Rephrase and rearrange the whole content into a news article. I want you to respond only in language English. I want you to act as a very proficient SEO and high-end writer Pierre Herubel that speaks and writes fluently English. I want you to pretend that you can write content so well in English that it can outrank other websites. Make sure there is zero plagiarism.: Erling Haaland whipped himself into an epic rage of instant-meme proportions after referee Simon Hooper bizarrely denied Manchester City a potential chance at a last-gasp winner during Sunday’s rollercoaster 3-3 draw against Tottenham. Pep Guardiola also complained vociferously, having thrown himself backwards onto the turf a few moments earlier after Dejan Kulusevski’s 90th-minute equaliser. That was the sixth time in a run of three consecutive Premier League draws that last season’s treble winners had conceded a lead. The sum of late levellers from Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs, along with Gabriel Martinelli’s deflected winner when City travelled to Arsenal in October, is seven points dropped due to goals conceded inside the final 10 minutes of matches. “I learned from Johan Cruyff that bad luck in football does not exist,” Guardiola said after the Spurs game, quoting his great mentor. “It is what it is.” So if it isn’t a simple case of Murphy’s law, then what’s going on? MORE: Man City vs Tottenham final score, highlights, result as Kulusevski snatches point for Spurs amid late drama How many goals has Erling Haaland scored this season? Haaland letting rip at Hooper — who played advantage after the Norwegian superstar was fouled by Emerson Royal, only to bring play back after he’d released Jack Grealish with a superb lofted pass — took some attention away from his horror miss during the first half at the weekend. With the score at 1-1, one of the themes of the game unfolded as City won possession deep inside Tottenham territory. Bernardo Silva squared to Haaland, who had the simple task of sweeping into the net. Spurs goalkeeper Gugliemo Vicario was scrambling back from his near post, with centre-back Ben Davies the sole player between the striker and the goal. The Etihad Stadium crowd were already halfway up to celebrate, only for cheers to be swallowed back into 50,000 throats as Haaland implausibly skewed his shot wide. It’s been a creeping theme of the season that City’s goal machine has put together a catalogue of fairly embarrassing misses. On the other hand, there he is four clear at the top of the Premier League Golden Boot standings. Haaland is also the joint top-scorer in the Champions League this term with five in as many matches. Erling Haaland Premier League stats 2022/23 season 2023/24 season Games played 35 14 Games started 33 14 Goals 36 14 Assists 8 4 Chances created 30 16 Shots 123 56 Shots on target 60 29 Shot conversion rate 29.27% 25% Shot conversion excluding penalties 29% 25.58% Minutes per goal 77.11 86 xG 28.59 14.14 Big chances scored 31 28 Big chances missed 11 15 A few things stand out from the table above. In terms of opportunities that Opta class as “big chances”, Haaland is already more than halfway towards his tally from the entirety of last season. While he tracked very healthily above his xG figure last term, he is about par this time around. As such, his shot conversion rate and minutes per goal numbers are both down. But they’re down from a ludicrously high level. Haaland is still finding the net with one in four of his shots – a rate of efficiency that any elite striker would be delighted with. For context, during his magnificent final campaign with Tottenham in 2022/23, Harry Kane had a non-penalty conversion rate of 20.2%. Haaland is scoring less frequently but still at better than a goal every 90 minutes, once again a rate that most strikers would sell a minor relative to achieve. He’s doing all of this despite his provider-in-chief Kevin De Bruyne being sidelined since the first 20 minutes of the Premier League season. Additionally, as shown by his assist for Grealish at the weekend (that’s the pass for City’s third goal, not the assist that might have been), Haaland’s overall creativity and involvement in his team’s wider attacking play is trending in the right direction. Sure, it would be preferable for him to avoid any more nightmares before Christmas in front of goal, but Haaland’s form is way down any list of concerns for Guardiola and does not explain City’s drop-off. A more obvious place to search for answers is the other end of the field. What’s wrong with Man City’s defence? The FA has charged City with failing to control their players following the reaction to Hooper’s Haaland fiasco. Guardiola should, however, perhaps be more worried about his players failing to control the opposition on the evidence of recent games. Successful title challenges are not built on 4-4 and 3-3 draws, although the City boss is understandably looking to retain a measure of perspective. “The people say, ‘you are concerned about the goals you concede?’, yeah of course but how many chances do we concede? It’s ridiculous. We concede nothing,” he said after the Spurs match. “But every time for our mistakes or the quality of the opponents we concede a goal and it’s more difficult.” At the weekend, City’s xG of 2.57 dwarfed Tottenham’s 0.46 and, as the table below shows, their defence measures up very well to their Premier League counterparts this season in terms of chances and the quality of chances conceded. 2023/24 defensive records in the Premier League and UEFA competitions Games played Goals conceded Shots on target faces xG Against Arsenal 19 14 48 13.71 Newcastle 19 19 84 24.97 Liverpool 19 19 72 21.64 Man City 19 21 50 14.44 West Ham 19 28 91 29.15 Man United 19 31 104 34.81 Brighton 19 31 83 26.44 Of the Premier League teams taking part in European competition this season, only Arsenal have conceded fewer shots on target and have a lower xG against than City. On paper, Newcastle and Liverpool have slightly better defensive records but owe much of this to the heroics of Nick Pope and Alisson. City are in one of those trots that can afflict Guardiola teams — tasked as they are with defending wide open spaces behind a high defensive line — where most things the opposition touch fly into the net. However, as solid as the underlying numbers are, the champions do not pass the eye test right now. Between a similarly crazy game against Tottenham on January 19, which City won 4-2 from 2-0 down, and the 4-4 draw at Chelsea last month, Guardiola’s team played 46 times across the three competitions they lifted in the summer, conceding just 28 times. In only one of those matches — a 2-1 defeat at Wolves this season where the hosts had three shots and benefitted from a Ruben Dias own goal — did they concede more than once. In City’s past four games, the three Premier League draws and a topsy-turvy 3-2 win against RB Leipzig in the Champions League, they’ve conceded two or more three times. Individual errors have played a part, with Dias culpable on a few occasions lately. The Portugal international is the sort of centre defender fans love when things are going well, all last-ditch blocks and death-or-glory tackles. When such a front foot style is a bit off, it can look terrible. This is where the eye test has to come in alongside the numbers. City’s defenders are having to do more of that stuff than they did on their march to the treble. The team around and in front of them is nowhere near as stable right now. The obvious reason for this is the players Guardiola is missing. The failure to secure Ilkay Gundogan on a new contract and seeing the club captain depart on a free transfer to Barcelona over the summer was a rare misstep from director of football Txiki Begiristain. Gundogan was one of these cherished Guardiola players who can provide control and set the tempo of the game. John Stones, who was a revelation in a hybrid defender/midfielder role last season, is another. Injuries have restricted the England international to three Premier League starts this season. City won all three games. Bernardo Silva and Grealish also fulfilled Guardiola’s pausa brief on the wings as the Champions League campaign reached its crescendo. Grealish’s weekend goal came from…
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