It wasn’t a penalty. You can’t decide a big game like that
Coady fury as Pep gets lucky with sixth league win in a row
AT times, Manchester City are brilliant. This time, the champions were lucky with two huge decisions both going their way.
Twice, Wolves players surrounded referee Jon Moss with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.
On the first occasion in first-half injury time, their striker and talisman Raul Jimenez was sent off after receiving two yellow cards in 31 seconds.
The Mexican initially delayed his departure and threw his protective headband to the floor in outrage when he did eventually trudge off.
But even playing against 10 men for the entire second half, Pep Guardiola’s men needed another slice of good fortune to record their sixth consecutive league victory.
Bernardo Silva’s cross after 66 minutes was blocked by countryman Joao Moutinho, who had his arm raised to protect his face. Moss pointed to the spot and despite howls of protests from Wolves — who thought the ball had struck Moutinho in the area between his armpit and back rather than his upper arm — the decision was retained following a VAR check.
Silva was ready to take the kick but graciously passed the ball to Raheem Sterling who needed one goal to reach the milestone of 100 in the Premier League. Sterling’s record from the spot has been fitful in the past — he’d missed his previous three — but on this occasion he coolly rolled the ball in as Jose Sa dived to the left.
City had chances to extend the lead but were left grateful for Ederson’s fingertip save from Max Kilman at the end — confirming the keeper’s 100th clean sheet for City and leaving Wolves without a goal in four games.
Wolves skipper Conor Coady summed up the injustice his side felt. ‘For the game to be called on a penalty, we are desperately disappointed because we have given everything,’ he said.
‘It wasn’t a penalty. I get on with referees really well and haven’t got a bad word to say about them, but sometimes you can see with player reactions, they tend to look like “yeah that’s a bit dodgy that one”.
‘For a game of this magnitude to be decided on a contentious decision is massively disappointing.’
On Jimenez’s red card, he added: ‘We are behind him 100 per cent.’
City had hit the top of the Premier League for the first time last weekend and the options available to Guardiola were underlined by having Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Kyle Walker on the bench.
But they struggled to break Wolves down. Joao Cancelo and Silva both shot over after good build-up play while Jack Grealish was unable to control a good centre by Sterling. Two lengthy hold-ups didn’t help City’s rhythm. A worrying collision between Wolves team-mates Kilman and Ruben Neves saw both receive treatment. Neves was allowed to continue after a bad facial cut was cleared up while Kilman played on with a bandage.
Then Sterling appeared to catch Roman Saiss in the eye with a flailing arm. The
Wolves defender fell in agony sparking a melee with City feeling he was exaggerating the incident. Saiss continued with a watery eye but no action was taken against the City player. Seven minutes of injury-time
were added and produced a highly contentious moment. Jimenez caught Rodri in the centre circle and having taken a lenient approach to cards until then, Moss surprisingly decided to produce a yellow to the Mexican.
Jimenez was disgruntled and continued to backchat to Moss as Rodri looked to take the free-kick.
When the Spaniard played the ball, Jimenez was still only a couple of yards away and blocked it, prompting the official to issue a second yellow. The Mexican striker, widely praised this season for returning from a life-threatening fractured skull, belatedly made his exit after long protests.
When he did eventually trudge off, he angrily threw his headband twice to the floor before theatrically applauding Wolves fans.
‘He was embarrassed by the realisation of what he had done,’ said TV pundit Rio Ferdinand who felt following the first yellow, Jimenez had acted unprofessionally. The home side started the second half determined to make the extra man count. Ilkay Gundogan’s header was cleared off the line by Coady after 55 minutes and the German immediately paid the price by being replaced for the more attack-minded Foden.
Sa was becoming busier in the Wolves goal, saving from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Sterling and blocking Silva’s cutback with his legs. Wolves’ day deteriorated further when Moutinho was penalised for blocking Silva’s cross. There were wild-eyed protests again but VAR decided Moss hadn’t made a clear and obvious error.
Once ahead, City should have scored more. Grealish sent the ball over from six yards while Sa stopped Silva’s shot with his legs. De Bruyne came on, fed Gabriel Jesus and the Brazilian’s shot was beaten away by Sa.
Wolves hadn’t threatened an equaliser until injury time when Kilman was pushed up front and got his head to a cross from the left. Ederson had been inactive all afternoon but showed good concentration to tip the ball over.
‘We were much better with 11 than 10,’ said Guardiola. ‘Against Wolves it is so difficult because they don’t want to play. The spaces are so minor. We knew how tough it would be but we were patient.’