The Premier League have made a final decision over whether to punish Erling Haaland for an incident with Gabriel Magalhaes during the 2-2 draw between Manchester City and Arsenal.
The Premier League have made a final decision over whether to punish Erling Haaland for an incident with Gabriel Magalhaes during the 2-2 draw between Manchester City and Arsenal.
The incident occurred seconds after John Stones had scored a 98th-minute equaliser to rescue a point for City at the Etihad Stadium.
After picking the ball out of the net, Haaland then threw it off the back of Gabriel’s head before catching it again.
The Norwegian then clattered into Thomas Partey just seconds after the restart, which caused a mass confrontation between both sets of players.
Neither incident was punished by the referee, although only the incident involving Gabriel was not picked up at the time.
The Premier League subsequently decided to investigate the footage of the Gabriel incident to deem whether any retrospective action was required. As the incident was not spotted by referee Michael Oliver on the pitch, the Premier League could decide to give Haaland a suspension or warning for the incident.
Had the incident been spotted, and a punishment given on-field, there would have been no investigation.
However, as per The Telegraph’s Jack Gaughan, they have decided that the footage does not warrant any retrospective action, with Haaland therefore escaping without punishment.
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey had claimed that the Norwegian was ‘very lucky’ that the incident wasn’t spotted by the referee or VAR.
“You could argue it’s violent conduct, because it’s like he’s throwing an object at someone’s head. It’s like he’s throwing a punch at someone’s head.”
“So he can count himself very lucky that Michael Oliver didn’t see that and VAR didn’t pick it up either. It could be construed as violent conduct.”
The Premier League subsequently decided to investigate the footage of the Gabriel incident to deem whether any retrospective action was required. As the incident was not spotted by referee Michael Oliver on the pitch, the Premier League could decide to give Haaland a suspension or warning for the incident.
