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Premier League: Manchester City get back to winning ways, Liverpool on top of Wolves in VAR vanity

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Wolverhampton Wanderers' Moroccan midfielder Romain Saiss (C) sends a shot high over the bar during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England, on December 29, 2019. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)


Defending Premier League champions Manchester City got back to winning ways after defeating Sheffield United 2-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday. Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne were on the scoresheet in the second half for the Pep Guardiola-led side.

City were dismal in the first half and fatigue seemed to have taken its toll following an embarrassing 3-2 defeat against Wolves two days back. Sheffield were the better team in the opening 45 minutes and even had a goal ruled out by the VAR.

However, with better individual quality at their disposal, City drew the first blood when Aguero smashed a delivery off De Bruyne in the 52nd minute to put the hosts in the lead.

The Blues of Manchester raised their ante to some level and looked more positive on their intent. The second goal came in the 82nd minute when Riyad Mahrez found De Bruyne in the left channel for the latter to shoot the ball into the back of the net through the bottom-left corner.

“Today I understood why Sheffield United are in the place they’re in the table,” said Guardiola. In the first half, we had problems, we changed some things and the second half was much, much better,” Guardiola was quoted as saying by AFP after the match.

VAR vanity at Anfield

Liverpool saw two controversial VAR decisions helping them to re-establish their 13-point lead at the top as they beat Wolves 1-0 at the Anfield.

Sadio Mane scored the only goal of the night which saw VAR denying Wolves a fortune. Mane’s goal was initially cancelled by the on-field referee for a hand-ball by Adam Lallana in the build-up. However, the VAR overturned the decision in Liverpool’s favour as there was no “conclusive” evidence against Lallana.

Moments later, Wolves had equalised when Pedro Neito smashed one low into the net beating Alisson Becker. But VAR came into the play again and denied the equaliser as Jonny Otto’s arm was found marginally offside before he had squared the ball to Neito.

“We feel massively hard done by, I can’t get my head around it. It is ridiculous. For me it is not working. Some people are saying it gets the right decision but we’re the players on the pitch and it doesn’t feel right to me,” Wolves captain Connor Coady said after the match.

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