Wolverhampton Wanderers

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Wolves boss Gary O'Neil has been charged by the Football Association after Wanderers' 2-1 loss to West Ham on Saturday.

Wolves had a stoppage-time equaliser ruled out for offside at Molineux.

An FA statement said: "It's alleged that following the completion of the fixture, his language and/or behaviour in or around the match officials' changing rooms was improper and/or threatening.

"He has until Monday, 15 April to respond to the charge.'

Wolves are 11th in the Premier League and travel to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Here are the key facts and figures before Saturday's game between Nottingham Forest and Wolves in the Premier League.

• Nottingham Forest have won just one of their last 10 league games against Wolves (D4 L5) and are winless in all three against them in the Premier League (D2 L1).

• Wolves are unbeaten in their last five away league games against Nottingham Forest (W3 D2), since a 3-1 Championship defeat in March 2013.

• No side has lost more Premier League games in 2024 than Nottingham Forest (7), with only Burnley (8) and Sheffield United (7) earning fewer points than Forest so far this calendar year (9).

• Wolves have kept just two clean sheets in their last 32 Premier League away games, with both of those coming this season in a 1-0 win at Everton (August) and 0-0 draw at Brighton (January).

• Chris Wood has scored 12 Premier League goals for Nottingham Forest this season, only ever netting more in the 2019-20 campaign (14 with Burnley). Only against West Ham (7) has he scored more Premier League goals than he has against Wolves (6), and he scored his first ever Premier League hat-trick against them in April 2021.

• Only Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey (7) have combined for more Premier League goals this season than Nottingham Forest duo Anthony Elanga and Chris Wood (6). It’s the second most goal combinations for a Forest pair in a single Premier League campaign, after Bryan Roy and Stan Collymore in 1994-95 (7).

Mike Taylor
BBC Radio WM reporter

"If your understanding and knowledge of football is fairly low, then you can reach the conclusion that that is offside," said Gary O’Neil after Wolves' latest adventures in VAR, although his rather more resigned tone compared with his clear anger at some incidents earlier in the season said quite a lot in itself.

"I would hope that the officials working at this level would be far better than that, to know better, especially with a screen and slow-motion in front of them. Unfortunately, they don’t..."

O’Neil was answering the questions he was understandably asked about the disallowed late goal that denied Wolves a point against West Ham, but he and his players may have spent rather more of this week working out how they had come to be trailing in the first place.

They really had played well in the first half - "top, top level", in O’Neil’s view - and although West Ham had their own complaints to make over the award of the penalty that took Wolves ahead, there was no argument that it was the least Wolves deserved.

That authority quickly drained away after half-time, and the game was starting to turn even before Rayan Ait-Nouri left in the 55th minute. Not for the first time lately, Ait-Nouri had been the key figure in the game, although being the right-sided of three forwards was a new assignment.

Recently, O’Neil had talked warily of using Ait-Nouri further forward from the start of games, noting his ability there but suggesting the benefit might be outweighed by the loss of his services further back.

Against West Ham, Ait-Nouri revelled in the new role, and in his slipstream the whole team seemed fresher than in recent weeks - the cadence of their passing slightly quickened.

Alas, as everyone knows, injuries have left Wolves working without a safety net, and O’Neil with a familiar dilemma. "His calf was tight, and obviously we have that decision to make – whether we leave him on with pain in his calf and try to get him through it and risk a serious one, or whether we get him off.

"It’s a lose-lose situation – you know that taking him off jeopardises the result, but you know that leaving him on jeopardises the next lot of results. So, tough call. We missed him."

Once again, Wolves are left looking longingly towards the medical room, awaiting relief.

Listen to live commentary of Nottingham Forest v Wolves on BBC Radio WM (DAB Black Country) at 15:00 BST on Saturday

And tune in to The West Midlands Football Phone-In every weeknight from 18:00

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West Ham striker Michail Antonio says VAR is "a shambles" in light of controversy in their win over Wolves.

Wolves thought they had found a late equaliser in the fixture, when Max Kilman's goal was ruled out when a player was judged to be offside in front of West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

"It's a shambles. VAR is an actual shambles. Even though it's gone for me, we nicked a win because it's a shambles," Antonio told The Footballer's Football Podcast.

