Football

City win, goal-line failure as Premier League returns with all the drama

Manchester City romped to an impressive 3-0 win over Arsenal to further delay Liverpool’s coronation as the Premier League restarted without fans but definitely all the drama.

The game marked a return to the Etihad for Arsenal Manager, Mikel Arteta and it was an unhappy one as David Luis produced a calamitous night, culminating in a red card that left the Gunners with 10 men for most of the game.

Raheem Sterling, Kevin Debryne from the spot and young Phil Foden were amongst the goals with De Bryne particularly impressive.

However, a nasty injury late on to Eric García, who collided with his goalkeeper, Ederson as the Brazilian came out of his area to head a through-ball away led to Garcia being stretchered out in a neck brace and the game delayed for 11 minutes.

The first game of the night between Aston Villa and Sheffield United ended goalless but it really should have been won by United whose goal was overlooked by the referee following a failure of the Hawkeye system. The system failed to activate when Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland carried an Oliver Norwood free-kick over the line. Hawkeye did not signal that the ball had crossed the line and VAR was not activated.

It was a new talking point in a season dominated by controversial VAR decisions.

Tom Kirkwood

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