Swansea 1 Manchester City 3 – Referee Assists In City Win

And it becomes doubly painful when you remember John Stones just deciding it was better to take out Van Der Hoorn in the penalty area in the first half with no effort to play the ball but that went completely unpunished.

I remember Blackpool fans telling us on promotion back in 2011 that all the decisions would go in the favour of the big teams and it proved today certainly for the key ones to be the case and it was an amazed feeling at the Liberty when the penalty was given.

Even opposition manager Pep Guardiola seemed to be a little mystified when interviewed on Five live after the game with a simple “I didn’t see it” which is the standard manager speak for effectively saying your team just got a free decision.

Two weeks back all the discussion after Chelsea left the Liberty Stadium was about a decision that went the Swans way so it will be interesting to see if the media pundits are as critical of the two outlined in the first parts of this report which could have given a very different outcome to the game.

It was a much improved Swansea performance today and one that has to give hope for the future with the team taking the game to their opponents who came into the match on the back of nine wins from nine this season.

Naturally we all feared the worst when Sergio Aguero opened the scoring inside ten minutes having made the Swans defence look very static but it was just four minutes later that Fernando Llorente struck a sweet finish to bring the scores back level and to lift what was a worried atmosphere at the Liberty.

For the rest of the first half the two sides slugged it out and to be fair the Swans matched Manchester City for possession and chances. It was an excellent performance built from what looked to be a much more solid defence and it would be extremely disappointing to see Van Der Hoorn not keep his place next weekend when another one of the country’s form sides in Liverpool arrive in South Wales.

The second had started in equal fashion with both sides creating chances when the referee made the decision that ultimately changed the game. City scored again from a breakaway and could have had more but we can leave this game with our heads held high and ruing a decision that should not have been given.

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