"Honestly, that's not offside mate. In any shape or form.

"VAR, I'd prefer if we just went back to normal. It has not helped football. Because they have spent so much money on it, they are scrambling, trying their hardest to keep it.

"Sometimes in life you meet people and they just don't fit in your life and you have to let them go. You have to let it go mate."

Asked if using ex-players in the VAR decision process, Antonio said: "It doesn't matter who is in there. At the end of the day it's a matter of opinion. Why VAR doesn't work in football is there are so many grey areas. So it will always be a matter of opinions. It doesn't make any sense. We've lost a bit of passion from the game. It hasn't helped. So, it's time to call it a day."

Manchester City are interested in Wolves' Pedro Neto but could face competition from clubs in Saudi Arabia for the winger. (Teamtalk, external)

Arsenal will compete with Manchester United to sign Wolves midfielder Joao Gomes this summer. (O Dia - in Portuguese, external)

Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Matt Cooper
Fan writer

Wolves are now winless in their past four games and it does feel that the season is concluding with a whimper.

Key injuries have blighted Wolves' faint hopes of Europe - but individual bits of sloppiness also do not help.

Most of the noise will be around the wrongly chalked-off equaliser in stoppage time, but it should never really have come to that.

Two poor episodes led to West Ham taking the lead late into the second half - in a game Wolves had completely dominated for 45 minutes.

The addition of Michail Antonio and a change of shape from the Hammers did create a lot of problems for the hosts in the second half, but the goals are completely avoidable.

It is defending I am sure Gary O'Neil will be seething about - especially conceding a goal directly from a corner.

It simply cannot happen at Premier League level.

Matt Cooper can be found at Talking Wolves, external

We asked for your thoughts on Saturday's Premier League game between Wolves and West Ham United.

Here are some of your responses:

Wolves fans

Micky: Wolves were so poor in the second half that they didn’t really deserve anything from the game. After an impressive first half, we sat back and let West Ham dominate the second period. Although the disallowed goal was controversial, it would have been harsh on West Ham, who also had a goal controversially disallowed. It was a fair result.

Tony: Sorry, the excuses that we are not at full strength don't wash. They had ample chances after going 1-0 up. They are highly skilled professionals and should be able to score from close range all day, but apparently not. Still, on to the next game. Wishing for better times.

Martin: We are going to finish way ahead of expectations, given the available resources. Yes, we could have made European football if we had two or three more senior players, but we don't. I would have taken this at the start of the season. By the way, that was an absurd offside decision.

Darron: What I would like to see at the end of the season, after all of the points deductions for FFP, are points added for teams who have had 'apologies' and 'wrong VAR decisions' against them. An utter disgrace, yet again, which will probably end Wolves' European hopes. Hopefully next season they will get things right and treat all of the teams the same.

West Ham fans

Adrian: We were dreadful in the first half and I thought Wolves deserved a comfortable half-time lead. We were much better in the second half and Wolves will wonder how they managed to lose that game. VAR is killing the game. We were poor but we won. Wolves will feel robbed.

Liam: I can’t understand why we never get out of first gear until we are a goal down. I will forever wonder what would happen if an attacking-minded manager got hold of this squad. Poor officiating was unfortunately the talking point again. The first penalty was never a penalty and the last goal shouldn't have been disallowed. I hope Bowen makes a quick recovery.

KB: I can't understand Moyes' decision to play Paqueta, Bowen and Kudus out of their favoured positions in the first half, when we were not under any pressure to. Surely that is tactical incompetence. He has made too many of these poor decisions - it is inexcusable. He should know his players better by this stage of the season. It was a better second half when it was rectified.

Ray: It wasn't the best performance, but a result is a result. Unfortunately, our game management at the end hasn't been great but thankfully VAR stepped in and a decision has gone our way. Three points and now the focus is on Thursday.

Wolves midfielder Mario Lemina is determined the campaign should not fade away.

While Saturday's home defeat by West Ham will chiefly be remembered for the last-minute VAR controversy that cost Wolves a point, it cannot be overlooked Gary O'Neil's men have now gone four matches without a win.

Wolves controlled the first-half, should have been further in front but, as Hammers boss David Moyes said, it seemed as though the sides swapped shirts at half-time as the visitors ran out winners.

