Arsenal was beaten 2-1 by Wolves this evening after a penalty by Ruben Neves and a sensational strike from Joao Moutinho cancelled out Nicolas Pepe’s fine Arsenal opener.
That loss keeps Arsenal further away from the top four after 22 matches.
The Gunners started brightly with a fine Pepe strike, but red cards to David Luiz and Bernd Leno made it almost impossible not to lose.
Here are the Arsenal player ratings.
Bernd Leno – 3
Had a good start to the game, but he then went on to get a completely avoidable red card and more or less ended all hope of salvaging something from the game.
Hector Bellerin – 6
Had his work cut out against the tricky Pedro Neto, but he was solid defensively and supported the attack well before the red cards.
Rob Holding – 6
Gave more reasons why he is Arsenal’s best defender, but couldn’t do anything about both goals.
David Luiz – 5
Unlucky to have gotten the red card, but it doesn’t always have to be him.
Cedric Soares – 5
Started with a lot of confidence, but Adama Traore frustrated him as the game went on.
Thomas Partey – 6
Battled well against Wolves’ impressive midfielders, but he needs to do more with his final delivery.
Granit Xhaka – 5
Left frustrated by the red cards, but he and Partey had started the game in fine form.
Bukayo Saka – 7
Was Arsenal’s brightest spark again in the first half, but VAR denied him the game’s opener. Had to do more defensive work after the red cards.
Emile Smith Rowe – 6
He is getting better at picking spaces in opponents’ defences, but the red cards also affected his impact.
Nicolas Pepe – 7
Brilliant persistence to score the opening goal, he couldn’t do so much in the second half with limited support after the dismissals.
Alexandre Lacazette – 6
He looked dangerous as Arsenal’s primary forward, shocking to see him sacrificed after the red card.
Substitutes
Gabriel – 6
Came into the game and made Arsenal better at the back. He should start the next match.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 5
This is the toughest game for him to come off the bench to change, and he could do nothing to the score.
Runar Alex Runarsson – 6
Doesn’t inspire confidence, especially when asked to play with his feet but he did make two good saves.
Manager
Mikel Arteta – 6
Not really his fault what unfolded, not too sure about his substitutions but he was on a hiding to nothing after Luiz and Leno sending offs.
Silly and unlucky moments lose you games. I think we had both to be fair. Both players miss-judged timing and distances. These things happen I guess but ultimately we’re been here many times before..
Luiz unlucky, Leno was rash, then a little bit stupid. Apart from those mad moments I thought the team played pretty well. Personally for the free kick, I would have chosen an outfield player (most likely Soares)to just shoot at goal, with every other player(including the keeper) trying to get on the end of it.
Look it was a crazy night, we was by far the better team, Southampton are showing what can happen with one sending off let alone two.
We regroup and move on, wish we hadn’t given away the Fa Cup so easy though 😞
Luiz stupid and unlucky.
how is he stupid? would you rather have him leave the man without making effort? he made effort, he chase, he tripped and unfortunately gave a penalty, he deserved only a caution according to the rule
Luiz was not stupid..
It was harsh
The only thing Luiz could have done is he could have let Willian Jose to score a goal and finish the with equal players and score..
We would have easily given the knock out punch 🤛 to Wolves given the performance we were having..
Arsenal are starting to play some compelling football. 5th or 6th place looks a real possibility and winning the EL is well within our compass. At this rate a title tilt next season is not out of the question. Arteta is certainly showing top managerial qualities already. A huge 3 and half months of football incoming. Being out of the FA cup is turning out to be a blessing. Good times coming back for Arsenal .
Sorry to all Mikel Arteta’s Fans, really!! I still blame him for this defeat!
David Luiz had no business being put in this match against Wolves..With Speedy players such as Pedro Neto, Podence, Silva and Adama Traore, he will always struggle..
Only teams like Burnley with strikers like Wood should he play..
Then Leno!!😏😏..He smoked something during Half-time?? Lloris, Pickford, Fabianski or even newcomer Mendy will never make such a silly error!!
