Arsenal secured a 2–1 victory over Wolves in the Premier League this evening, with both goals coming from unfortunate own goals by Sam Johnstone and Yerson Mosquera. When the league leaders host the team at the bottom of the table, expectations are naturally high, and many anticipated an early breakthrough from the home side. Arsenal have been among the strongest teams in world football in recent months and began the match on the front foot.
Strong Resistance from Wolves
Despite Arsenal’s dominance, Wolves delivered a disciplined and resilient defensive performance. Fully aware of the challenge they faced, they defended with intensity and organisation, frustrating the Gunners for much of the contest. Rob Edwards would take pride in how his side pressed Arsenal and limited clear chances, even allowing corners without panic and defending them with confidence.
When Arsenal did manage to test the goalkeeper, Johnstone was in outstanding form, producing a series of impressive saves that kept Wolves level. The Gunners pushed hard throughout the first half but were unable to find a breakthrough, raising the possibility of an unlikely result. Wolves’ commitment and preparation suggested they had studied Arsenal’s attacking patterns in detail.
Late Drama at the Emirates
After the interval, Wolves continued their brave defensive display, forcing Arsenal to remain patient. The breakthrough finally arrived in the 70th minute when pressure resulted in an own goal from Johnstone. Arsenal looked to extend their lead and protect their advantage, but Wolves struck back late through substitute Tolu Arokodare, who found the equaliser and stunned the home crowd.
However, Arsenal refused to settle for a draw. In the fourth minute of added time, another moment of misfortune for Wolves saw Mosquera turn the ball into his own net, restoring Arsenal’s lead. The goal sealed a dramatic win and ensured the Gunners collected all three points.
While Arsenal survived a significant scare, the performance may encourage opponents to believe that courage and organisation can disrupt them. Nonetheless, the victory keeps Arsenal moving forward and underlines their ability to find a way to win, even when faced with stubborn resistance.
We wont win the title nor a trophy. We will trail City by the end of this month.
We look spent and out of ideas. Its like we are just expecting ball to magically go in without any effort put in.
We managed 2 shots on target, TWO against a team who has 2 points in 15 matches. And defending 1-0 against that dross team, just wow.
Looks like Gyökeres is nonexistent. Its not only that hes completely invisible, I just cant even remember anyone crossing or making a key pass for him. With the way we play, I doubt even Haland would score any.
You are saying we aren’t going to win the title from one game and we’re 5 points clear at the top? I don’t share your Doom and gloom. Teams even champions have a bad match once in a while
Well weve seen our title runs go down EXACTLY like today for 3 seasons straight. You didnt witness our last 3 seasons?
We slowly begin to falter, just getting worse gradually. Then we ride our luck for some time until it runs out.
Todays performance was carbon copy of those faltering matches where we lost the title in the past seasons.
Mystic Meg are you? 😂
You don’t have to be Mystic Meg to predict what might happen. From what we are seeing. There IS a massive problem with the way we play. Which I know sounds odd, with the positions we are in. BUT we are looking very wobbly at the moment.
I agree Reggie, but there is a difference in predicting we won’t win it and saying outright “we will not win the title or a trophy “. A prediction is a guess, he stated it as fact. I think there is a great possibility we won’t win it too by the way, but always got my fingers crossed🤞🤞
Nothing to do with injuries of course !
Same naysayers moaning as usual !
If we had a full strength team out they may have some strength to their opinions
Considering we had to risk Saliba as no other defenders …plus Ode Gyo Jesus all coming back from injury it’s remarkable we are still top
So there is mental strength to still.come back however poor we were and get the winning goal
We had 30 crosses yesterday . We are doing Wolves a great disservice also as yesterday they defended very well but we still had plenty of chances
Don’t understand why it’s always glass half empty with some people … yes we were poor but we won! That’s a good sign in my book
And now we have a whole week to get players some rest and repair. Also a chance for Arteta to get back to some proper training which has been impossible the last 3 weeks based on the ridiculous schedule all team have now ! Anyone who doesn’t understand that doesn’t really understand top level sports!
Neil,
Just an answer to you’re suggestion that Arteta had no choice but to play Saliba. I read what he said to, and factually that’s not true is it.
He could have played White at RB, Timber RC, Hincapie at LC, and Lewis Skelly at LB.
As White got injured, he could have then played Saliba if needed. So he did have a choice.
