PGMOL chief Howard Webb has publicly defended the decision to rule out Virgil van Dijk’s header against Manchester City, responding directly to Arne Slot’s complaints about inconsistency.

After an unusually long delay, the assistant referee raised his flag, judging that Andy Robertson was offside and “deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper.” Neither Van Dijk nor Slot were impressed. VAR stood by the on-field call.

Webb set out the officials’ reasoning in detail. “As the ball moves towards Robertson—three yards out from goal in the middle of the six-yard box—he makes that clear action to duck below the ball,” the referees chief explained on Match Officials Mic’d Up . “It goes just over his head and finds the goal in the half of the six-yard box where he is.

“The officials have to make a judgement, did that clear action impact on the goalkeeper and his ability to save the ball? That’s where the subjectivity comes into play. They looked at that action so close to the goalkeeper and formed that opinion.

“I know that’s not a view held by everybody but it’s not unreasonable to understand why [the officials] would form that conclusion when the player is so close to the goalkeeper, the ball is coming right towards him and he has to duck to get out of the way.

“They form the conclusion that it impacts [Gianluigi] Donnarumma’s ability to dive towards the ball and make the save.

“Once they’ve made that on-field decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide, ‘Was the outcome clearly and obviously wrong?’ Only Donnarumma truly knows if he was impacted by this and we have to look at the factual evidence.”

Slot was shown a previous case by a member of Liverpool’s staff. “Immediately after the game, someone showed me the goal that the same referee allowed—City against Wolves last season,” he crowed. That Molineux incident in October 2024 saw John Stones’s 95th-minute winner stand despite Bernardo Silva moving out of the ball’s path while stood in an offside position. On that occasion the on-field decision was overturned. As the Premier League explained at the time: “VAR deemed Bernardo Silva wasn’t in the line of vision and had no impact on the goalkeeper.”

Webb rejected the comparison. “There’s a clear difference here in that the ball goes directly over Sá’s head and doesn’t go over the head of Silva,” he sniffed. “He is in an offside position, importantly he moves away from the flight of the ball. ]”

Pep Guardiola delivered a clear message to Premier League rivals after Sunday’s victory over Liverpool, insisting Manchester City have regained the form that underpinned their run of four straight titles between 2021 and 2024. City have lost just once in their last 14 games across all competitions, a sequence that Guardiola says demonstrates a return of energy within the squad.

“I have the feeling the energy [is] back,” Guardiola confessed as he celebrated his 1,000th game in management. “We are more unpredictable in the way we attack and defend and that is good that the opponents don’t know what we are going to do.

“Last season it didn’t happen, we didn’t handle it well because apparently we didn’t have another target to fight. Nobody had done four titles in a row and we did it and we thought, ‘What’s next?’

“I think the four Premier Leagues in a row affected us in a really bad way. It can be understandable a little bit. We tried to push each other but we were not able to do it.

“Since the Club World Cup, I felt something different in general. It’s nice to still have the feeling that we are back in terms of many things.”

Arsenal remain in a comfortable position atop the standings, but pundit Gary Neville suggested City can maintain pressure for the rest of the season and warned the champions are beginning to look unpredictably dangerous.

“You would come into [City] games knowing the outcome, but now when you watch City you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen,” he told The Gary Neville Podcast. “They are imperfect. They are a lot more physical… they’re very different in terms of not being as methodical, not as good at playing out from the back, but they are still a very good side.

“If City can keep some momentum going, they’re going to be really, really dangerous towards the end of the season because of their experience.

“Pep Guardiola will be thinking, ‘Come on, let me hang on Mikel Arteta’s shoulder until March, let me be close enough to him to apply that pressure.’ He’s the one you wouldn’t want near you.

“It’s going to be really interesting what happens with City. I would say that they’ve still got to convince me that they’re going to win a title—Arsenal are the better team—but they’re the one team and the one manager I wouldn’t want on your shoulder going down the back straight.”

Neville also refused to rule Liverpool out of a late challenge. “If it clicked, something could happen,” he said. “If they can pull it together with the manager who had a great first season and get something going with the younger players, maybe they can still do something.

“But today was a worry because it was a really, really poor performance. They need to have a good look at themselves and they’ll know they’re nowhere near it at this moment in time.”

Manchester City’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool was defined by a tactical assignment executed with precision. Pep Guardiola singled out Nico O’Reilly after the match, praising a fullback who succeeded in containing Mohamed Salah while habitually occupying the space vacated by Liverpool’s winger. “Salah has been a nightmare for many years with his speed. He’s top.”

Guardiola revealed the brief was clear. “We said to Nico that he had to be aggressive,” he said. “Every time Mo had the ball, he was helped with one or two central defenders—and Jérémy [Doku] and Bernardo [Silva] and Phil [Foden]. Nico made a step up because you have to prove how you behave against the best wingers. It is no bad example to do that against Salah.”

O’Reilly is a 20-year-old who began life as a midfielder and, in Guardiola’s view, that background has been crucial. “He has many, many good attributes, but this aggression and intensity in the duels happened because he was a No. 8 and No. 10 in the academy,” the manager added. “I’m so pleased with the way he is performing.”

On the day, Salah failed to register a shot on target. That lack of offensive impact was matched by persistent questions about his defensive involvement. Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella had earlier drawn attention to Salah’s limited tracking back after he set up a winning goal against Liverpool last month, and at the Etihad this weekend O’Reilly’s unchecked canters forward created the space for Doku to exploit.

Sunday’s outstanding performer, even above O’Reilly, showed he could beat two Liverpool players on his own but was often presented with one-on-one opportunities because O’Reilly’s forward underlaps drew attention away from him. On tactics and responsibility, Wayne Rooney summed up a wider expectation: “Salah is in the team to score goals and create goals. He’s been one of the best players in the Premier League over the last six or seven years. But in big games, you have to double up.”