Haaland injury a worry for Man City as they take on Arsenal
Guardiola to assess whether striker can play in top-of-the-table clash
Manchester — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola faces a worrying few days ahead of Wednesday’s title battle at Arsenal after Erling Haaland was forced off with an injury on Sunday.
The Norwegian has scored 25 goals in 21 Premier League appearances since arriving in England and created City’s second goal for Ilkay Gundogan in the 3-1 defeat of Aston Villa.
But he failed to emerge for the second half and Guardiola sounded less than confident about his chances of playing at Arsenal when City could go top.
“Haaland had a knock, he was uncomfortable. At 3-0 we don’t want to take risks,” Guardiola said. “We’ll see and assess in the next days. If he is not ready, we play another one. Hopefully he’s ready but we will see.”
City produced a defiant response to the Premier League’s charge sheet as they comfortably beat Villa 3-1 to close to within three points of leaders Arsenal.
Goals by Rodri, Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez put the result beyond doubt by halftime as City got back on track after last weekend’s loss at Tottenham Hotspur.
With the club facing more than 100 charges relating to alleged financial misconduct the home fans were in belligerent mood at the Etihad Stadium with a series of ironic chants and voicing support for the club’s owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
On the pitch, City’s players showed they have not been distracted by the developments as they effectively wrapped up the points before the halftime whistle.
Guardiola’s side needed four minutes to take the lead when Rodri headed in Riyad Mahrez’s corner and they were cruising in the 39th minute when Haaland was forced wide after racing on to a Kevin de Bruyne pass but showed great vision to set up Gundogan for a side-foot finish.
Villa were left with mission impossible when Mahrez tucked away a penalty in first-half stoppage time after Jacob Ramsey was adjudged to have tripped former Villa player Jack Grealish.
Ollie Watkins scored for the third successive league match to reduce the deficit on the hour mark and Villa also struck the woodwork through substitute Jhon Duran late on, but City never looked in any real danger of dropping points.
The win set up Wednesday’s clash at Arsenal beautifully. “It's going to be a tough game,” Gundogan told Sky Sports. “We are looking forward to it and know how tough it will be.”
Reuters