Man City 2-2 Blackburn: Santa claws it back

Manchester City's perfect Premier League home record bit the dust amid huge controversy as Roque Santa Cruz scored twice to earn Blackburn a 2-2 draw.

The Paraguayan had already levelled once for Blackburn after Darius Vassell nodded City ahead.

Yet Rovers quickly found themselves behind when skipper Ryan Nelsen slid into his own net and Sven-Goran Eriksson's men seemed certain to be celebrating victory until David Bentley swung over a right-wing cross six minutes from time.

The nearside linesman Darren Cann immediately raised his flag as Santa Cruz powered home his 13th goal of the campaign, only to then advise referee Howard Webb he had made an incorrect decision in ruling a non-active David Dunn offside.

• Hughes delighted with officials

Given Rovers boss Mark Hughes had spent most of the second period berating the officials for a series of borderline decisions that went against his team, it was an ironic ruling which not only ended City's nine-match winning streak at Eastlands and cost them fourth spot in the table but also did scant justice to the tremendous efforts of Martin Petrov.

Among the glut of eight new faces Eriksson introduced at City within days of his installation as manager, Petrov and Elano have been the two undoubted stars.

Yet, while City have continued to over-achieve, the influence of the stand-out pair has started to wane.

With Elano demoted to the bench, Petrov seemed to feel a return to top form was overdue and, in Rovers full-back Zurab Khizanishvili, the Bulgarian had just the opponent required.
Khizanishvili is not a bad player, far from it. But the Georgian's lack of pace was ruthlessly exposed and he was left to look distinctly second class as Petrov zoomed past him at regular intervals.

Three times the winger reached the by-line at top speed having outsmarted the Blackburn defence. That City only scored twice was more to do with an atrocious miss by Rolando Bianchi than anything Petrov did wrong.

Bianchi is a favourite of the City faithful, who have seen enough misfiring strikers down the years to recognise a top notch talent in their midst.

Finally, Eriksson has recognised it too and been rewarded with three goals in Bianchi's last three games.

Yet the £8.8million striker must have been wishing the ground would open up and swallow him after Petrov had galloped onto Stephen Ireland's return pass, then rolled across along the face of the Blackburn goal which left an unmarked Bianchi with a two-yard tap-in. Inexplicably, he missed.

Thankfully, Vassell was not so profligate shortly afterwards when he rose to power home a far-post header after Petrov, leaving Khizanishvili gasping in his slipstream, delivered the perfect cross.

It was the trigger for a goal explosion as, within a four-minute spell, Blackburn levelled before City went in front again.

Santa Cruz must wonder if he is cursed at the moment. Scorer of a hat-trick against Wigan earlier this month, then two against Arsenal in Blackburn's following game, the Paraguayan finished a loser on both occasions.

He netted his 12th goal of an excellent campaign to level matters for Rovers, flicking David Bentley's curling free-kick beyond Joe Hart, yet Mark Hughes' men barely had time to catch their breath before they were behind again.

Petrov was the architect once more, producing a carbon-copy cross to the one Bianchi had wasted earlier. Again, the Italian was hunting a goal but on this occasion Nelsen saved him the bother sliding the ball into his own net from four yards.

The least surprising event of the night was that Khizanishvili failed to re-appear for the second half, put out of his misery by Hughes who presumably could only see major problems if the defender remained on the field.

Hughes' move worked to the extent Petrov's space was closed down by Brett Emerton, although the arrival of Benni McCarthy did little to lift an out-of-sorts visiting attack, Santa Cruz excepted.

The introduction of Elano just after the hour mark threatened more, especially when the Brazilian neatly controlled Christopher Samba's poor clearance on his chest and then sent a dipping volley inches wide.

With Blackburn's threat withering, there appeared only one outcome.

It still appeared the case even when Santa Cruz nodded home Bentley's late corner.

But, after discussion between Webb and his brave assistant, Blackburn had their point and City's proud home record had gone.

• Hughes delighted with officials

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes backed the 'brave' call of assistant referee Darren Cann which wrecked Manchester City's 100 per cent home league record.

'The flag went up very early and when you see that, you expect the goal to be chalked off,' said Hughes. 'In fairness to the assistant, he was strong enough and brave enough to admit that he had made a mistake. We are grateful for that, although it was the right decision.'

Hughes admitted the massive grey area which now exists over the offside rule makes controversy inevitable.

However, the Blackburn chief has fallen victim to debatable decisions often enough in the past to feel justice was done this evening.

'Sometimes, it is very difficult to know the difference between black and white,' he said. 'There seems to be more grey now. That is where the debate will always be.

'We have had examples in the past where we have felt hard done by, where decisions relating to phase one and phase two have gone against us.

'But if the referee explains it, I think most people would say it was the correct decision.'

Having seen his side concede an equally controversial goal at Tottenham recently, City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson could be forgiven for feeling somewhat hard done by.

Yet the Swede remained his usual ice-cool self, although he indicated he felt the ruling was wrong.

'Dunn was in an offside position and he tried to flick the ball but it went over him,' observed Eriksson.

'By being in that position, Dunn decides what our goalkeeper is going to do. Whether that is interference according to FIFA I don't know but to me it is interference. I asked the referee to explain it to me afterwards and he did say it is a big grey area.'

The result denied City fourth spot in the Premier League table ahead of Sunday's eagerly-awaited clash with Liverpool.

And it also did scant justice to the efforts of wide man Martin Petrov, who was a constant threat throughout the contest, created both City goals for Darius Vassell and Ryan Nelsen, who unfortunately turned the ball into his own net, and would have had a third assist if Rolando Bianchi had not inexplicably failed to convert a two-yard tap-in.

Yet, even Petrov could not argue against Santa Cruz's right not to finish on the losing side again.

Having scored a hat-trick against Wigan and been beaten and then netted twice against Arsenal in Blackburn's next game and gone down in that one as well, it would have been harsh in the extreme on the South American if his team-mates had failed him again.

'Roque makes things happen in the box,' said Hughes. 'He is a big guy and an intelligent player who makes great runs.

'He is frustrated, as we all are, about the fact his goals have not brought us greater reward but we have just been giving ourselves too much to do.'