Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - September 17, 2022, Wolverhampton Wanderers' Nathan Collins fouls Manchester City's Jack Grealish.
Wolverhampton Wanderers journalist Steve Madeley gave his immediate reaction to Nathan Collins’ ‘reckless’ challenge that saw him sent off vs Manchester City.
The Lowdown: Collins sees red
The Old Gold hosted Pep Guardiola’s side at Molineux on Saturday, but suffered a 3-0 defeat thanks to two first-half goals from Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland, followed by Phil Foden adding a third on 69 minutes, making this the club’s first loss in four Premier League games.
One of the most notable moments though was the centre-back being shown a straight red card for a high-waisted tackle on City’s opening scorer, meaning that he will now be temporarily suspended and unavailable for selection.
The Latest: Madeley’s reaction
Taking to Twitter, Madeley insisted that whilst Collins’ lunge wasn’t done on purpose, his dismissal was a completely fair decision by referee Anthony Taylor. He wrote:
“No malice in the challenge from Collins but it was seriously reckless and he can have no complaints about the sending off. He’ll now miss the next 3 games, exposing Wolves’ lack of depth at centre-back.”
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The Verdict: Bad day at the office
Whilst Wolves beating Man City in this game wasn’t impossible, the likelihood is it wasn’t going to happen given the reigning champions’ current form and the absence of Lage’s natural strikers.
Collins receiving his marching orders so early on made the task of dealing with their world-class opponents twice as difficult, though his karate-esque challenge was never going to be viewed as anything less brutal.
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It’s fair to say it was an all-round disappointing day at the office, but it’s important that the Wanderers now use the international break to regroup and come back fighting against West Ham in the hope of securing all three points without Collins in the XI.
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