Pep Guardiola hits out at referee Anthony Taylor after Manchester City victory

Pep Guardiola hit out at referee Anthony Taylor despite watching his side beat Bournemouth 3-1 to go back up to second in the Premier League.

Erling Haaland scored a brace, either side of a disputed Bournemouth equaliser scored by Tyler Adams, before Nico O’Reilly’s second-half strike settled it.

Even though City eventually won comfortably, they were left fuming that Adams’ goal stood after Bournemouth skipper David Brooks tangled with Gianluigi Donnarumma as he defended a corner – with the City goalkeeper claiming he had been tugged as he went to punch clear.

VAR Paul Tierney backed Taylor’s view that contact had been incidental – to the fury of Donnarumma who was booked.

After the game Guardiola suggested he has become accustomed to decisions going against his team during his time in the Premier League.

“We conceded I’m sorry to tell you an unbelievable goal for the official,” Guardiola said. “I’m one decade here and we know each other quite well, I’m so pleased with what we achieved with Man City despite everything…

“Come on, it’s 10 years. So I know them…I don’t call (the officials). I don’t have time. My schedule is three games, I have games. I don’t have time to waste my time talking. No, no, absolutely not.

“I said to him after when we see each other, tell me if it’s a foul or not because I’m waiting. If it’s a foul or not, just tell me. Just take a look. It’s fine. They’re brave here. In the Etihad they are brave, so brave.”

Haaland’s brace took him to 13 goals in 10 Premier League appearances this season. The problem for City is that their next highest scorer is Burnley defender Maxime Esteve, who put the ball into his own net twice at the Etihad in September, with no other City player having more than one goal.

“Without him, it would be tough!” Guardiola said of Haaland.

Asked if he can be compared with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Guardiola added: “Of course he’s at that level. The difference of Cristiano and Messi is the numbers have been for 15 years. Messi is in MLS and still scores two or three goals every day, Cristiano in Saudi is the same.

“But he’s at that level.”

Defeat for Bournemouth was their first in the league since the opening day of the season, and one that means they keep the unwanted record of having lost on every league visit to the Etihad.

Andoni Iraola’s side have enjoyed great success so far this campaign playing with a high line, but here it was ruthlessly exposed by the pace of Haaland in the first half.

“We played a decent game but decent is not enough to take something from this kind of stadium, you need to have something special,” Iraola said.

“In the first half they punished us with Haaland. The way we want to play, we accept there is a risk behind the defensive line and probably the combination of the new centre-backs has not been spot on.

“Against other players maybe you have time to correct but against Haaland if you lose one metre it’s impossible to recover.”