Rodri hits out at officials after Man City held by Chelsea: “Come on man!”

Man City were held by Chelsea on Saturday evening with midfielder star Rodri less than impressed by the decisions made by the referee and the lack of VAR intervention

Rodri was left stunned by some of the referee’s decisions

Rodri was left fuming with the refereeing decisions as Manchester City were held by Chelsea on Saturday evening.

The champions had to come from behind to wrestle back a point with their Spanish midfielder hammering home their equaliser with less than ten minutes to go. The hosts though felt they were on the wrong side of several refereeing calls as they sought the three points.

Levi Colwill saw a late handball shout waved away whilst Kyle Walker also felt he should’ve been given a second-half penalty after being bundled over by Raheem Sterling. Rodri made his frustration known after the match after no VAR decisions went in favour of his side.

The Spaniard told Match of the Day: “I don’t want to talk about the referee, but I don’t remember a game with so many VAR checks and none for us – come on man. You always see the face of referee and it’s now ‘move on, move on’.”

City’s stalemate means they lose ground on title rivals Liverpool and Arsenal, who had both won earlier in the day. Pep Guardiola’s side are seeking to win the title for a fourth successive year, a feat never before achieved.

The champions had been on an impressive winning run before Chelsea managed to hold them at the Etihad and, should they secure victory in their game in hand, will close to within a point of leaders Liverpool. Rodri is hopeful that their experience will serve them well in another hotly contested title race.

“There’s still a long way until the end of the season,” he added. “We have to win against Brentford. We were on a very good run and we know none of us three [City, Liverpool and Arsenal] will win every game until the end. We have to have strong mentality and move on to the next one.

Man City saw several penalty shouts waved away

“We have enough experience to know it’s just the beginning of the last part of the season. We want to win but we have to check ourselves and in the first half with our defending we have to be stronger for the rest of the season.”

Guardiola admitted his side failed to show up for the opening 45 minutes: “We played incredibly in the second half. The first half was not our [normal] levels but to compete against these [level of] teams you have to play 90 minutes, not just one half.”

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