It equals their worst run of the season and in addition to dropping them out of the battle for European places, has also cost them their place in the FA Cup.

With seven matches to go, including games against Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, Lemina knows Wolves cannot afford to give up on the remainder of the season.

"It cannot fade out," he said.

"We need to be honest with ourselves. If we want to stay where we are and play for something better for the fans and show them we compete at the top of the league, we cannot play a first half like that against a really top team and show a really bad second half.

"The first-half was maybe the best we've played. The second half was not acceptable for us as a group."

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Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright says he is "gutted" for Wolves and Gary O'Neil, after VAR ruled out Max Kilman's stoppage-time equaliser against West Ham United due to Tawanda Chirewa being in goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski's line of vision.

Speaking on Match of the Day, Wright said: "Fabianski can move. He has got to move. He [Chirewa] is not impeding him [Fabianski] to stop him moving. I can't tell you how gutted I am for Gary O'Neil and Wolves on that one.

"Like I say, Chirewa is not impeding the goalkeeper. He [Fabianski] has just got to move.

"It is a tough one. I don't know what to say to Wolves and O'Neil, but I apologise to you for them, or something like that. It is a nightmare for you guys.

"I don't know what a penalty is anymore. I don't know what is happening now."

Former Aston Villa and England striker Dion Dublin agreed with Wright, stating: "As a goalkeeper, if you can't see the ball then put yourself in a position where you can see the ball. It is as simple as that.

"It is like a centre-forward trying to lose his defender, they have got to lose the defender so they can get their head on the ball. It is simple.

"A decision like that, it kind of muddies the waters because we are not quite sure what is what at the moment. That's the thing - we are not quite sure what is what."

Catch up on Match of the Day here

Gary Lineker introduces highlights and analysis from Saturday's seven Premier League fixtures.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up on the action on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to Saturday's BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra match commentary in full:

Everton v Burnley

Brighton v Arsenal

Brighton will not look to re-sign Ansu Fati after his loan move from Barcelona but Wolves, Valencia and Sevilla are potential destinations this summer for the Spain forward, 21. (Sport - in Spanish, external)

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter

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How Gary O'Neil must wish for the days when he didn't spend the aftermath of matches having to bite his tongue - or not, as the case may be - as the minor details of rule interpretations are explained to him.

There is no doubt Tawanda Chirewa was offside as Maximilian Kilman's header flew into the net in the ninth minute of injury-time.

But, did he prevent Lukasz Fabianski getting to the ball?

It didn't seem so. But, just by being in Fabianski's eye-line, has Chirewa made the decisive intervention?

I can imagine O'Neil's incredulity at that.

As referees' chief Howard Webb keeps saying, these are judgement calls - people agree and disagree.

It didn't look as though there was any meeting of minds between O'Neil and referee Tony Harrington at the final whistle.

There certainly wasn't with the Wolves fans.

Wolves boss Gary O'Neil has been speaking to BBC Match of the Day on the decision to disallow Max Kilman's stoppage-time equaliser: "Terrible, terrible, terrible decision. I can't understand it at all.

"I have spoken to David [Moyes] and, to be fair, he said the same. It is never, ever, ever offside. [Lukasz] Fabianski's the same, he didn't think it was offside.

"It's crazy really that a Premier League referee can stand in front of the screen, having been sent to it, and get it so badly wrong.

"Obviously he is stood in an offside position but the reason it is not offside is that he has not impacted Fabianski being able to dive or move. He has not impacted his line of vision.

"If you watch the side-on footage, Fabianski can clearly see the ball over Tawanda's head. So I don't know how he can be interfering.

"Fabianski is getting nowhere near that header, no matter whether there is no one there or someone there. It is a really, really bad decision and I don't understand how he reaches it.

"If your knowledge of the game is really, really bad, you can come to that conclusion. But, other than that, I have no explanation for it and I haven't had an explanation from them, and it won't help us.

"The players have spoken earlier in the season about not feeling respected by the officials because of the number of decisions that went against us. And today again, when we are as short as we are and having to fight and dig, to suffer that decision at that stage of the game was tough for the players to take.

"That has to be better - for everybody, not just for me and Wolves - because there is no way that goal should be chalked off."

