Micah Richards berates VAR for missing 'blatant' Man City penalty against West Ham

Micah Richards slammed VAR for missing a "blatant penalty" on Gabriel Jesus as Manchester City trailed West Ham 2-0 at half-time of their crunch Premier League clash in east London. The Hammers ruthlessly exposed the champions on the counter-attack through the pace of Jarrod Bowen, who netted twice, but the Sky Sports pundit felt the officials missed a clear spot-kick before the interval.

Kurt Zouma appeared to go through the back of Jesus before clearing his lines but Anthony Taylor saw no problem with the challenge.

VAR did review the incident but West Ham were given the green light to continue - much to the dismay of Pep Guardiola and City.

At half-time, Richards made it clear he felt the officials had made a major mistake, saying: "Yeah, it's a blatant penalty.

"I don't know how VAR, I don't know what they're doing.

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"This is blatantly obvious, they'll say it's not clear and obvious but this is clear and obvious foul.

"If that was outside the box, they're giving that as a free-kick, so that is ridiculous.

"It's a definite penalty, he shouldn't have to appeal, that's what VAR is brought into do, correct these bad decisions. They've got that one wrong."

Phil Jagielka, who was also in the studio, was also in agreement. He added: "Yeah, that's a penalty, I think the fact he heads it afterwards, means he gets away with it.

"The referee is communicating with the VAR studio and told them what he's seen from his perspective but if he doesn't head it afterwards, maybe there's a few more appeals and a bit of pressure."

Manchester City made the perfect response though and pulled one back almost immediately after the break through Jack Grealish's deflected strike.

They continued to apply the pressure too and got their rewards with a leveller which came through a Vladimir Coufal own goal.

The Czech, who struggled to cope with Grealish all afternoon, fouled his marker before heading past his own goalkeeper from the resulting free-kick.

City then had the chance to win the game when Jesus was brought down by Craig Dawson and this time VAR came up trumps, as Taylor awarded a penalty following a review.

But Riyad Mahrez's penalty was saved brilliantly by Lukasz Fabianski, who guessed correctly and palmed the ball to safety.

Guardiola's side will still be champions, whatever happens, if they successfully dispatch Aston Villa next weekend at the Etihad Stadium on the final day.