00:00Walls fans, welcome to ExpressAndStar.com. My name is Jonny Drew. I'm here at Molyneux
00:11alongside Walls correspondent Liam Keane after, well, for a long, long time it looked like
00:17Walls were going to get a point, a very, very, very well-earned point against Man City. But
00:22Keano, late, late VAR drama as City nicked at the death. We'll start there. Was the
00:29right decision made? No. And I think Walls' complaints will come from last season. You'll
00:38remember here at Molyneux, Max Kilman scores a last-minute equaliser against West Ham.
00:43The goal was given on field and VAR overturns it for Towanda Chirewa being in front of Lukasz
00:48Fabianski at the time, apparently impeding the goalkeeper goal chalked off. It's now
00:54the other way round. At the opposite end, Walls concede as Jon Stones heads home from
00:59a corner. Ronaldo Silva's in front of Jose Sarr. He bumps Jose Sarr as the cross comes
01:06in, then steps away from him. The header goes past Sarr, who had a fantastic game, by the
01:10way, I thought. Goal goes in and the goal isn't given. It's slightly different to the
01:15West Ham one last season. The goal isn't given on field. The officials are incredibly slow
01:19to make the decision, but they eventually make it. Everyone thinks it's a goal and all
01:22of a sudden it's not a goal. Molyneux's in raptures, no goal. Then VAR instructs Chris
01:27Kavanagh to go check the monitor and he gives the goal. To have gone against Walls on one
01:33end last season and go against Walls at the other end, with two almost identical situations,
01:39but the different decision being made on both counts, how can Walls win? As far as I'm concerned,
01:46VAR stinks. I've said this all along. All it does is push the debate onto another thing,
01:51whether the right decision is made or not. Stick with the on-field decision in both cases
01:55and Walls have got that equaliser there and not conceded here. Walls get a well-deserved
02:00point. The city dominated possession, but didn't actually create a lot. Walls defended
02:06very, very well and they deserve a hell of a lot better than the officials. Unfortunately,
02:10the best league in the world is some of the worst officials in the world.
02:13The explanation is going to be interesting because the linesman sees it as offside. I
02:19guess he's not giving it because he doesn't think Silva's interfering with play. It's
02:24one of those where it's the inconsistency of it, isn't it? No-one really knows what the rules are.
02:32Inconsistency is spot on. You'll speak to fans and fans will... Obviously, as journalists,
02:39without evidence, I can't stand here and accuse the officials of the Premier League of saying
02:45if that was at the other end, I wonder if that would have been overturned. Fans will think that
02:50and it just creates such a negative narrative towards what is the best league in the world.
02:55It's the best product in the world and it turns fans off. Walls fans, still from last season,
03:00have still not forgotten and still chant in every single game pretty much that the Premier
03:04League's corrupt. Obviously, as I say, I can't stand here and say that because I don't have the
03:08evidence to support it, but the fans will think it. As far as the Premier League's concerned,
03:14that's terrible for your brand. Why would you want that? Why would you want VAR? There's a reason
03:18Walls wanted to get rid of it last season. It doesn't work. It doesn't work for any team. It's
03:22not just Walls, by the way. It's any team. I can name you one to 20, including Manchester City,
03:27and every team will have had something go against them. Unfortunately, it's some more than others.
03:30Walls were harshly done by last season. I think they've been harshly done by again here and
03:36they've lost a point in a performance that deserved it. It's rubbish. It ruins the game.
03:42Let's go positive. That performance, you could either say it was his best performance of the
03:46season. They had chances. They didn't just have the goal, they had chances. Nelson Samedo had a
03:52chance. Carlos Forbes had a chance, pulled a cross across the box where he maybe could have shot.
03:58I think they had about 23 per cent possession, but they took the game to City today. They took
04:02the game to City and putting a positive and a negative together, it's a frustration that
04:08they haven't been able to produce that in the games that have gone so far.
04:11Yes, and particularly in terms of defence structure and shape. Obviously,
04:16they played a back five today. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but it worked clearly.
04:21Walls were a lot more solid. Walls defended resolutely. As I say, City have dominated
04:26possession and we're in a lot of very dangerous areas. We did very little with it. You have to
04:29ride your luck a little bit as well and Walls did that at times. Unfortunately, with the way
04:33the goal goes in in the first half from Guardiola, it's a good strike. Sarr can't do a lot really,
04:38just get fingertips to it. It's unfortunate really because they put in a performance,
04:44particularly defensively, that was way better than Brentford. Going forward is another
04:48conversation because Walls have scored goals this season that do carry threat. Defensively,
04:53they were very, very shaky, very rocky and they were the opposite of that today.
04:56Dawson was fantastic. Totti, one or two iffy moments in the first half I thought was a lot
05:00more solid after that. Santiago Bueno, very, very good as well I thought. Nelson Samedo,
05:04probably his best game of the season. Offensively with the cross of the goal,
05:07but also defensively I thought he was very good. Look, this Walls team will get points,
05:13they will get goals, they will drag themselves out of this, but they'll feel what else can we
05:20do when we've done enough, more than enough in my opinion, to get a point and we get to take
05:24the win. Just finally, the results and how the season's gone, Gary Neal is under a little bit
05:31of pressure. Has he got a bit of credit back in the bank today with that performance? You look at
05:34that and think if you can go and replicate that in the next four or five games, which are the
05:38more key ones for Walls, then they will pick up points. The important point is that before that
05:44goal went in, the Stones were the winner and Walls looked set to get a point. They'd gone through the
05:50five minutes by their time relatively easily. The Walls fans are chanting Gary Neal's name,
05:56they're behind him, they're backing him, they're just showing support. Walls played, as I say,
06:00more than good enough. Let me put it this way, Brentford, Gary got it wrong and the players let
06:04him down. They're both, they're not mutually exclusive, they're both true in my opinion.
06:07Today, the opposite, Gary got it right and the players, midfielders, Lamina,
06:12Jalgoma, players that I thought didn't play well in other games were much better.
06:16Walls got it right, I think the fans can appreciate that. However, you also can't
06:21lose every game, you have to start picking up points. Brighton next week away, a tough game,
06:26a couple of home games here, Palace and Southampton are back-to-back,
06:29before a very good run of pictures as well, by the way, on paper,
06:33means Walls are going to have to start picking up points sooner rather than later, but I do think
06:36they will, I really do. I think all the evidence is there, they have to stick with the five
06:39and they have to continue to play that way. Better from Walls, but it's still a defeat.
06:43Final score here at Molyneux, Walls 1, City 2. All the rest are in the action,
06:48head over to ExpressAndStyle.com
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