David Luiz could consider himself lucky to finish the Manchester City game in one piece after a late horror tackle from Sergio Aguero on Saturday, which could have put the defensive superstar out of action for quite some time. The Brazilian was an instrumental key figure at the back of the Chelsea defense in a 3-1 victory at Manchester City, which had a chaotic end to the game. Chelsea opened a three point lead at the top as Arsenal sit second, with the win and the Blues have now got eight successive wins on a streak in the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola’s City took the lead when Gary Cahill put the ball in his own net after half-time and will particularly bemoan the failure of referee Anthony Taylor to miss Luiz’s apparent shove on Sergio Aguero that would have probably sent him off being the last Chelsea man in defense.
That perhaps explained the late and frustrating tackle made Aguero on Luiz, who received his second red card of the season.
Chelsea struck back with Diego Costa being the architect of the comeback as he scored and assisted Willian to turn the game around in the second period while Eden Hazard clinched the victory in the 90th minute.
By then, Manchester City were fuming. The match ended on a sour note with Aguero making a two footed challenge on David Luiz which left the 29 year old on the floor clutching his right leg, admittedly the same incident saw Fernandinho receive his red card after Fabregas who- appeared to have slapped his neck- who pushed into the advertising hoardings by the City midfielder.
Football pundit Ray Parlour admitted it was one of the worst tackles he’d ever seen. He began by saying, “That at the end of the game was awful to see and Sergio Aguero’s tackle, it’s horrendous, It’s one of the worst I’ve seen, probably for years. He’s gone in late, studs up over David Luiz’s knee, at full pelt.” said Parlour.
“He’s (Luiz) very lucky he’s able to get up because that was awful. It could have been two red cards, not one.” added Parlour.
After the game, Luiz himself stated,” Sometimes the players are frustrated with the result or something that happened. Sergio is an amazing. He scores a lot of goals and gives a lot to football.”
Further Luiz talked sadly about the Brazilian outfit Chapecoense tragedy that shocked the footballing world recently, “I prefer not to talk about this. I prefer to give this victory for the people in Brazil. It was a difficult week for us, especially emotionally.”
Luiz was seen with a bandage wrapped around his right knee after the game, but there weren’t any serious concerns over the player’s injury and it may just need a bit of time and healing for Luiz to recover. Fair play to the centre back who knows life is short and precious and also rose above the incident.