Understood but I didn’t say he had no choice. I said he had to risk Saliba in the starting XI… i really dont view MLS as a proper.defender.. he has been shoe horned in
My points still stand …thanks
But that’s the point Neil, he didn’t have to risk Saliba, choice or no choice.
Told you guys many times that Gyokeres can’t outpace, outjump and outmuscle any huge EPL CB, nor can he offer technical skills to create chances for his teammates and himself
Another awful signing from Berta
gotnanidea. These match reviews wouldn’t be complete without your Gyokeres reminders🙄.
Don’t forget to remind him about Sesko🤣🤣
DaJuhi, agree 100%. Too much possession side to side football, with not enough high or low crosses and direct play on goal. Arsenal pay top money for a striker in Gyokeres, yet he touches the ball 4 times in the first half, one of which he should have scored. Where were multiple attempts to bring him into the game with crosses to his head, or his feet, or through balls in channels for him run onto?
Arsenal showed no flair and were lucky to score through two own goals, wasting 70% posession. The selected team should have demolished last placed Wolves at the Emirates, yet were extremely lucky to win 2-1 in the 90+4 minute. At last it can be said they chased the win to th end!
I think the headline says all in terms of difficulties of expectation management in these sort of games. Reflecting on it all now, maybe we could go over the top demeaning what overall was rather functional, but not at all awful a performance, against another low block and bunch of time wasters – it’s far too easy to ask “how come a title chasing side couldn’t find space in and around their box?” and not recognise effort opponents put in to deliberately make it a slow sporadic game. I now think the game I saw wolfs denied us space and limited us to half chances, more so than lack of creativity and effort on our part. Both our goals came from brilliant skill, as they were excellent balls in. So not mere own goals handed to us by crap opponents. If our team showed nerves having conceded crucial late goals recently, our crowd stuck at it, and were brilliant, definitely a huge positive.
However. Hincapie didn’t get it right for the equaliser, maybe at this stage of career suits us better at left back, where he actually started, and where it will be interesting to see him get more starts, he has pace, physicality, and good on ball, but also errors in him, but so did Big Gabby when first in the side didn’t he? We also need to show patience when players are back in side after layoffs, it won’t always mean immediately up to sharpness and form, showing the best they can be. Sometimes within injury ravaged seasons you never get to see a player at the very best they are capable of, during what’s left that season.
White seems to get a lot of injuries.
A fair overall assessment
Wolves we’re appalling time wasters and the referree should have e yellow carded the goalkeeper much earlier
Did anyone see Doherty go down like he was pleased by Martinelli…on replay the foot was 10 inches away ! Zero mention by commentators …when’s VAR not allowed to intervene considering the ref gave a foul
I would say we are still inexperienced in responding to these type of tactics like others are. (aside from the rolling around which seems every team does now and is disgraceful)
3 more points… in previous years this is a draw or loss !
Rest and recuperation for a week now thankfully to get back to proper training
The most concerning thing about this result is not the performance, it’s that some fans genuinely won’t see any issues and just say something along the lines of, “you can’t always be at your best”
The negative mindset thats coached into the players when going 1 0 up is shocking, and its horrible to see on the field in practice.
We got very lucky, hoping MA learns from this bit I have my reservations
We still 1st and injury crisis is over so we should get better
Theres a difference IMO playing bad vs hsving first shot on target at 70 minutes, at home, against team who has lost all their matches by 2 or 3 goals. And winning by 2 own goals.
That was just pure luck. We deserved nothing from that match and we will get found out like we always do very soon.
(Honestly guys what do you expect when teams come to our ground just to park the bus.
Believe me it’s not easy to break low block
Andy z, spot on fella. Wolves played with a 6 man defence when we had the ball. We then have people saying we should move the ball faster, which would make sense if we played with 6 forwards, but we don’t.
Andy z,
While I agree with you regards to it not being easy playing against the low block. We play against it enough to have come up with a better solution to try and combat it surely.
The obvious way is quick one and two touch football, with plenty of movement form the front players. And a deep lying midfielder making late runs into the box.
Again it will still be hard to break down, bit at least the deep defending team will find that more difficult than the slow pedestrian side to side football. A well organized team will just stay in position, knowing full well that we won’t hurt them by just playing in front of them.
It makes me laugh when I hear this constant surprise regarding teams playing low blocks against us, they act as it if its the first time we’ve encountered it. The fact is we should be used to it, it happens enough times now for us to at least combat it better.
