Wolverhampton Wanderers made it four wins on the bounce in all competitions as they edged past Brentford in west London on Saturday afternoon.
It was a jam-packed afternoon with stoppages aplenty — firstly as Rico Henry and Mathias Jensen received treatment following a nasty aerial collision, and secondly after a drone was spotted hovering above the ground, halting play for over 20 minutes — but Wolves came out on top in the end.
That was thanks largely to a superb performance from Joao Moutinho, whose wonderful outside-of-the-foot finish put the visitors at the Brentford Community Stadium into the lead. Ivan Toney then equalised for Brentford but just seven minutes later Moutinho was involved again, setting up Ruben Neves to curl home the winner from the edge of the box.
Wolves head coach Bruno Lage addressed the media after the match — these were his most noteworthy quotes.
On second-half success
It was a tightly contested first-half, and the performances of neither side were helped by the stop-start nature of the affair in the first 45 minutes. Nonetheless, Wolves seized the initiative after the break and scored two well-worked goals to see them over the line.
Lage was impressed with his side's display in the second-half, and particularly their ability to prevent the peculiarity of the afternoon from distracting their minds away from the task at hand.
"We went inside to talk about what we could change. It was a strange first-half and the breaks didn't help. But we did very well in the second-half, scored our goal, they were good in set-pieces but we came back again. I'm happy because we played with the personality I want, everyone defending and attacking. In the end it's a very good game for us."
On stoppages
The head coach admits he and his players found it especially difficult to concentrate in the first 45 minutes, but a largely interruption-free second-half allowed his side to flourish as they edged their way to another important victory.
"We needed to be focused on the game," said Lage. "The first break was a very hard situation with two players out, the second one about the drone — sometimes these things can break the rhythm. The whole first-half was strange, but in the second we played with better energy and better ambition and we scored our goals."
Lage and his opposite number Thomas Frank were seen in dialogue on the touchline while the drone floated ominously above the stadium, and the pair were apparently making light of what was undoubtedly one of the most bizarre occurrences at a Premier League match in a long while.
"The most important thing was that there was a good atmosphere between everyone, between me and the players, between me and Frank — we joked on the touchline, he offered to go inside and talk about the game."
On changing formation
Lage had to make do without arch marksman Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore in his starting line-up, with the former sustaining a calf injury during the week and the latter nearing a move away from the club.
It led to a slight tweak of formation, with Wolves lining up in a 3-5-2 formation instead of their usual 3-4-3 and thus matching Brentford man-for-man across the pitch — a move which the head coach described as pivotal in getting the most out of Leander Dendoncker.
"There were a lot of reasons," he said. "It helps on set-pieces without Raul [to be in a 3-5-2], it helped us control the game with the ball with one more midfielder — Leander can give me this every time and he can create one or two chances in the box too."
On the opposition
In his own post-match press conference, Frank expressed his disbelief that his side had lost the match, believing Brentford were good value for at least a draw and most likely for a win.
Lage might not have gone as far as to agree with that, but he was complimentary of his team's opposition on the day and emphasised that it took a lot for Wolves to get past them.
"We know how they play: they bring a lot of energy, especially at home. I remember their first game in the Premier League when they beat Arsenal, and they also had fantastic games against Liverpool and Chelsea and three days ago a fantastic game against Manchester United. We needed the right mentality to play against them."
On Joao Moutinho
If any post-match headlines weren't about the drone, they were probably about Moutinho, who registered a characteristically classy performance and had a direct impact on the outcome of the match with his goal and assist.
But the Portuguese midfielder affected his side's performance in more intangible ways too, leading by example both on and off the ball — this was something Lage was keen to praise Moutinho for.
"Joao has played for Sporting, for Porto, for Monaco, for Portugal, and now he is at Wolves with me and I can understand what a fantastic players he is. He helps out the younger guys too."