Wolves defender Max Kilman, who had a stoppage-time equaliser ruled out in the defeat to West Ham, has been speaking to Sky Sports after the defeat: "To be honest, I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a moment like this happen before. We are all absolutely gutted and we deserved something from that game.

"I haven't watched it back, but it was a clear header. The goalkeeper couldn't even see it, there was nothing he could do [to stop it].

"We knew in the second half that it would be a different West Ham team coming out. We didn't keep possession like we did in the first half and they did take their chances, but it was really tough to take how it ended.

"We haven't won in the last few games. We have got a few injuries, but we have got great players, a really good group, and we need to stay together as we have still got a few games to go to get some results and make sure we get as high up the table as we can."

Here are the key facts and figures following Saturday’s game between Wolves and West Ham United in the Premier League.

• West Ham United have now won six of their last eight Premier League matches against Wolves (L2), with this victory being just their third at Molineux in the competition (D1 L4).

• Wolves have lost a Premier League match after leading at half-time for the first time since September 2023 (3-1 v Liverpool), having won seven such matches in a row before this game.

• West Ham United have won a Premier League match in which they trailed at the break for the second time this season (also 2-1 v Tottenham Hotspur in December), having previously not done so in the league since December 2021 (3-2 v Chelsea).

• James Ward-Prowse has now registered 100 direct goal involvements in the Premier League (55 goals, 45 assists). This was his 13th goal involvement of the season (6 goals, 7 assists), bringing him level with his tally from 2022-23 (9 goals, 4 assists).

• Only Southampton, between November 1997 and April 2014 (29 penalty goals), have had a longer run of successfully taken penalties in Premier League history than Wolves' ongoing run of 23.

James Ward-Prowse scored direct from a corner to give West Ham a precious win at Wolves - but the victory was marred by a major injury scare around Jarrod Bowen.

Ward-Prowse's 84th-minute effort swerved over Wolves keeper Jose Sa and dipped in at the far post to complete a second-half comeback, after Lucas Paqueta cancelled out Pabio Sarabia's penalty with his own coolly-taken spot-kick.

The game ended in controversy though as Wolves were denied what they thought was an equaliser in the ninth minute of stoppage time for an offside against young substitute Tawanda Chirewa, who was deemed to have impeded goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, even though he was getting nowhere near Maximilian Kilman's header.

However, David Moyes' joy at victory will be tempered significantly by the loss of Bowen.

The England forward appeared to hurt his elbow as he fell awkwardly five minutes into the second period and, although he tried to continue, it quickly became apparent he had to go off.

Bowen made his way straight to the dressing room but was moving very slowly as he went. With 19 goals, Bowen is by far West Ham's biggest attacking threat and would have been a key man in his club's Europa League quarter-final first-leg tie in Germany on Thursday against a Bayer Leverkusen side yet to lose a game under Xabi Alonso this season.

Only their third Premier League triumph of 2024, the victory keeps alive West Ham's hopes of securing European qualification for an unprecedented fourth consecutive season.

For Wolves, a fourth game without a win in all competitions matches their longest run of the season, as injuries continue to hamper Gary O'Neil's hopes of a top-half finish.

Were you at the match or did you follow it from elsewhere?

Wolves fans - let us know your thoughts on the game here

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Follow all of the reaction here

Seven matches make up Saturday's Premier League action, and we will bring you every moment.

BBC Radio 5 Live commentaries:

• Everton v Burnley

• Brighton v Arsenal

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Chris Sutton is making predictions for every Premier League game this season against a variety of guests.

For this weekend's games, he takes on darts stars Luke Littler and Nathan Aspinall, who both support Manchester United.

Sutton's prediction: 1-1

After snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at St James' Park last weekend, West Ham responded well with a draw against Tottenham on Tuesday.

I still maintain Hammers boss David Moyes has done a decent job this season, and they are in a pretty good place ahead of the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Bayer Leverkusen next week.

I don't think the Hammers will win this one, though. Wolves have been creaking a little bit because of injuries, especially up front, but they are at home and I fancy them to get something here.

Littler's prediction: 1-3

Aspinall's prediction: This is going to be a tight one but my step dad is a massive Wolves fan so I am going to go with them, purely based on the fact he supports them! 2-1

See the full list of predictions