Arsenal receiving special treatment? The Mikel Arteta strategy that “would have got Wolves booked” is questioned by Gary O’Neil.
Gary O’Neill, the manager of Wolves, has blasted the referees for not penalising Arsenal for their “time-wasting” on Saturday.
The Gunners defeated Manchester City 2-1 at the Emirates to take the lead in the Premier League by three points.
Mikel Arteta’s team took the lead with to goals from Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, but a nerve-wracking conclusion was set up by a late strike from Matheus Cunha.
Later, O’Neil emphasised Arsenal’s game-management strategies, which he thinks the referees missed.
The 40-year-old stated after the game, “I just thought Arsenal took ages over the restarts at the end.”
“I was informed that we would be going to 98 due to a lengthy halt in extra time; nevertheless, they only needed three restarts, each of which took 45 seconds.
Since we’re attempting to cut down on time wastage, I thought at the time that it should have been slightly prolonged.
“You don’t always expect Arsenal to waste time, but I’m positive that we would have been given yellow cards if we had taken longer to make some of the throws and restarts at the Emirates.
“I’m not criticising Arsenal; if it had been me, my squad would have also been taking their time at that point.
“We’re seeing a lot of people who were booked for postponing restarts, and we didn’t feel like we had enough time.”
O’Neil was pleased with his team’s overall performance and praised his players for their tenacity.
He said, “We started so strong again.” “The first part of it was excellent. We dominated everything and scored two well-executed goals. With the goal, we gave them a small opening, but that’s football. We must, I suppose, take that to heart.
“In the Premier League, it’s well known that you can never truly relax.” A nice illustration of that was today. The next time we lead 2-0, we must ensure that we do even better.
“It’s been a positive week with some positive outcomes. We need to keep pushing and become better since we are at the top.
Although the schedule is demanding, the season is demanding for the most part. There’s not much time for you to heal. Before the next game [against Luton], we need to be wise about how we recuperate and get some sleep.”
