A potentially serious injury setback for Manchester City occurred before their Premier League matchup against Arsenal. This might also have title ramifications. At halftime, Pep Guardiola’s team was comfortably ahead of Aston Villa. But they came back for the second 45 minutes without their leading scorer Erling Haaland.
At the Etihad Stadium, City defeated Villa with ease thanks to goals from Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, and Riyad Mahrez in the first half. Ollie Watkins’ goal in the second half was only a consolation. A first-half collision with Emi Martinez that appeared to be affecting City’s leading scorer. The hosts comfortably up decided not to let him continue further.
Perhaps Mahrez’s decision to not take a late first-half penalty was an early sign of his issue. His substitute, Julian Alvarez, provided an update on his health following the game from Guardiola.
When queried by Sky Sports about the initial severity of Haaland injuries, he responded as follows: “I don’t know, he had a big knock and he wasn’t comfortable. We will see and we will assess in the next days. If he’s not ready, we’ll play another one. Hopefully he’s ready like everyone but we’ll see.”
Read More: Manchester City are hoping that Erling Haaland gets fit for the Premier League game against Arsenal.
Gundogan on Erling Haaland and his performances
With the hope that he will be available for City against Arsenal. Gundogan was all praise for their star striker.
“We know that Erling scored a lot of goals so far, but today in the first half he made the runs that we need,” he said on Sky Sports. “He went into the areas where he can create space for the other players coming from the back, and he played well. Hopefully he is not too injured because we need him.”
Concern understandably rife in Manchester over his injury. Furthermore, Haaland has posted a message to his Instagram following City’s win over Unai Emery’s side. The caption read: “What a team performance! Fans were unreal, thanks for being our 12th man *blue heart emoji* #mancity.”
The 22-year-old does not directly address his injury which could potentially hint that his withdrawal was just precautionary. Guardiola described the injury as a “kick to the leg”, a similar incident happened to Bukayo Saka in Arsenal’s clash with Nottingham Forest although he was then available for the next game which could mean, while Haaland is in immediate discomfort, no lasting damage is prominent.
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