Manchester City suffered a shocking 2-1 defeat at the hands of Newcastle United at Saint James’ Park on Tuesday night, and their hopes of retaining the Premier League title were dealt a massive blow in the process.
Sergio Aguero scored 24 seconds after the game started, making it seem the hosts were in for a long night.
The Argentine was celebrating a second in the 18th minute, but referee Paul Tierney ruled the goal out after Kevin De Bruyne was a little too eager in executing a quickly taken free-kick.
The Belgium midfielder was booked instead, and City couldn’t find another goal.
Salomon Rondon grabbed Newcastle’s equalizer with 24 minutes remaining, while Matt Ritchie calmly converted from the spot after Fernandinho brought down Sean Longstaff in the box with 10 minutes to play.
City boss Pep Guardiola won’t be happy with the result as Liverpool can now go seven points clear with a victory over Leicester City tonight, and the Spaniard, like most fans, would have been left wondering why Tierney ruled out Aguero’s goal.
“Manchester City can have no complaints with Paul Tierney for disallowing Sergio Aguero’s goal that would have put them 2-0 up. At any free-kick, the referee will ask the attacking team if they want to take it quickly,” Clattenburg told Sportsmail.
“If that offer is declined, the referee will mark the defensive wall. The attacking team then have to wait for the referee’s whistle before they can take the free-kick. On Tuesday night, Tierney clearly showed his whistle to De Bruyne — a technique referees use to tell players to wait for the restart. But De Bruyne took it quickly and was booked.
“Tierney also made the right call in the 61st minute when he did not show De Bruyne a second yellow card — his foul on Matt Ritchie merited nothing more than a free-kick. But City boss Pep Guardiola took off the playmaker a few minutes later as he knew one more bad tackle could see De Bruyne sent off.”
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