Also, there ain’t much movement in our midfield..Xhaka slows us down. He has some qualities but should be sold in the summer n replaced with a Right-footed Midfielder!! Bring back AMN or Get Someone!!
Look@Neves-Joao Moutihno, or Ndidi-Teilemanns, or Rodri-Gundogan..All Forward thinking midfield partnerships!!
Arsenal needs to be more ambitious,Plz!!
Leno was brave but unlucky – one of the best goalie in this leque. Runarsson showed hes quality and confidence and will shine vs Villa like never before.
it shows how clueless you are, southampton has quick wingers , you dont just change a winning team becuase you feel like, he made a mistake staying out of position that hapens when you play high line and press high, it could happen to Gabriel tool, and the card was totally underseved. the first half showed us what the team can do, 11 vs 11, where were those players you mentioned
Clueless fans!!!
If a goalkeeper can get a 3 for making one mistake,then why dont strikers get 3as well for missing open goals. A little consistency would be nice
Some fans are just so blind to good things, blame the manager all you like.. the real fans see how good his team will be
With those ratings, you must have been watching a totally different match…
Bellerin was the worst player for us and gets lowest rating of 2.
The second worst player was Gabriel. Very, very slow in his decision making and am afraid of the worst in coming weeks. He just plays like an accident waiting to happen.
Cedric was by far our best player, who nullified Traore most of the time and was winning most aeriel duels. He gets a strong 8.
Pepe gets 7 also played excellently especially his pressing. Saka also excellent with 7.
Generally, there’s progress in what we’re playing but only need to fix 2 things;;;;
1. PASSING
2. TEMPO OF OUR GAME.
I’ve always said we have all the talent in the world, but These are the small things that separate us from average, over-hyped teams like Man U and Liverpool. NOTHING MORE!!
Another thing, I think at half time arteta made a couple of mistakes, not sure I would have sacrificed laca, but if i had to replace Pepe later, it would have been for martinelli, he would have been a far more willing chaser than auba, who looked like he had other things on his mind.
I just think at half time a 441 with a willing runner like Martinelli we could have kept the pressure on. At 9 men the job was purely damage limitation and the boys did that well.
United 8-0 😳😲
i also think Martinelli would have done better than Auba.
sacrificing lacca was option i agree with, Pepe and Saka could help better in attack and defence
Arteta is impacting Martinelli negatively. Less run of games, played on wings instead as a forward. Even when in bench rarely used.
The moment you start saying David Luiz is starting to look like a good defender…
Martin – who decides the ratings that you post –
you or you simply re-post from elsewhere? Usually they are acceptible but occasionally, like today, they are way out pretty much across the board, and the comments are even worse. I honestly checked the date because I thought I had the wrong game. Appreciate they are subjective and are there to cause debate but if they lose all credibilty folks aren’t even going to bother commenting, which defeats the point.
Pepe, Lacazette too low; Luiz, Bellerin too high in my opinion.
Saints are also down to 9… what a night ☹
And conceded 9 goals 😱 Poor Saints, now the commentators have two 9-0 scorelines to mention every 2 minutes!
9-0 it ended for Man U. And who said we didn’t try to save face with 9men.
What a night.
good point about luiz. it just always seems to be him and he tends to put himself in these situations sometimes. situations for a ref to make a big decision.
Leno -0
Runs out of area and for zero reason punches the ball
Your a GK , that’s inexcusable
Dan tame your emotions!
Hard to disagree with Dan’s rating.
Poor/incompetent and biased officiating… Craig Pawson is eager to send Luiz off (almost smiling while dishing out the red). no contact made. The game is already past 2mins added time he doesn’t blow the whistle. Ref does not consult the monitor for a better view of the incident. Blows unwarranted soft fouls against The Arsenal… C P is one Biased MF’ and a big cheat. We need to appeal both cards. (Hopefully Luiz card shall be overturned.)
Don’t know about Bellerin’s defensive solidity , he did make one or two blocks but I lost count of the number of times the Wolves forwards went past him. Could have done better with some of the attacking overlaps as well.
Get off Leno’s back. He was having a good game until the brain snap. Then again why did the full back and covering midfielders leave him so exposed?
