Wolverhampton Wanderers continue their search for a Premier League win this season after a thrilling 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday, November 2.
The game started slowly with neither team really making their mark, with the scoreline 0-0 at the half-time break.
However, the second half was a different story. Trevoh Chalobah opened the scoring as he fired a half-volley into a gaping Wolves net but it didn’t take long for the home team to reply as Matheus Cunha controlled Santiago Bueno’s long ball before playing an enticing outside the boot pass to Jorgen Strand Larsen who took a touch and slotted it through the oncoming Dean Henderson’s legs and into the Palace goal.
Just five minutes later Cunha was causing the Eagles’ defence problems again as he threaded a perfect ball into Goncalo Guedes’ feet who set it back perfectly to Joao Gomes who finished in style, finding the bottom right corner of Henderson’s net. Wolves’ lead was a brief one however as just five minutes later Marc Guehi got on the end of Daniel Munoz’s flick to level the game.
Crystal Palace thought they had won it in stoppage time when Jean Phillipe Mateta turned the ball into an open net but it was ruled out as the referee deemed Munoz had fouled Jose Sa in the process.
Wolves boss Gary O’Neil expressed his frustration at the result after full-time.
“Yeah I’m disappointed, having worked that hard to get in front, with what Crystal Palace are – they’re direct, they’re a transition threat but once we got in front against them I thought we’d have a good chance of seeing it out.
“I knew we’d have to defend a couple of moments but didn’t think we would be under any sort of siege and disappointed we came out shorter than we hoped.”
Both of Palace’s goals came from set pieces, a problem that seems to be becoming a worry for Wolves and O’Neil.
“We just keep working at them, there’s been a mistake but the set up is good.
One lad misses one of their blocks and it doesn’t take a lot at this level for one [mistake] to result in a goal so yeah I am disappointed as we defended a lot of them very well, same as against Man City really – we defended 17 excellently and they score from one right at the end.”
For the first time this season, the Wolves supporters turned on their boss with chants of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ ringing out around the Molineux. O’Neil claims that he isn’t bothered by this from his own fans.
“I’m fine, I am absolutely fine – it’s my job!”
Wolves have conceded 27 goals in the league this season, a problem that highlights the defensive quality at the club.
“Going back to the summer and we’re looking to sign a centre back, we can’t sign a Premier League centre back as we’re not in the market for that.”
“Same as all the other players we’ve signed, we’re not out cherry picking players that have played 200 games – we’re signing young players from different leagues and they are learning and having to perform on the toughest and biggest stage in the world at the moment.”
