Nuno Espirito Santo says clear red card for Yedlin and clear elbow on Ayoze Perez but…
Nuno Espirito Santo was under pressure less than a week ago.
Only one point from six games, there were even claims he could get the push despite a mid-table position.
However, two big wins against Chelsea and Newcastle have once again sent Wolves on an upward curve.
For Rafa Benitez and many Newcastle fans, Sunday’ game swung on some key decisions for the referee.
In particular, Yedlin’s red card and the penalty (and red card?) that wasn’t given for an elbow to Ayoze Perez’ face, before the visitors went up the other end and scored the winner.
Maybe not the biggest surprise to hear Nuno Espirito Santo feels that the referee got both decisions right.
The Wolves boss claiming Lascelles couldn’t have got round to cover and so Yedlin ‘s foul was a red and not a yellow.
However, whilst admitting Boly elbowed Ayoze Perez. Nuno claims it was an accident.
Interesting to hear what he would have thought if it had been at the other end of the pitch…
Nuno Espirito Santo:
“The law is clear, you can argue that if Lascelles can arrive on time to avoid the 1 v 1 with the goalkeeper but honestly I don’t think so.
“I think Diego (Jota) is clear 1 v 1 with the goalkeeper and I think the law is clear, it’s a red card.
“It’s a clear elbow on Ayoze Perez but from my point of view Boly jumps for the ball, he doesn’t see him and so it’s not intentional.
“Credit to Newcastle and all my respects to Rafa, I really admire him as a coach.”
“The performance was not so good, honestly, and we have spoken to each other.
“We must be proud because one thing we didn’t abandon was that we stayed with the game.
“We stayed with our attacks, we stayed compact, we stayed organised like a team.
“We win but the win cannot disguise things we must improve.
“No matter who we play, we always must maintain our standards, but we are improving, we are managing better and we stayed with our tasks.”
“We can’t think when we have one more player that it will be easier, it isn’t.
“It becomes much much harder because the spaces are not there.
“It becomes a hard game, that is why we needed a midfielder to have more control over the game.
“Of course, we are happy, our fans are happy, but we have a long way to go.
“Even when we are winning we always try to look for another goal.
“We are always trying to build, to play, to unlock teams.
“Sometimes it’s not easy and today was hard because Newcastle were compact and squeezed spaces, so it required a lot of energy.
“Back to back wins are very difficult to achieve in such a hard competition like the Premier League but we did it.
“After something so good like we achieved on Wednesday, you can get distracted, but we didn’t so I’m very proud.”
Stats from BBC Sport:
Newcastle 1 Wolves 2
Goals:
Newcastle: Perez 23 (Yedlin red card 57)
Wolves: Jota 17, Doherty 90+4
Possession was Wolves 49% Newcastle 51%
Total shots were Wolves 13 Newcastle 12
Shots on target were Wolves 6 Newcastle 4
Corners were Wolves 6 Newcastle 4
Referee: Mike Dean
Newcastle United:
Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Fernandez (Manquillo 46), Clark, Ritchie, Diame, Ki, Atsu (Kenedy 89), Rondon (Joselu 86), Perez
Unused Subs:
Woodman, Longstaff, Muto, Dummett
Crowd: 50,223 (Wolves 3,000)
(Read the instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to the defeat HERE)
(Read the NUFC player match ratings HERE)
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