Well said, Derek.
The harsh reality is that if we want to be champions, we have to get used to playing against the low block. It was the same thing for Pool and City in seasons past. In fact, the ability to win the league is very much down to how well a team can break the low block
To be fair, Arteta was waving his arms trying to get the players to push forward. They turtled instead.
Shows how much we miss big Gabi !
Major presence in the team nowadays. Ode has gone backwards and into his shell due to his injuries…
👍Bergkampfwagen.
Shocking performance from an EPL table leader
Told you that Gyokeres and Eze combo will never work well for Arteta’s tactics. Eze needs to play CAM with a false-nine and a double pivot behind him, or stay on the bench with Gyokeres
Hopefully Havertz and Jesus will become fully fit very soon, because the Swedish just doesn’t have enough physical and technical qualities to be our main CF
GAI, it would help if Gyokeres received service. How can you assess that he “doesn’t have enough physical and technical qualities to be our main CF”, when Arsenal have him “feeding on scraps” (4 touches in the first half)?
Remember how Haaland received the ball and passed it to one of his teammates in a tight space, then his teammate assisted him to score against us?
Gyokeres’ touches are simply too inconsistent to initiate such movement in tight spaces
Merino didn’t get good service too when he played CF, but he was smartly swapping his position with Eze and created plenty of good chances for his teammates
Gyokeres will never be able to create good chances like that for his teammates and himself, because of his physical and technical deficiencies
I’m still on the fence about Gyokeres. Just finding it hard to answer a blunt question like why could Merino score more than Gyokeres, given the same lack of service
It’s only a matter of time now till Man City overtakes us and wins the league. It’s inevitable. Not sure if I should even bother following the rest of the season. What a disgraceful performance.
Your comment makes no sense whatsoever. City has had terrible matches. You are going to come to a negative conclusion after one match and we are 5 points at the top. We need to regroup and bounce back.
it’s the usual over the top reaction from the usual suspect. Nothing new here, its better if you ignore them Stephanie.
Shut the door on your way out then QD, a lucky draw to keep us 5 points clear and it’s all over is it? Fan? 🤣
Please don’t 🙏🙏🙏
QD, I’m glad I never played in a sporting team with you, with that level of negativity and pessimism, when leading the League. Honest assessment of a poor game is one thing, but writing off the season?
Not winning the league starting with Gyökeres. Can’t believe how bad we played. There is no way city doesn’t over take us in the next few games.
Poor performance, Saka stepped up today when the team needed him the most, he didn’t get a goal or an assist to show in his stats for the season but he won the game for that’s the most important thing.
Hopefully Ben is not a serious injury
All this Doom and gloom is making me feel sick. Especially since we are at the top of the League and City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Crystal Palace have had bad games too
3 points, that’s all that’s important after that performance. Lucky or not, we won. Onwards and upwards.
GB, I assure you, before the season is over, all these usual suspects spelling doom & gloom will still come on here to overhype this same team.
I guess am just used to it by now.
Glad the sun is still shining in your part of the world Stephanie . But most of us don’t see it as gloom and doom. It’s more of a case of looking at things that aren’t working, and unfortunately at this point in time there are too many. One of my gripes is that Arteta’s Arsenal are playing too much like the Italian national teams of the 80s and 90s. It doesn’t matter whether you win 1-0 or 5-0 ,regardless of the quality of the opposition. It’s all about the percentages and controlling the tempo of a game. With the quality of the players he has , does he need to be so cautious? and for how long will it continue to work for him? Should be an interesting second half of the season.
Spot on Joe S. – an excellent comparison!
Arteta, please take off the handbrake, maintain the solid defence yet fully utilize the attacking potential of Arsenal’s midfield and forwards.
Ridiculous assessment as it doesn’t take into account how many injuries we have had and currently have. Before we had so many attackers out… now we have so many defenders out !
We are 100% in Champions League and scored lots of goals there including beating Bayern
Also top of PL and we have played a lot of the top teams at their ground already … and other teams have to play each other .. lets see how well they do during AFCON when players are away and also if they get injuries as we have done
COYG.
I can’t speak for the game itself as I didn’t watch it. I do feel for your views and how a hectic schedule with injuries – described by a pundit as a cluster – can affect performances
A home win was expected by everyone so by what I’m reading, it was a sorry affair and I’m not surprised by the outpouring of opinion.