Joe your keeper running out and handling the ball is terrible
that’s not getting on his back
That’s his job
Xakha was doing okay against Burnley , moment he put hand round other players throat , he got a 0 as it’s an unforgivable moment simple
Dan if he had stayed in the area that would have been the third goal for wolves. What I saw was he came and misjudged the flight of the ball and if he didn’t handled the ball outside the area that also would have resulted in goal. I will just say we are hard done by the ref again. Farnandez intentionally stomped on Xhaka leg behind him and after he has played the ball no red card or yellow and var was asleep, but Jose tripped himself over Luis leg as he was about to shoot and a red card. What is the need for var if he can’t correct and overturn the ref mistakes.
It always seems to be Luiz or Mustafi (before he left) with bone headed mistakes; usually from turning off and ball watching.
Once, maybe twice is accident or bad luck even; but this occurs far too often with Luiz. His poor positioning led to his red card.
How many times has Holding been red carded for mistakes like that?
Luiz is average defender now, just found form for some games, not back to his usual self.
Silver lining is now Gabriel and Holding going forward, and Luiz should leave when his contracts up. Let Saliba have an opportunity next year rather than Luiz with only a year or 2 left in his tank.
Just watched the Luiz “tackle” from another angle and I think the club should appeal the red. He clearly did not make a challenge, the opposition actually kicked him in the knee or shin and then lost balance. It was not a foul, should not have been a penalty or a red card.
Leno no excuse made a bad decision to come out and a worse one to handle the ball. But been a mainstay all season.
It was a penalty and a red.
It was not a penalty and red he doesn’t touch him I’ve watched it like 20 times like atid says it’s the wolves players boot that catches Luiz on the knee
Luiz was trying to run across him from behind. It was always going to be his fault if they collided and he went down. Add onto the fact he was the last man, it was a definite red. Anyway, we have seen this nonsense from Luiz before. The Chelsea game? Pulled down Abraham. Manchester City? Pulled down Mahrez. Liverpool? Tried to pull down Salah. He can’t help himself giving away penalties and red cards.
I have Kev too and just cannot see anything but the Wolves player slightly touching Luiz’s knee and I agree it was a penalty. I find it suspicious that Var decided the outcome so quickly. Perhaps they were already making their half time cuppa when it happened.
It wasn’t a penalty I mean
Arteta for me killed the game with his substitution. Sercrificing Laca was wrong, Should have been ESR, Auba was just a joke when brought on, I wish to see him leave at the end of season honestly.
Yup. Subs were awful. Arteta must take responsibility for that.
I agree; having had the half time break to decide on formation and strategy to overcome the send off of Luiz. I was really impressed with Arteta’s team performance in the first half but can’t understand why Arteta substituted Lacazette? The logical substitution was ESR and depending on Xhaka and Partey (or his replacement to hold the midfield together.
Who was going to hold up play, play other players in and track back in place of Lacazette? Also substituted when in form.
Partey was substituted due to being on a yellow card, which is fair enough. Pepe also should not have been substituted, given his form in the game, the confidence of scoring and he was taking on the defence and taking the ball forward.
Luckily that’s why you 3 aren’t professional managers then I guess.
Leno’s brain-fart sealed the L for us though we never really looked like coming back anyway. I think the club needs to investigate why we can’t stop racking up so many silly red-cards and penalties. Pepè the other day, then Xhaka and now Leno and Luiz. What’s going on? Are we addicted to red-cards? Too much indiscipline in this team!
Yep, for a split second he thought he was playing volleyball… absolutely gutted!!
😂😂
Leno is just being Leno, I know he has little errors in him but oh boy where did that come from, a keeper who totally miscalculated the ball and Instead uses his hand? I’m sure he will feel bad about that. Pepe for the third game running actually played well and Arteta shouldn’t have subbed him off, but it’s what it is we move on to Aston villla.
I don’t care about Leno’s red card. Game was lost already. If anyone one of you think we would’ve scored with 10 men, then you are tripping.
Luiz probably was a wrong call but its not a coincidence that he has what, 6 red cards for us in 18 months? He can’t play for us anymore, he’s a liability. He plays well for few games but when we need to keep our momentum going, he gets sent off and cost us 3 points.
