Dean Smith has raged at the decision that led to Man City’s opener and revealed why Jonathan Moss sent him off. Villa were cruelly undone by Bernardo Silva’s strike just 10 minutes before time while, in the build-up, it was Rodri who pinched the ball off Tyrone Mings despite being more than 10 yards offside. The play continued with Moss not adjudging the Spaniard to be involved in that phase of play – yet it was the midfielder who intercepted Mings after putting him under pressure before Silva picked up the loose ball.
Dean Smith said: “I still don’t understand the rule to be honest. I don’t think anybody here can tell me why the actual goal’s been given. He’s taken advantage of an offside possession. He’s 10 yards offside, comes back and tackles Tyrone Mings from behind. What’s Tyrone meant to do? Let it go through or stand 10 yards off all of the time in the next few games now? I don’t understand. At least go over to the screen. It looked a clear offside. When I realised they weren’t even looking at the screen and VAR didn’t mention anything I just told the fourth official that they had juggling balls for Christmas. You can’t just have people standing offside and taking advantage of an unfair position. Nobody in the stadium thinks that should have been awarded so that tells you (the rule) is wrong. There you go. We’ve got an official who says it’s offside and then he changes his mind. Hence me getting a yellow card for saying they’ve had juggling balls for Christmas.”