My view is that all teams have a match or 3 that fall below expectations and to come so close to a cock up, and get away with it, is the luck that came the team’s way. Liverpool, last season got away with late goals and I’ve no doubt that City have as well.
With a week to recover and a dose of reflection I’m hoping for a revival against Everton
Injuries ? We were at home to a team with 2 points
But I said didn’t I instead of questioning the mentality of the club it’s injuries ….refs and then. …….trophies are not everything
I referred to a hectic schedule and a cluster injury list. You have the fixation with the mentality of the club, not me. Neither do I have a fixation with refs and trophies as the latter are an important facet of the club’s prestige. What is important to me is creating a more viable route to winning regularly, rather than being, more or less, a one season wonder like Leicester.
How anyone can watch that game and not question the mentality is beyond me
We froze
Our injury list had nothing to do with yesterday
I didn’t watch the game so my views are general opinions of what can happen in a season. Lucky then that we didn’t freeze sufficiently to lose
Oh I agree
In a strange way it might help our mentality to go through that and come out the other side
Let’s hope so Dan. We all want Arsenal to win after such a long wait.
For OG and anyone in Aus and anyone from the Jewish community
My deepest condolences for anyone affected following the events in Bondi beach this morning.
I hope this does not lead to a further divided society than it already is.
Especially all those affected on JA.
Thank you, Indian Gunner. A tragic start to Christmas/Hanukkah.
Thank goodness the father and son gunmen did not have access to assault rifles or automatic weapons, due to our strict gun laws. A strength of our society was demonstrated by the Muslim Australian, who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen at great risk to himself (look for the video).
We can’t win a league title like this. Always trying to “manage” a game on the pitch.
Another thing, Hincapie is going to cost us a lot of games if he continues to play at CB, aerially he’s not really convincing. Maybe it’s a height issue, but rather we play Calafiori at CB and he plays at LB
The goal was Salibas fault leaving his man.
@Reggie watch it again Hincapie is beaten in the air for their goal. And vs Aston Villa Timber is also not tall enough for their first goal to head the ball away, that’s why in the absence of Saliba, Gabriel and Mosquera I’d prefer Calafiori and White at CB
Watch it again, Saliba was marking him and ran away to space. He just left him. It was poor from Saliba. It was lije he didn’t fancy marking him.
Saliba left him because there was Hincapie on him and there was a second unmarked player in the box, just infront of Saliba . Hincapie was beaten too easily in thr air. But you saw what you saw and I saw what I saw, let’s agree to disagree.
Saliba left him to mark nobody.
Its funny how the player Saliba was marking ended up scoring 2 seconds later. And yes Hindcapie was beaten by someone at leat 6 inches taller than him. And not 6 inches taller than Saliba.
Calafiori was suspended for the match !
No Reggie, the goal was down to Saka and Odegaard standing there like statues and not closing down the Wolves player that crossed the ball !!!
Why did Saliba run off his player?
I’d also prefer Calafiori at CB because of his height
I am sorry for being negative but this game is just the confirmation that we are not winning the league.
This game feels like a loss.
The less said about that performance the better.Lady luck shone down on us tonight ,but given our injury problems this season and last, i think we deserve a break.Lets hope Ben White is not laid up for long and the fact that we do not have another match for a week will recharge the batteries of certain players like Rice and Zubimendi who need a break.Once again i was particularly disappointed with Goykeres and Eze who seem decidedly overpriced to me or am i being unduly harsh?
No Grandad, Zubimendi, Gyokores and Eze look extremely over priced. I feel for Gyokores because we do not play for a no9. And that is what he is.
Gyok is just not good enough. He has zero presence in the box, and it’s another EPL CB pairing that have totally locked him out of getting close to goal. The only defense Gyok has bullied is Leeds. That’s unacceptable and can’t just be put down to us not being used to playing with a striker. Theres enough crosses and wing play from this side that he should be doing far better. And thats not even critiquing his first touches, and non-existent linkup play. This was clearly a Berta signing because we all know Mikel wanted Sesko. Sad thing is we should’ve been chasing Ekitike all along.
RSH, he has had nearly zero decent service. We haven’t played for a no9, we don’t play for a number 9 and he is only a no9. He needs quality service and he doesn’t get it. If he doesn’t play, play a player that suits, if he does, play the play that suits. Otherwise you get bad results and thats what is happening.
