Sterling’s hat-trick breaks resilient Watford
The rise of Raheem Sterling is partly due to Pep Guardiola at Man City
Premier League champions Manchester City faced Watford in the late kickoff on Saturday. Javi Garcia’s side sit seventh on the table and were incredibly resilient for the first 45 minutes. Watford learnt from their mistakes at Anfield and did not use the 4-4-1 formation which gave plenty of space to Liverpool who tore them apart.
Against City, they went all defensive and their striker Troy Deeney had to play like a central defensive midfielder with every Watford player behind him for most parts of the game. The tactic worked and City made few chances in the first half. The best chance of the half came to City’s all time leading goal scorer. Bernardo Silva picked Sergio Aguero who was lurking in the far post. The striker who should have scored only manged to head the ball narrowly wide.
Manchester stepped up the tempo in the second half and Raheem Sterling scored the controversial opener. Sergio Aguero chested the ball towards the English attacker who was in an offside position but the ball got a negligible touch of Watford defender Daryl Janmaat before it reached Sterling. The former Liverpool winger calmly curled his shot past Ben Foster to give City a deserving lead. The linesman flagged it offside but referee Paul Tierney after a two-minute discussion with his assistant gave the goal to City.
The referee could have deemed the touch from Janmaat as the one that played Sterling onside. However, it could also be argued that Sterling was making an attempt to play the ball from an offside position and was therefore influencing the play when Jamaat got the touch. Refereeing decisions in these type of situations are a matter of interpretation and this could be one situation where VAR would have helped the officials.
Sterling quickly put the match to bed by tapping in a low cross to the far post from Riyad Mahrez. It was all Sterling in the second half – the English winger received a through-ball from David Silva, used his pace and took a sharp right cut to beat two Watford players and scored his third. Sterling has scored 15 goals so far in the league this season. Troy Deeney won a header from a long-ball, which reached Gerard Deulofeu with the City left-back Zinchenko caught out of position. The former Barcelona man made no mistake and scored to reduce the deficit to two goals. The match ended 3-1 and the champions are now 4 points clear of Liverpool who have a game in hand.
When the Manchester City manager was questioned about the controversial penalty, Pep Guardiola showed his class by apologising to Javi Garcia and Watford if the goal was offside but clearly stated he doesn’t know how the rule is interpreted anymore. He said “One referee says it is offside and another says it is onside”. The City boss also quashed all rumours linking him to Juventus and confirmed he will stay at City.
Manchester City are one of the clubs that voted for VAR to be introduced this season but other clubs voted against them. VAR is about to be introduced into the English game next season and the Manager is optimistic that it will improve refereeing with the game being played at a faster pace than the old days.
With one more complicated fixture out of the way, City are inching closer towards retaining the Premier League crown. Liverpool face Burnley on Sunday and have the opportunity to reduce the gap at the top to just 1 point.
LosMejor's Editorial Team includes a team of experts who cover the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. The Editorial team is headed by Deepak Selvan.
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