'I’m sure they feel it'- City winner leaves Gary O'Neil questioning officials' subconscious bias
MADE OF STONE: Manchester City's John Stones scores their side's late, late winner.
John Stones’ controversial header five minutes into added time maintained Manchester City’s unbeaten start to the season and also maintained the England defender’s unlikely role as Pep Guardiola’s secret goalscoring weapon.
The goal left Wolves manager Gary O’Neil bemoaning his side’s bad fortune and even wondering whether officials are guilty of subconscious bias when it comes to the David versus Goliath stakes in the Premier League.
But none of that mattered to City after Stones, scorer of a 98th minute equaliser against Arsenal recently, rose superbly to head in Phil Foden’s corner in the fifth, and final, minute of added time at Molineux, although that was just the start of the drama.
Referee Chris Kavanagh initially gave the goal, only to rule it out for offside after consulting his assistant.
City’s Bernardo Silva was clearly offside, in front of Sa, with the home side claiming he had been interfering with their keeper; a view not shared by VAR Stuart Attwell who told Kavanagh to view the touchline screen.
Amid frantic scenes featuring players and both benches on the sidelines, Kavanagh eventually pointed to the centre circle and City had, yet again, come from behind to secure an important win.
To make matters worse for Wolves, the corner had come after an attack launched by their former player Matheus Nunes, who was booed every time he touched the ball over the closing minutes.
“I just know, from the human point of view, I feel differently playing Man City than someone in, say, the first round of the Carabao Cup,” said O’Neil.
“I’m sure they feel it, the bigger game, they are human beings and it feels there could be (subconscious bias).
“If I'm in the street and I had to upset someone and there is a big guy and a little guy, I’m going to upset the little guy! They definitely don't do it on purpose, they are 100 per cent honest and doing the best job they can. But maybe there is something that goes in that direction when it is really tight.”
Wolves had stunned City after just seven minutes, carving open the champions with a brilliant counter-attack that would have horrified Guardiola.
A long ball from Santiago Bueno sent Nelson Semedo away down the right and, with City’s defenders failing to fall back in sufficient numbers, his perfect cross was turned into an open goal by Jorgen Strand Larsen.
It was the third time in the last seven games City had fallen 1-0 behind inside the opening 10 minutes of a game and the fifth time in those seven they had trailed by a goal.
Yet City had not lost any of those previous fixtures and it was not long before they threatened, and then scored, here.
The equaliser came on 33 minutes, an exquisite finish from full-back Josko Gvardiol who received the ball from Jeremy Doku just outside the Wolves area.
For once, the home defence failed to close him down adequately and the Croatian had the time to curl a brilliantly-placed finish into the top corner of Jose Sa’s goal.
The Wolves keeper, recalled for the injured Sam Johnstone, had already proved his worth as his goal came under pressure, increasingly so after Wolves’ shock early opener.
Two minutes after that, Sa dived and turned Bernardo Silva’s low shot around the post with a strong, one-handed save and he would repeat that with good low saves from Savinho, Ruben Dias and Jack Grealish.
And he repeated that with an almost identical save that kept out a Savinho effort deep in first half injury-time.
The turning point, however, had arguably come while Wolves still led, when they launched another lightning-quick counter on 18 minutes. It ended with Matheus Cunha sending Semedo clear and the wing-back being denied by City keeper Ederson’s block.
"It's not the last fixture of the season but, of course, it is important winning in that way," said Guardiola . "We're not used to it - much like other teams that have the talent we're not winning games in the last minutes. Today, the flavour of winning games this way is so nice."
(5-3-2): Sa 9; Semedo 7, Bueno 7, Dawson 7, Toti Gomes 7, Ait-Nouri 8; Joao Gomes 6 (Bellegarde 90), Andre 6 (Doyle 46, 6), Lemina 7; Cunha 6 (Forbs 66, 6), Strand Larsen 7 (Guedes 79, 5). Substitutes (not used) Bentley, Doherty, Rodrigo Gomes, Sarabia, Lima.
(4-1-4-1): Ederson 7; Lewis 5, Stones 6, Dias 6, Gvardiol 7; Kovacic 7 (Nunes 85); Savinho 7 (Grealish 73, 5), Silva 6, Gundogan 7, Doku 6 (Foden 66, 6); Haaland 5. Substitutes (not used) Ortega, Carson, Ake, Akanji, O’Reilly, McAtee.
: C Kavanagh 7
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