I see him getting service, anyone in the box beats him to the ball though. Hes not aggressive enough, not enough of a presence. We are constantly in the final third, it’s his job as a striker to find space in the box and be on the right areas for deflections, crosses etc too. When’s the last time he hung out near the far post? Many games we are whipping crosses close to the opposition box and he’s never there. Doesn’t have the attributes or seemingly the football IQ for this league. No way should he be getting bossed by basically every defense he’s comes up against in England. No striker can just sit in the box and expect the ball to come to straight to his feet but that’s what we’re dealing with.
He has no seevice.
Exactly right, Reggie. Gyokeres is a player resource, who is not being utilized correctly. Four touches in the first half against bottom club Wolves at the Emirates is ridiculous, when Arsenal had 70% possession.
Agreed with Reggie for once re Gyo and lack of service.
He has no idea what Saka is going to do .. one great cross from Saka when he finally put in a first time cross rather than his normal step overs trying to take on defender or cut back in.
Wide and midfield players need to play to Gyo strength to get the best out of him. No point saying he needs to change how he has played all his life. …if they wanted that they should have bought a different striker.
Exactly!!
The way we are playing Gyokores was a bad buy. We should have bought a false 9 player, not a striker. Arteta blunted Auba and Laccazette, with his tactics. He doesn’t play striker style football.
Great point regarding Saka Neil – he was soooo frustrating to watch.
Imagine Victor Osimhen as our striker, no matter how bad we played, their defenders won’t have an easy match, that guy is a beast in the box. His pressing is top notch, but I guess we didn’t go for him because of his injury records and AFCON competition
Reggie, I think you are harsh on Zubimendi, who has played some excellent games in his first season at Arsenal. My concern is similar to Grandad’s, in that despite the injuries, Arteta should be rotating better with his strong squad. In my view Norgaard has been underutilized, as an experienced EPL player, to rest Zubimendi.
I agree that Gyokeres has had to adapt to Arteta’s style of play in a new league and his season has been disrupted by injury. Similarly Eze has to acclimatize to Arteta’s style of play, which isn’t aided by being selected on the left or centrally and appearing to be forced to play from deep. Eze has thrived when he has been able to play around the edge of the box.
Berta also made expensive mistakes at Atletico Madrid by signing Felix and Cunha, whose playing styles aren’t suited to Simeone’s tactics at all
It’s shocking that Berta is still doing similar mistakes at his new club, because he earns millions of dollars annually
Many football fans know that Gyokeres’s goal productivity in Portugal was heavily inflated by his penalties and we’ve already got too many CAMs at Arsenal for a luxurious one like Eze
Absolutle rubbish.
Berta has had a very good transfer window and you can see that in terms of the back up we have in all positions which has helped us maintenance our position at the top despite so many injuries which derailed us in the past
Arteta has had virtually no games this season where he has been able to choose from all his squad.
You don’t need to believe me. Ask any of the pundits who all say bar none that Arsenal now has the strongest squad in the league due to this transfer window
GAI wanted Sesko Neil🤣🤣 says it all.
It has to be said, we were lucky, very lucky, against a very poor team, at home. Tactics yet again was wrong. Not playing Madueke was wrong. Not even bringing him on was wrong. Playing Zubimendi was wrong. Playing possession based pass pass pass football was wrong. If that was going for it, it was wrong. Sitting back on a 1-0 lead at home, against a poor Wolves, who haven’t won this season, have an awful defensive record, can not score, have massive problems and have lost ALL of their best players was WRONG. Things HAVE to change because we are looking very shaky.
Boy oh boy that was bad, continue to play like that and we are not gonna win the league or Champions league, might get lucky in the domestic cups but we’ll get found out in the big ones, Gyokeras is looking like a waste of money and the defence is starting to look dodgy, City won’t be worried after watching that performance.
Not really sure what’s going on with Eze – the Spud game he played out of his socks and he’s been largely invisible since then. He always used to pose a danger every game at Crystal Palace.
Eze interchanged his position with Merino frequently to confuse Spurs’ CBs, but he can’t do it with Gyokeres since the Swedish isn’t a false-nine nor can the former Sporting’s CF offer highly technical skills to create chances
As for Crystal Palace, most teams didn’t play low block against team, hence giving Eze plenty of space to work with in the final third
Well, that was lucky, really poor performance, not enough energy and since the season started I literally saw a nervous Arteta on the touch line. And that’s all the way from around minute 15. Spiraled to the field I think. We really deserved nothing from this game. I’ll just take the lucky 3 points and move on. A week is a loooong time to put this performance out of my mind.
