Frustrated Erling Haaland pushes away camera after Chelsea draw

Manchester — Erling Haaland pushed aside a television camera after the final whistle on Saturday, his frustration spilling over after he took nine shots but scored no goals for the first time in his Manchester City career.

Rodri netted a late equaliser to salvage a 1-1 home draw for the champions against Chelsea as they avoided their first loss at the Etihad in 15 months.

“That’s good, it’s good to have nine shots,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “Next game he is going to score. I was a football player, I played 11 years, I scored 11 goals. One goal a season. It’s football, it’s human beings.”

As the players gathered on the pitch after the final whistle, Haaland pushed aside a live television camera focused on the striker’s face.

Haaland, who rewrote the scoring record books in his Premier League debut season in 2023, continued his prolific form before a broken foot sidelined him for nearly two months. He scored twice in City’s 2-0 win over Everton the previous weekend to reclaim being the league’s leading scorer with 16 goals.

City remained third in the table on 53 points, four behind leaders Liverpool and two adrift of Arsenal, but with a game in hand. They can climb to second with victory over visiting Brentford on Tuesday.

“If Haaland put away the chances we’re not even talking about this,” former City player Micah Richards said on Sky Sports. However I never worry about Haaland. His mentality is completely different to most strikers in world football. He always gets an opportunity.

“He misses a lot of chances — if he wasn’t getting these chances, that’s when I would be worried.”

Raheem Sterling scored for Chelsea against his former team in the 42nd minute from a counterattack, beating City defender Kyle Walker before curling the ball past keeper Ederson.

Also on Saturday, Darwin Nunez scored with an exquisite chip as Liverpool kept their foot on the throttle in the title race with a 4-1 win at Brentford to go provisionally five points clear at the summit.

Nunez’s first-half effort opened the scoring, and goals after the break from Alexis Mac Allister and the returning Mohamed Salah effectively ended the contest.

Ivan Toney pulled one back for Brentford, but Cody Gakpo grabbed Liverpool’s fourth to wrap up a comfortable win for the visitors.

Bukayo Saka scored either side of half time as Arsenal crushed second-from-bottom Burnley 5-0 at Turf Moor to go second and keep the pressure on Liverpool.

Reuters