Manchester City's bench were left furious over an incident involving John Stones during their win over Everton at Goodison Park, according to beIN Sports.

The broadcaster reported on Wednesday (27 December) that Pep Guardiola's side were left angered by the linesman's decision to not flag for an offside earlier as the delayed call saw Stones pick up what looked like a serious injury.

A long pass from Pickford saw Beto breakthrough towards the Manchester City goal, only for an excellent tackle from Stones to bring an end to the attack. However, as the Englishman stayed down injured the linesman then raised his flag for an earlier offside.

BeinSPORT reporter Kerr said: "Speaking of City, their bench was very unhappy with that John Stones injury. Not necessarily the injury, but the fact that Beto was clearly offside, so essentially the injury came in a phase of play that was irrelevant."

Rules are rules

Manchester City are well within their rights to be frustrated as one of their most important players has picked up an injury that looks set to leave him sidelined for an extended period of time in an incident that was completely avoidable.

The actual tackle to deny Beto was an excellent piece of defending from Stones, but the Englishman shouldn't have even had to intervene as the Portuguese forward had fairly obviously drifted offside in the build-up.

However, the rules are the rules and this has not been some targeted attack to ensure that Manchester City picked up injuries. Linesman have been told to keep their flags down and delay decisions for a number of seasons now and this is no new revelation.

Had this same decision impacted Everton and seen one of Dyche's players injured, the Toffees would have been similarly frustrated, but sadly the rules are the rules and they seem unlikely to change just because of one injury.

All in all, Everton can be reasonably pleased with their performance against the Champions and had a couple of their chances managed to find the net, they would have been good value for at least a point at Goodison Park.

In other Everton news, Alex Crook has shared what "legal experts" have told him about the Toffees point deduction appeal

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