It’s a shame really that the desire not to lose is now greater than the desire to win hence we can’t kill of opponents but instead base our game plan on control. Arteta is a control freak, control freaking is not necessary a bad thing but it surely isn’t a good thing as well. I believe it was Peter schmiecheal that said Arteta needs to not be afraid of losing and let his players and express themselves on the pitch. I didnt quite understand what he was saying then but today I saw first hand what he was talking about. Everyone was playing as if they were conditioned Except for Saka and maybe Trossard, not a good win at all. This was like our first game against man united though we won but it felt like a loss . We are going to be lucky all the time.
We play like we are trying to solve a complicated math formula. I just want to shout out that this is football and it’s meant to be fun first of all. And I know that sounds crazy when these are pros, but they all look like they’re just going through the motions out there and doing pretty passing drills with zero real expression. And secondly, scoring is the intention of the game which it also seems this team has forgotten. I just dont feel like they have any urgency and it’s not that big of a deal if they dont score a goal. It’s hard to describe, but doing what they’ve been told to do seems to trump actually attempting to take any risks. This was the same problem last season and why we dried up especially during the 2nd half of the campaign. Arteta is such a control freak and it’s not working.
You can’t treat every game like it’s a complicated problem that needs solving. Let’s be honest, any manager with total belief in their squad would’ve just said, “lads, it’s Wolves, they have 2 points all season and we’re at home. Just go out there and win the game, you all know what to do”. I’m not getting the feeling this was the message today. To sum it up, this side feels over-coached and I fear we may have peaked far too early in the season.
100% 👍
Sad but true. It’s not like we don’t have what it takes or the personnel to win any game comfortably. This team hasn’t conceded 3 or more goals in over two years, ironically the last game we conceded three goals was 4 – 3 win against Luton (I think it was an F.A cup game or a carabao cup game I can’t remember) who were managed then by this current Wolves manager. One would expect the boys and the coach knows that we do not concede more than 2 goals therefore the boys need to go all out to get 3 goals against any opposition which will surely guarantee a win, but no , we scored one and park the bus. Arsenal is not a team that parks the bus. Arteta for one should know this, he played under Wenger and had exceptional attacking players as teammates. Someone needs to tell him this. Does he not have attacking coaches in his staff? I see Gabriel Heinze (a defender) is now his right hand man, could he be the one that has influenced our manager into playing like this ?
Last season and the one before we were beating teams by 4 or 5 goals margins, we even had a spell where we scored 5+ goals in 4 straight games all in a row.
What happened, what is happening?
I really don’t understand.
👍👌
We are not going to be lucky all the time.
I have just read Arteta blamed our passive performance and bad defending habits. WELL WHO HAS TAUGHT THEM TO DO IT?
Reggie, having players like Eze taking the ball from deep doesn’t help. Too much on the back foot.
Remember this is the same team that beat a much better side in th Champions League.
After all late dramas this narrow margin win tastes even sweeter than winning 4-0 as we witnessed rival teams’ fans celebrating wildly of Wolves’ leveller.
Always better if Martinelli comes in as a sub. Eze has difficulty playing twice in a week which he was not accustomed to at Palace.
Dan again superb prediction. Hats off!
I went 2-0 mate
But yeah feared we would look mentally weak with City 2 points behind
Hope they slip up at Palace
I just thank God that mother luck smiled at us and gave us the 3 points. What was that rubbish for crying out loud? It’s clearly obvious that Arteta isn’t versatile at all in tactics, with the caliber and arrays of Stars in the team it took Arsenal 70 minutes plus to have shot on target against a bottom the table team Wolves. There’s no hunger and bites in Arteta and Arsenal team what is this nonsense of sitting back in your half keep passing ball sideways and back to keeper because you were gifted an own, goal defending just one goal that you couldn’t defend at the end, even at a point Wolves pinned Arsenal in their own half pilling pressure upon pressure on clueless Arteta and his team until they equalized. This choice of slow sideways passes and reluctant build up tactics as a way of winning the league is stark delusional. So Arsenal can’t play and score goals through the middle? Pls @GAI stop your attacks on Berta, Gyokeres and Eze because their not performing as expected is a function of Arteta’s style of play, in their previous clubs they weren’t playing concentrating taking the ball 30% forward, 40% middle and 30% back to keeper they are attack minded teams. What is uninspiring method of turning competitive matches into mere practices as if they’ve lost the knowledge that something is at stake. It was this pattern that frustrated and fizzled out Auba that scored goals for AW and Dortmund. City and Liverpool that have shared the Epl title in the past seven years never won it adopting this Arteta’s style of play. LET THE LEAGUE END AND LET’S WELCOME CESÇ FABREGAS TO TAKE OVER FOR THE USUAL THING HAS STARTED SETTING UP AT THE USUAL PERIOD. How can you keep playing a striker that has zero goal on target for eighty minutes because you’re not really interested in scoring more goals you just want to defend against Wolves it’s highly absurd man.
