Manchester City picked up their ninth Premier League win on the trot with yet another dynamic performance. Arsene Wenger takes aim at referees yet again and comments on Alexis Sanchez's state of mind following Arsenal's latest defeat. Pep Guardiola credits Manchester City's mental fortitude to outlast Arsenal after their difficult UCL trip midweek.
Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has come out in defence of Michael Oliver's awarding of a penalty to Manchester City's "clever" Raheem Sterling in Sunday's 3-1 defeat of Arsenal.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger blasted the "unacceptable" refereeing of Oliver for awarding Sterling a penalty after going down under a challenge from Nacho Monreal. City led 1-0 at that point before Sergio Aguero converted from the spot in the 50th minute.
While admitting Sterling was "clever" for slowing down to ensure there would be contact, Clattenburg said Oliver made the correct decision.
"Michael Oliver was right to award a penalty for Nacho Monreal's challenge on Raheem Sterling," he told The Times. "It is very clever of Sterling because he slows down so that there is always going to be contact from Monreal, who cannot stop quickly enough."
Arsenal were not happy with Michael Oliver's refereeing on Sunday.
Commenting on Wenger's insistence that Sterling "dives well," Clattenburg added: "While he has been guilty of such things in the past, this is a foul. It is not clear-cut enough to say that every referee would have given it, but Wenger would have wanted a penalty if the same thing had happened to an Arsenal player."
Clattenburg did, however, say Wenger had the right to feel aggrieved after City's third goal, which Gabriel Jesus scored despite calls for offside.
"Wenger has more justification to be annoyed about the third goal because even as a referee I thought, 'That looked yards offside,' when I first saw it," he said.
"It usually comes down to a few centimetres but David Silva had one leg and a part of the body that could score a goal beyond the last man. I was surprised that Wenger was not more angry about that last one."
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Source: espn.co.uk