Manchester City turned the Premier League title race on its head by dealing Arsenal their first home loss in the league this season on Wednesday.
In a game that provided rare competition to the mid-week Champions League clashes, the battle between the title challengers was a nail-biting affair.
It was full of drama. The game contained impressive goals, silly mistakes, and controversial decisions by the referee, Kevin de Bruyne tugging it out with his ex-coach Mikel Arteta. Of course, it also had a penalty!
City took a rather fortunate lead thanks to Takehiro Tomiyasu’s poor pass being pounced on by Kevin de Bruyne, who managed to beat Aaron Ramsdale to the chase and score a clever goal. After that, Arsenal put their foot on the gas and threatened the visitors with a barrage of attacks.
The Citizens were clearly rattled by it as well, with Ederson getting himself booked in the first half for time wasting!
The Brazilian goalkeeper would see things go from bad to worse for him as the half progressed, as he ended up giving away a penalty before half-time.
With Granit Xhaka playing Eddie Nketiah through on goal, the English forward managed to slip a shot past Ederson – who absolutely clattered him while trying to save the attempt. The shot was cleared off the line, but the referee pointed to the spot after witnessing the foul.
The City players were fuming as they believed Ederson had made no error and was trying to save the ball. VAR, however, disagreed and after a lengthy look – they green-lit the penalty as well. Bukayo Saka decided to take responsibility for the penalty, with huge pressure on his shoulders.
In an attempt to throw his opponent off his game, Ederson started playing some mind games in the run-up to the penalty. He used the predictable schtick of goalkeepers often trying to confuse penalty-takers by pointing to which side they should direct their effort.
He directed Saka to hit his penalty to his right-hand side in the run-up. However, after the Arsenal winger struck it, he ended up diving to his left side – only to see Saka do exactly what he wanted him to do.
The Englishman definitely won the case of mind games and ended up trolling Ederson in the best way possible.
Ederson clearly wasn’t at his best on the day and his hilarious actions have gone viral overnight. Man City fans, however, aren’t too impressed and were left fuming at his silly penalty antics.
Some Manchester United fans also started to compare his technique with what Edwin van der Sar did in the 2008 Champions League final penalty shootout to confuse Nicolas Anelka into hitting the exact way in which he could’ve made the save.
While there is little doubt about how good Ederson is in distributing and has mastered the ‘modern goalkeeper’ style, there is still a lot for him to learn about saving penalties.
Fortunately for the Brazilian star, his blushes were saved by his teammates – with Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland scoring in the second half to help the Citizens surge to the top of the Premier League table and take control of the title race.