McLovin hypocrisy at the highest, this is why I don’t take you seriously, are you not the same guy who posted something about Martinez conceding 3 goals against Burnley and you went on to say the 3rd was a cheap goal even though I don’t think there’s anything he could have done to those goals, but now Leno made a very very poor decision and you said you don’t care, wow, that’s called HYPOCRISY. Have said it countless times that Leno is good at stopping shot but he has so many errors in him that’s why he will never be a world class goalkeeper.
Errmmm..
First of all, I said lets criticize Martinez now because ALL SEASON we had fickle fans like you crying on about how we sold the wrong keeper. Every single action of Leno was put under the microscope, game after game so we can have the sheep here saying “I told you so”. Leno definitely didn’t deserve that. And when Martinez let in 2 easy goals, you didn’t say s**t about his performance but you lot were here ever present very first second Leno conceded a soft goal.
Leno did make a poor decision, yes, but he didn’t cost the game. Luiz and the ref did. Reason I didn’t care about the Leno card is because the game was OVER already and not because I’m biased towards Leno. Arsenal haven’t won a game with 10 men in over 10 years so you know it’s game over. I don’t care if we get 5 reds after the first, the game is already over. Had Leno’s error been the first red, then I would have a different tune.
In fact, HYPOCRISY is also criticizing person A for the same actions person B gets a pass on.
See the way I replied you in a mature and civilized way, maybe you should try it sometime and stop all this crying line you always put out anytime someone calls you out, you can actually make your point without names calling or insulting who you are debating with. And yes we may not win that match again but we could have taken something from the game like we did against Chelsea last season and against Leeds this season, but Leno killed any hope of us getting anything from that match.
Name calling and insulting? Calling someone a fickle fan is no more insulting than calling someone a hypocrite, mate.
In fact, my opinion was that we sold the wrong keeper if we had to sell one. However, it was not Leno’s fault he wasn’t sold and he should’ve had all the support he needs rather than being questioned every match by some of our fans.
Listen bro, most of our fans blame xhaka even when he plays well, so everyone is entitled to his opinion and the difference between a world class goalkeeper and a good goalkeeper was what Leno showed us yesterday. Sorry for calling you an hypocrite but the truth is Leno is just Leno, to be honest have always expected some level of errors from him but what he did yesterday I never expected that, a division 1 keeper should not even make that kind of mistakes.
I apologize too for calling you a fickle fan. Leno is Leno, yes. He does these foolish blunders every now and then but so does Alisson for example. Maybe the wrong red card got into his head, I don’t know.. It sure did get on my head damn it..
I’m more worried now that Runarsson is in goal..
Anyone noticed how well Holding was playing and controlling the ball when we went down to 9 men?
Why does it always have to be Luiz?
Because he is invariably the last man by virtue of the fact where he plays in the team. Another thing no one has taken into account is the horrendous conditions last night.
Anyway, Arteta is appealing the red card and I agree with him, watch it as many times as you like and you will not see any contact. Trouble is we will likely get done for the amount of red cards we are accumulating and get a large fine or some other sanction.
Good, I’m glad he’s appealing it
I agree Sue but be very surprised if its overturned!!
Very, very!!!
The team was brave right to the end. I’m proud of them.
Why wasn’t the time when Saka hit the post a penalty!?
He was taken out after he shot the ball and the ball didn’t go out of play.
While David Luiz didn’t even make an attempt to foul. There was hardly any contact and the David Luiz didn’t exactly put his leg out to tackle. It was at best a coming together.
Arteta must go now. Stupid and stubborn . Pepe out and in the tourist? He is taking down Arsenal , he will never will be a proper manager , he hasn’t it.
David Luis sending off was a total injustice by the ref but arteta has to be blamed in some areas, playing Luis ahead of Gabriel in a game like this is not a wise decision to make, sacrificing laca was the choice but martinali was the perfect option when it comes to hard times like this not a take and chop striker like auba who doesn’t hustle for ball, he(marti)gave us point against Chelsea last year and should have been given second chance