Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola defended Erling Haaland’s furious reaction after a 3-3 draw against Tottenham Hotspur at the Etihad Stadium, on Sunday. Haaland slammed the referee, Simon Hooper for his decision to stop play after Spurs defender Emerson Royal fouled him but the Norwegian forward was able to pass the ball to Jack Grealish, who was one on one with Lilywhites’ goalkeeper.

Hooper first gave an advantage to the home team but then decided to stop play, which left all the Manchester City players’ and Pep Guardiola furious. In the end, the Cityzens had to settle with a point after Kulusevski scored in the stoppage time with a beautiful header.

Following the draw, Haaland scampered into the tunnel as he was left frustrated. The youngster also wrote on his Twitter, ‘WTF’ and he could be charged by the English Football Association for criticizing the performance of match officials.

“It’s normal,” Guardiola said. “His reaction was the same for 10 players. The rules are you cannot talk with the referees or fourth officials, so we should have had 10 players sent off today. He’s a little bit disappointed.

“Even the referee — if he played for Man City today he would be disappointed for that action, that’s for sure.

“I make mistakes, players make mistakes. When Erling goes down, the ref said play on and after making the pass, he stopped the game.

“I don’t want to criticise him. Sometimes on the touchline I lose my mind, my gestures are not proper, but we didn’t draw for that. Spurs are happy with a point, we are a little less happy.”

In fact, Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou admitted his team got away with that one.

This was Manchester City’s third successive draw, which has happened for the first time since 2017. The Sky Blues will next take on Aston Villa on Wednesday night at the Villa Park.