Okey Joseph, agree with your assessment of where our attacking players are receiving the ball. Too much “ticky tacky” (side to side passing retaining possession with no forward momentum/thrust), lack of aggression and playing off the back foot.
What is this uninspiring method of…
Just got home from the match.
Firstly, it’s another three points.
Secondly, I’ve never seen a professional referee who has not kept his eyes on the ball so much, running forward, when he should have been back peddling.
On to the game :
What a load of complete and utter rubbish I sat through this evening.
There was no urgency, no plan, no desire and the sideways and backward passing was just so boring and frustrating.
The whole team was at fault and Saka wouldn’t / couldn’t take on his marker at any point in the game.
Why Mikel subbed Martinelli instead of Saka I haven’t a clue.
There were times in the first half, where Martinelli was unmarked, but the ball kept going to the right.
Why was Saka wearing the captain’s arm band?
He wasn’t involved with his teammates when corners or free kicks were taken and it was others doing the organisation.
I have to praise Wolves for their defensive play and they made it very difficult for us to break them down.
They fully deserved their goal and should have shared the points for sure.
But this was an awful performance from start to finish and, if we don’t improve, there won’t be any trophy come the end of the season.
It was so bad, I did something I’ve never done before and walked out when Wolves equalised… and missed the bloody winner!! 👹👹👹
Zubimendi had his worst game since arriving, Rice looked like an old man out there and why we signed Gyokeres if we don’t give him the service he needs, is another mystery.
Jeez I’m really pi**ed off!!
Off to bed at 1.30am after watching that load of 💩💩 and I’m being kind to them.
Sort it out Mikel, sort it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ken, the cardinal sin of a match-goer…leaving before the end😱. The price of season tickets and your airfare makes it doubly tragic.
I fully agree with this comment
Please Arteta you should read this comment ,
Yes, they were two own goals but without Saka , those goals would not have been scored ?, I was at the game too , strange atmosphere all night and the team never got going but I thought Saka was our best player on the night
Until the 70th minute he did nothing of merit.
Yes, he got two “assists” but I sit at the Clock End and his first half performance was just to play it safe.
As per normal, he had at least two players around him, but those defenders play for the team adrift at the bottom of the PL!
But that seemed the attitude of the whole team, play it safe and they’ll roll over in the end.
This obsession with plying the right hand side no matter what else is on offer, was ridiculous last night.
The atmosphere was one of disbelief that we could play so badly against such poor, supposedly, bad opposition.
Saka was Arsenal’s and the game’s best player. No other player comes close. He was the most effective and created the best opportunities for Arsenal to score. Saka is still much better than Madueke at creating those kind of chances. One of the issues, of course, is that the other attackers need to convert the chances. Anyone singling out Saka for criticism when there were so many other subpar performances really needs to watch the game again.
Oh I was AT the game David.
Saka was a passenger up and until his corner went in off the keeper.
He was marked out of the game by excellent work from the Wolves manager and players.
He created hardly anything, especially in the first half.
I saw it with my own eyes and don’t need to watch it again.
This criticism doesn’t mean he’s a bad player, far from it.. But it’s as if he’s untouchable when it comes to dissecting an awful performance from the whole squad.
It is precisely the fact that we know how good he is, that we can and should call him out when he’s played so poorly.
Why is it every other player can be criticised but not Saka?
Very easy to blame others!!
You can’t blame Wolves for their negative spoiling tactics, which almost earned them the point they came for. Did we expect them to actually play real football against us? From the start, it looked like it was going to be a slog, and Wolves almost pulled it off. Tough on them, but we got the points in a game we won’t want reflect on too often. Must’ve been torture for our match-going fans, and for a change, I was so pleased to be wrapped up warm at home watching this dirge of a game.
