Wolves ‘celebrated’ after their loss to Man City. This is why it wasn’t weird

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It isn’t often that Premier League teams stage collective “celebrations” following defeats. But Wolverhampton Wanderers did just that at the Etihad Stadium, and it didn’t feel all that weird.

As Manchester City claimed a 1-0 victory to halt Wolves’ winning run at six games, Rayan Ait-Nouri applauded travelling supporters in the corner of the stadium and headed towards the tunnel in conversation with former Molineux team-mate Matheus Nunes.

The Algerian’s progress was halted by the shouts of Vitor Pereira’s coaching staff, calling him back to join his current colleagues in a show of solidarity. Led by Pereira, Wolves’ players and staff joined hands, formed a line, walked towards their supporters and raised their hands in the air three times to initiate three loud cheers from the stands.

Pereira then broke into a solo triple fist-pump of his own with the same result.

It was the same gesture they had made after each of the previous six games, all of which ended in wins, but this time it followed their first loss since late February.

Wolves ‘celebrate’ at full-time against City (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

It seemed simultaneously a little strange and completely sensible. In less than five months at Molineux, Pereira has transformed the mood at the club and restored the broken link between the team and their followers, and he was not about to let a narrow defeat to the outgoing Premier League champions damage the momentum he had built.

“The meaning (of the gesture) was because we are proud of ourselves and for sure they must be proud of the work of the team and the players because we came here with the mentality to compete,” Pereira told his post-match media conference.

“We cannot control the result because in football it’s impossible to control the result, but we can control our attitude on the pitch. We can lose the game, but we cannot lose our identity. We cannot lose our spirit. We cannot lose our ambition or our mentality.

“Our commitment, from the starting XI and the players from the bench (was good) and today I’m proud because I watched everything on the pitch.”

Expected goals split opinion among supporters and readers but there is little doubt that the statistical model, which rates the quality of chances a team creates, usually gives a fair representation of the balance of a game.

There are times, though, when xG does not begin to tell the story of a match, and Wolves’ surprisingly meagre tally of 0.44 last night was one such example.

There were spells when Pereira’s side caused City real problems, and other spells where the Champions of the last four seasons were so confident in possession that Wolves struggled to lay a glove on them.

Yet Wolves hit the woodwork twice, through Rayan Ait-Nouri and Matheus Cunha. They had a follow-up effort from Ait-Nouri cleared off the goalline by Josko Gvardiol. And they carved City open in the early stages with a fabulous move, only for Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Marshall Munetsi to misfire in the final seconds when the Zimbabwean looked odds-on for a tap-in with the right run from him and weight of pass from his team-mate.

It was a decent night’s work at a stadium where Wolves have now lost on nine of their last 10 visits.

“If I had asked before the game to put the posts out (wider) we would have scored at least two goals,” smiled Pereira. “Tactically and technically, I saw in my team the speed that I want to see and the mentality to compete, until the last minute trying to score.

“Of course, in some moments we needed to defend because we faced a very strong team. But in the end, I’m very happy, very proud of my team, very proud of my players, very proud of our supporters. It was just that the result was not right.”

Pereira explained why he had the players gather in front of the away end (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

It is not a gesture that Wolves are likely to repeat often. Supporters would not respond well to such triumphalism if defeats come more regularly, and as his predecessor Gary O’Neil found, such feel-good sentiments do not take long to dissipate.

But right now, Wolves are in a good place on the pitch, and there was no harm in thanking fans for their backing and reminding them of the newfound togetherness despite the currently unfamiliar feeling of disappointment.

Victory last night would have equalled a club record seventh successive victory in top-flight football that has stood since 1946 and featured a bona fide club legend in Stan Cullis — in his final season as player and captain.

Cullis went on to become Wolves’ most celebrated manager. Pereira, even with his current cult status, has a long way to go to live up to his greatest ever predecessor.

But right now, he is onto a good thing. And he was not about to let defeat spoil it.

(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)

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