Gary O’Neil has claimed that something “terrible” occurred during Wolves’ 5-1 defeat to Manchester City.
For starters, perhaps the result was certainly far from ideal for the visitors at the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s men exacted revenge against Wolves after their 2-1 loss to them earlier this campaign by battering them.
In the process, City took another step towards potentially winning the Premier League title and perhaps lessened Arsenal’s hopes of doing so for the first time since 2004.
Gary O’Neil would perhaps not dispute the fact that his team were second best on the day.
The statistics paint a picture of the gulf in class between both sides.
Gary O’Neil claims something “terrible” happened during City vs Wolves
In terms of xG (Expected Goals), it was a no-contest, with City’s being recorded at 3.74 and Wolves’ being 0.35, as per Sofascore.
Looking at the shots on target as well, the Sky Blues took 12 in comparison to their opponents’ one shot.
Possession-wise, Manchester City unsurprisingly dominated as well, with 58% of the ball in their favour.
Wolves ended up scoring from their sole attempt on target, courtesy of Hee-Hwang Chang.
As for Manchester City, their superstar number nine Erling Haaland scored their first four goals and Julian Alvarez scored the fifth to cap off a brilliant day at the office for the hosts.
However, O’Neil was miffed after the game about one occurrence.
That was when Manchester City were handed their first penalty, which was a decision Wolves boss Gary O’Neil was not satisfied with.
“I’m keen to state the officials have no real part to play in the way the game ends up. We’re fully responsible for the performance and the mistakes we make”, he initially said on Sky Sports.
O’Neil added, “But the first penalty I thought was a really poor decision – terrible. [Josko] Gvardiol probably plays as big a part in the contact with Rayan [Ait-Nouri] as Rayan does. I don’t know what Rayan’s meant to do, he can’t vanish.”
“You don’t see those given very often when the shot’s been hit over the bar and there’s just a coming together.”
Manchester City deserved to win regardless
Perhaps Gary O’Neil does have a point as Wolves defender Rayan Ait-Nouri cannot really pull out of a challenge he made when Josko Gvardiol tried to strike a volley for Manchester City.
Then again, some might argue that Ait-Nouri was late and deserved to concede a penalty.
Regardless, as Gary O’Neil states, Manchester City deserved to beat Wolves on Saturday.
City were splendid on the day while Wolves left themselves exposed defensively due to how much they lost the ball and the spaces they left in midfield.
The decision made about the penalty, whether right or wrong had no real bearing on the result.