Erling Haaland will not face punishment for throwing the ball at Gabriel Magalhães in the aftermath of Manchester City ‘s stoppage-time equaliser against Arsenal , a source has told ESPN.
A video showed Haaland hitting the Arsenal defender on the back of the head with the ball after John Stones scored to tie the game at 2-2 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The event was missed by Michael Oliver, the judge on the field, but Video Assistant judge John Brooks saw it and decided it did not involve violence.
ESPN’s source said that the FA are pleased that the problem was fixed at the time and that Haaland will not have to deal with action from the past.
Before the game, Haaland scored the goal that put City ahead 1-0. After the game, he got into a heated argument with both Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and striker Gabriel Jesus.
Arsenal tried to play out the second half with 10 men after Leandro Trossard was sent off, which made City players angry because they thought Arsenal was wasting time.
“We have to defend ourselves because they went down in every battle and every free kick,” said Manuel Akanji, a defender for City.
“Players go down to the ground, sprint back up, and go down again. Someone from their team told the goalkeeper to go down, and other things like that.”
“I mean, we can’t do anything about it.” At the end of the day, it’s up to the referee to handle these events and the whole season. We can’t do anything else about it, though.
After the game, Sky Sports cameras caught Haaland getting into a fight with Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus. Before the fight, Haaland had told Arteta to “stay humble” while the Arsenal boss shook hands with players on the field.
The Norway player told the Arsenal manager, “Stay humble, stay humble,” but the manager didn’t answer. After that, Haaland got into an angry argument with Jesus, calling the Arsenal forward a “clown” twice.