Kayode Akinwumi
It was an unfortunate outing for Wolves against Manchester City on Sunday as a dramatic VAR decision cost them a valuable point and City scraped a late win. In response, Wolves manager Gary O‘Neil has claimed officials in the Premier League may have a subconscious bias for top teams, especially Manchester City.
Wolves had held City to a 1-1 scoreline for most of the game before a controversial decision in added time gave a 2-1 win to the champions. John Stones scored a header in the fourth minute of added time which was initially ruled out as Bernardo Silva was caught in an offside position. However, the goal was allowed to stand after referee Chris Kavanaugh confirmed from the pitchside monitor that the Spaniard was not interfering with play.
Wolves, with only a point from the opening eight games of this Premier League season, led a campaign to scrap VAR in the summer after several critical marginal calls against them. In O’Neil’s opinion, match officials are not consciously making rulings in favour of top teams like City. However, he argues that they make calls in their favour subconsciously.
“There’s no chance that people are purposely against Wolves. But is there something in the subconscious around decision-making or, without even knowing it, are you more likely to give it to Manchester City than Wolves?
“My focus and my senses are heightened when we’re facing Man City and Pep (Guardiola) and (Erling) Haaland. Are the officials the same, when it’s Haaland and when it’s Manchester City?
“Is there something in there that influences decision-making? And I’ve spoken to them about this as well, and they obviously guarantee me there isn’t. They are human.
“But Manchester City scoring a last-minute winner is a big thing. It’s a bigger thing than Wolves scoring a last-minute goal against West Ham. So maybe there’s something subconsciously that means that you are less likely to get them.”
On his part, City manager Pep Guardiola only commented on the correctness of the referee’s decision. He pointed out that Wolves’ goalkeeper Jose Sa’s vision was not blocked in the process of scoring Stones’ goal. He said, “At the moment the linesman raised the flag, I said, ‘It’s a corner, how can it be offside?’.
“The situation, at the moment of the impact from John, Sa is watching perfectly the actions so it’s well-given.”
