Arsenal kept their title hopes alive on Saturday with a hard-fought victory away to Wolves.
Riccardo Calafiori secured a narrow 1-0 win for the Gunners, slicing in a half-volley from inside the area after a lacklustre clearance from the home side.
However, it wasn’t the “same old Arsenal” in terms of Mikel Arteta’s side dominating possession without finding the net—it was quite the opposite.
The contest was closely fought, with Arsenal surprisingly controlling less possession (48.4%) than Vitor Pereira’s team (51.6%). Arsenal only edged Wolves by one more effort on target (4), while both teams registered the same number of total shots (9) during the 90 minutes.
Discipline-wise, the North Londoners were not at their best, with Myles Lewis-Skelly shown a red card just before the break following a clumsy challenge on Matt Doherty.
But it wasn’t just Arsenal who struggled to keep their cool. Joao Gomes was sent off for Wolves in the second half after a nasty tackle on Gabriel earned him a second yellow card in what was a fiercely contested encounter.
Once the match was over, Arteta spoke to the Arsenal media team, emphasising the importance of the victory in the title race, especially with Liverpool still leading the pack.
The Spaniard said: “Yes, I’m extremely proud of all the players. You can talk about our courage, you can talk about the spirit, but as well as about intelligence. The way they managed emotionally the game, it was unbelievable. And especially with what we have to face and how they felt about it.”
He added emphatically: “All of them, just face the situation, the challenge. We went to the second half, the only message was to go out there and help to win the game. That’s it.”
The Gunners proved they can win gritty, hard-fought matches—ones that are often decisive in a title race. Six points adrift of Liverpool, Arsenal remain firmly in the hunt.
Liam Harding
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It was a performance clearly superior to similar circumstances before now. The team didn’t just fold up in self pity as they’re wont to, but even with 10 players Arsenal looked well able to clinch the game.
If they had similar performances against Brighton and City when they were a man down and leading, we’d be 4 points better off on the PL table
Great! Against the third worst team in the league (currently) while Bournemouth put 5 past the third best team (currently). A 100M front line could not put the ball in the net. Thank goodness TP played CDM, we won. Will not complain much as there are 3 points on the board.
I seem to remember a similar performance against city that was only spoilt by a 99th minute equaliser.
The common denominators in both the city115 and the wolves game?.. You’ve got it.. Mr Oliver, kicking the ball away and ten men Arsenal.
I remember Arsenal getting a pen against Liverpool and Liverpool not
Then Liverpool got a red card
In charge ?
Wait ?
Mr Oliver lol
Trossard was silly for kicking the ball away simple
As for their equaliser it was terrible defending by Skelley
What was the terrible defending by Skelly for the equaliser? I’ve just been watching it back because I’ve seen you make the claim a couple of times recently, not very closely tbf – if I’ve got it right, he’s stood quite centrally, and gvardiol (I think) grabs and pushes him to stop him coming out to block the shot when it comes in, but I didn’t see anything Id call terrible defending from him there – can’t see what he could do, except push back harder against gvardiol? Is that what you meant? Genuinely asking how you saw it
He’s brought on in the 92nd min for Timber so Grealish targets him
When City get corner they play a one two because our right back has not followed the player out allowing Grealish to walk into the pen area forcing another player to rush out
If you look at allot of games Skelley been okay but some fans build up our players because they want to believe its true
Eg , maitland Niles better then Kante
Eddie Nketiah a better option then Mbappe ! lol
He wasn’t playing right back though was he? Again genuine question, I can’t remember, but looking at the substitutions, we had white, kiwior, saliba and Gabriel on the pitch with him, so I’d be surprised if we’d asked Skelly to play right back and not white (given he’s left footed and is known to play left back and centre midfield). For the goal, he was positioned centrally in the box – not sure it was his job to go out to grealish. If it was him, it was a mistake but wouldn’t say it was him being targeted.
Agree that some of his games have been overblown – I do see he has a lot of quality and I honestly do think he can be a big player in the future, but it’s clear to me he’s still learning and isn’t consistently outstanding, but I do think he’s done well so far. I never make those kinds of comparisons for young players, might say their style reminds me of x or y, but never that they are or definitely will be better. I did and do think Maitland Niles could have been a brilliant player, same for some players like Fran Merida in the past, but there’s no guarantees as things can go wrong, so you’re right that we shouldn’t be over-doing it with every young player who shows potential.
Yeah if you recall we were playing like two lot of 5 lol
Timber literally went off 92nd min so Skelley filled in for him so as rb should follow man to corner
We switched off
He was great in the NLD
Ah ok, that makes sense. Yeah he was in the NLD 👍
Yeah if you recall we were playing like two lot of 5 lol
Timber literally went off 92nd min so Skelley filled in for him so as rb should follow man to corner
We switched off
He was great in the NLD
If suspended ( surely gets overturned ) we could play a lb at lb lol that be nice