Gary O’Neil has slammed Arsenal’s “timewasting” tactic during the closing stages of Wolves ‘ 2-1 defeat at the Emirates stadium.
Arsenal stormed into a two-goal lead in north London thanks to Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard. Mikel Arteta’s side could have put the game to bed, but they allowed Wolves back into the contest, with Matheus Cunha scoring. However, it was too little too late for the away side to get anything from the match.
Speaking after the game, O’Neil, Wolves coach, was left unhappy that Arsenal appeared to running down the clock. As a result, Wolves boss accused the Gunners of wasting time.
He said, “I just thought Arsenal took ages over the restarts at the end. I was told we were going to 98 because there was a long stoppage in added time but they had three restarts and they took 45 seconds with each”.
“I felt at the time it could have been extended slightly because we’re trying to clamp down on timewasting. We’re seeing a lot of people booked for delaying restarts and didn’t feel like we go the time we thought we should’ve had.”
Speaking more generally on his side’s set up and their performance, O’Neil said: “We managed to hang in there and create a bit of a scare, and the lads should take a lot from that.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal boss Arteta commented on his team’s display. He was delighted with how they dominated large periods of the match.
The Spaniard said: “I can only praise the players the way they played, competed, they were excellent. We played against a really good side and we generated so much and conceded almost nothing”.
“The scoreline should’ve been very different, we are really unlucky in certain moments, we hit the post twice or three times I think, and at the end we made an error close to the goal. In the Premier League you get punished big time and then it’s game on. But I am really, really happy with how we performed again.”
The win for Arsenal moves them four points clear at the top of the Premier League table. Arteta added: “Improvements and the consistency, when you play every three days it’s very, very tough to do what we’ve done in the week and we have to maintain that, there are certainties that we constantly do in games the outcome is going to be really positive for us and the team has to rely on that and the rest is coming,” Arteta added.