Arsenal blew Lens away in midweek and being 5-0 up at half-time meant that could relax somewhat in the second half so we didn’t expect too many changes to our best line-up, and so it proved, with only Havertz being replaced by Trossard in the midfield.
But the players must have enjoyed overrunning Lens and it seems they wanted to come blasting out of the box and go on full scale attack, and the tactic certainly worked!
Within ten minutes of the action, there was some incredible passing outside the box between Jesus and Saka and our starboy jinked into the box and Sa had no chance of stopping his shot from close range.
And just two minutes later, Zinchenko made a great run down the wing and after a lovely one-two with Jesus he slotted it to Odegaard on the edge of the box, and bang it was 2-0 to the Gunners.
Arsenal must be looking for another second half stroll i reckon. Ten minutes later and Trossard nearly made it 3 but was blocked by Sa, who immediately went down injured. After some on-pitch treatment Wolves decided to withdraw him for Bentley, who is making his first EPL appearance of the season.
Despite their lead, Arsenal were still going full pelt for another and Wolves had to do some stiff defending, Wolves finally got the ball into the Arsenal area after half an hours play but the fact is that Raya hasn’t had to make a save up to now.
Arsenal still had a wink at a penalty but VAR was wasting it’s time checking, and the Wolves and Arsenal fans both made their opinion on VAR very very clear! And despite 7 minutes added time the half ended with a comfortable 2-0 lead.
I fully expected Arteta to start thinking about resting players and playing with the handbreak on to conserve energy and to be honest the game started looking a bit scrappy, but Arsenal are certainly in no rush to over exert themselves. Arteta waits until the 67th minute before replacing Jesus with Nketiah, and straight away William Saliba gets the first yellow card of the game, which is quite surprising considering this is the PGMOL derby! Maybe they’re not sure who they like the least lol.
Odegaard and Saka combined with 15 mins to go and Saka tried a curler into the top corner but it just went wide, and then Martinelli got replaced by Havertz. While that was happening it looks like we are losing Tomiyasu to injury again, as he goes to ground and calls for a replacement. Ben White is the obvious candidate and joins the pitch quickly.
Wolves are running out of time to make a comeback but do try to step up and put some pressure on, but they can’t find a way through our very solid defence.
Trossard was put through by a lovely little dink from Odegaard but both him and Saka from the bounce back, couldn’t get the ball past Bentley.
The straight down the other end, and a bit of a sloppy ball from Zinchenko ends up with Cunha, who curls a lovely ball past Raya and now we have a nail-biting finish ahead.
After the restart Wolves go all out for the equalizer but Arsenal break away and Nketiah is left one-on-one with the keeper but his nice shot gets stopped by the post. Now we have an end to game with 6 minutes added time to go! Nail-biting stuff!
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Arteta decides to extend play by taking off Saka for Jorginho and Kiwior for Odegaard as Arsenal act to presrve their lead.Wolves get a couple of VAR checks but there is nothing dubious involved. And we setlle in with a 10-man defence to keep them out for the dying minutes and it takes a classy Raya jump for us to get a crucial 3 points and we go 4 points clear in the table..
Phew what an end!