Arsenal fought to a tough 1-0 win away to Wolves at the Molineux this evening, having to finish the match with just 10-men also.
The Gunners took their time to get going in the game, although we knew that today’s opponents were going to be tough to break down, and our best work was seemingly on the counter-attack.
We eventually got the breakthrough from a corner however, the first time that Bruno Lage’s side had conceded from the set piece this term. The initial cross was whipped in by Gabi Martinelli, but the defender failed to clear properly allowing Ben White to head it back into the middle of the box where it fell to Gabriel Magalhaes to tap it home.
Both sides continued to remain focus and neither side was allowed to take a grip on the game throughout the clash, but we were forced to ring the changes with 20 minutes left on the clock after Gabriel Martinelli picked up two consecutive yellow cards.
Manager Mikel Arteta opted to replace Bukayo Saka after losing his other winger, with Rob holding coming in to make it somewhat of a 5-3-1 formation, and while the hosts appeared to level soon after, the linesman was proved right to rule it out for offside.
We then had the perfect opportunity up the other end to close out the game at 2-0, but despite putting Alexandre Lacazette through one-on-one with Jose Sa, he lashed his effort just wide of the far post.
It was a tough watch from that point onwards, but our defence continued to remain focused, and while Wolves were allowed much of the possession, they were still limited to very few chances to seriously challenge Aaron Ramsdale.
All in all, we can be extremely happy to have earned ourselves this 1-0 win against really tough opposition, a result we should have been happy with even if we had 11 men on the field.
Patrick