Hasenhuttl: Grealish wanted to confront Romeu in the tunnel

A FURIOUS Jack Grealish was waiting in the tunnel to confront Southamption’s Oriol Romeu, according to Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl.

The £100million Manchester City was embroiled in a heated row with Romeu, who had accused the England ace of play-acting after a tackle from Jan Bednarek.

Referee Simon Hooper had to placate both players — and Hasenhuttl then suggested Grealish was intent on continuing the grudge after the final whistle.

‘Grealish was waiting for him in the tunnel because of a few things that happened outsoide on the pitch,’ said Hasenhuttl. ‘But it’s not here for the cameras, they spoke about it, everything’s good.’

Opposite number Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, believes the title race is very much still alive after their winning streak came to an end.

It needed an Aymeric Laporte header to cancel out Kyle Walker-Peters’ opener. City would have gone 13 points clear at the top, but Guardiola believes dropping points will keep them honest in their pursuit of back-to-back titles.

‘We are going to drop points, but the way we behave is very good,’ he said. ‘I would like to have a 40-point lead ahead of Liverpool but that is not possible in January. I didn’t expect to have this lead, but now we will rest and come back as best as possible.

‘We have two weeks to prepare for the next game. People will say the Premier League race is not over and that is good for this side.

‘We have many tough games ahead of us but we will try to behave until the end. We played really well. Unfortunately, we conceded a goal,but this was one of our best performances of the season. We played better than in the Arsenal game when we won and today we drew. Sometimes you deserve it and you don’t win, but the way we played here was excellent.’

Southampton have now drawn twice with City this season, having held the champions to a 0-0 draw at the Emirates in September and Guardiola was full of praise for Hasenhuttl’s men. ‘They were incredibly organised,’ he said. ‘Southampton are a really good team. They are organised, they play 4-4-2, long balls, good pace in counter-attack, good build up.’

Hasenhuttl’s men were chasing shadows for long periods of a game in which City enjoyed 74 per cent possession, and Hasenhuttl admitted he was ‘tired’ just watching it. ‘They are so good, so unbelievably good,’ said the

Austrian. ‘We were amazing defensively. We had to do more deep defending in this match than we have the whole season. I’m tired.

‘We deserved to get something because of our passion, because of our intensity. When you are fighting like we have done today, then you deserve to get something. I’m super proud.’

Hasenhuttl admitted he was on edge when VAR checked for a potential late penalty when Kevin de Bruyne went down under a challenge from Oriol Romeu on the edge of the box. But Hasenhuttl said: ‘You need a bit of luck in some moments. I think the foul was right on the edge.’

Walker-Peters, who opened the scoring with a stunning right-foot shot, admitted he cannot wait to see back his first Premier League goal. ‘I haven’t seen it back yet,’ he said. ‘It’s such a special moment. You can’t describe it. We had to dig deep, so deep. City were good but we held our own. We were prepared and stuck to the plan.

‘Everyone knows how much quality they have but we showed we can combat that. And we had other chances too. Armano Broja had a couple of chances. You want to compete against the top teams.’

But City goalscorer Laporte believed City were unlucky not to leave with three points.

‘We deserved a little bit more,’ said the centre-back. ‘We dropped two points but sometimes that happens. We have played really well. To get 12 wins in a row is something unbelievable and I’m happy we have got that.’