Referees' chief Howard Webb admitted Nathan Ake's goal against Fulham should have been disallowed for offside in their 5-1 victory on Saturday.
Ake's header regained City's lead to put them 2-1 up on the stroke of half-time but Fulham complained about Manuel Akanji being stood in an offside position and appeared to affect Bernd Leno in the goal.
After a VAR review of the incident, the goal was given and City went on to win the match comfortably by four goals.
Following the game, Erling Haaland - who scored a hat-trick - said he thought the goal should have been ruled out for offside, while Fulham boss Marco Silva also continued his complaints and said it should have been 'impossible' to allow the goal to stand.
The Premier League aired an episode of 'Match Officials Mic'd Up' on Sky Sports on Tuesday, showing viewers some VAR decisions that have been made through the early part of the season.
On the show, Professional Game Match Officials Limited chief Webb admitted the officials got the decision wrong with Ake's goal and that it should have been ruled out for offside.
He said: 'From the outset, I want to say this should have been disallowed.
'These are not always easy to call because you are trying to get two pieces of information together. Is the player in an offside position, which official is in a good position to see, and what consequence was there of the player being in that position and how it impacts the opponents?
'It certainly appears that Akanji has an impact on Bernd Leno, the goalkeeper seems to hesitate. The officials on the field gave the goal, they did not see the obvious action that impacted Leno's ability to play the ball.
'They did not feel it was clearly impactful on Leno's ability to play the ball but when you see it, you can see that hesitation by the goalkeeper who was waiting to see whether the ball made contact with Akanji, which would have deflected the ball.
'Unfortunately it was not identified on the day and the learning from this will be shared from all of our group because we are looking to do better each and every week - and this was an error.'
abies79
498
why did the manager not respect the player,he Eric Ten Hag is stubborn to say what he said in the press conference was not needed any person can do what Sancho did respect the player in return he will respect you,look at Pep when De Bryan tell him to shut up in public what did he do he played it down and said I like ,Pep shouted at Halaand in half time Halaand was ask about it at the UEFA champions league draw that also includes uefa awards He Halaand played it down and said I like it when he shout at me what does that tell you manager respect the player and player in return respect the manager we united slides thing we run to social media or press let it be known that is how united is
cehcstuy
463
How? this sort of mistakes can happen and it had happened to many teams before and its going to happen again. Except someone with a bias mind that would attributes this to city of being favored by refs, there abounds many instances of such mistakes everywhere and not only in EPL alone.. someday the decision might favor Fulham and i hope you will be fare enough to say they are favored by refs as well.. and beside you know deep inside you that City will definitely beat Fulham with or without that goal because its superiority in terms of quality.. may be you are one of those who staked against city and you loose may be that is why you grumbling here....
Kingwazza10®
303
What's the point even bringing this up now? we know city pay their var fee in full so they'll get all their calls 🤙🏽