamendi hit posts at either end.
With a draw looking certain, City got their break, with Danilo passing into the path of Sterling, who bundled in via Andrew Surman’s ankle. He went to the crowd and was served rough justice, and all the while allegations were being made against Aguero by a steward and Howe was seething about a free-kick given against Lys Moussett in the build-up. Bonkers and brilliant.
Mendy must wonder what he’s gotten into.