A very tough watch but the 3pts is all that matters, I like most was expecting a massive win 4 or 5- 0 but this is the Premier league and anyone can beat anyone. Lots of doom and gloom on here which is expected but we are still top and for me that’s the most important thing. Onwards and upwards with a very tough game next Saturday v Everton, another must win game. COYG
Seems I’m lucky to have missed this game
Sometimes you just have to thank your lucky stars that a poor team performance isn’t losing one. I’ve read Arteta’s reaction and he wasn’t a happy bunny and White now has a hamstring problem 🙄
SueP
My experience watching the premier league for a number of years, tells me these very ugly wins , where we grinds out results when not at our best is a key attribute of a title winning team.
That’s how I saw this one, am not worried I wouldn’t lose a minute sleep, in fact am delighted of the lads.
Gunsmoke
Not every game is won in the desired manner and there are banana skin matches. So much had been talked about this game and how Arsenal would walk it, it almost came as no surprise that the opposite was true. Life doesn’t always go to plan. Yes, ugly wins are part and parcel of the season and it was a win whereas in the past, there was a fair chance that the team would either conspired to lose, or accepted the draw.
Why the Hell didn’t Madueke start
On form to play .
Never rests rice why doesn’t he trust nogard ?
I think we’d have drawn or even lost without rice yesterday tbh
That’s what nearly happened, so Rice was just at fault as the rest of them.
He is being played into the ground and badly needs a rest.
Let’s hope everyone is OK for the Everton game and we’re back to our best, because “lady luck” rarely rewards The Arsenal more than once in a season!!
Just glad we won. Doubt our tactics will change anytime soon. Arteta has a tendency to stick to his style of play and preferred players with minimal changes. At least luck is on our side to win the game from 2 own goals. Let’s hope it stays that way
This was certainly one of the poorer Arsenal performances in recent times. A difficult game for many players but eventually a win against what turned out to be a fairly resilient team.
It seems so many wrote off Wolves and expected a huge win without having actually seen them play before.
As for Arsenal, Arteta will certainly be doing a lot of work with the players as he won’t be happy with many aspects of the game.
There is still a disconnect between the striker and some other players which needs to improve. This has remained an issue when Arsenal are up against low blocks.
To read some if these comments on here is to think we have just lost and we are the ones trailing by 5 points behind city.
The game wasn’t pretty, wasn’t great but let’s give wolves credit. They may sit at the bottom and have 2 points but they were well organised.
I agree we didn’t play well. Some players had an off night and we picked up another injury
It was a frustrating night but I have to say Ken. Disappointed in you leaving early.
The ones who stayed behind whi h was a lot of us still believed and we got our just reward of a goal, a win and 3 points.
Onwards and upwards
Can’t believe I did it AB – but that shows you how bad it was!!
Mind you, I wasn’t the only one that’s for certain.
As you say onwards and upwards – I don’t think we could go any lower than that performance.
Ken1945,
Back in the day when I used to go, I only left early three times.
One was against Millwall, we were winning 2-0, but having watched the Millwall fans chucking coins at John Lukic throughout, and young children having to be moved away from the clock end, me and my lovely late Father decided it would be safer to leave early for obvious reasons.
Another time was an FA Cup game against Watford. Luther Blisset scored what looked like a mile offside goal, the players committed the cardinal sin, they stopped, they didn’t play to the referee’s whistle. And as soon as Watford went 3-1 up I had seen enough.
Another one was a League Cup tie V Manchester United. We had come back from 3-0 down to 3-2. But they then went 5-2 up. And on leaving they made it 6-2.
So don’t feel bad, I imagine it happens to quite a few people to be fare. 😂👍
I still think we haven’t looked that great for most of the season. We’ve not looked as bad as today – at home, against the league’s worse team – but we’ve rarely looked like a team befitting the squad value. The good news is we’re top of table without playing that great. Hopefully, today was a wake-up call.
When I see Ken so negative, I know something was not right! The major issue with the game was a psychological one because we expected to win comfortably. Most of us forgot that Wolves had become our kind of bogey team some few seasons back. As they say, old habits die hard. However, it is gratifying that ultimately we won the game.
I agree with some people who talked of extreme caution as an issue for us. We have become victims of fear of loss instead of going out to win games. This is a small club mentality which should be discarded. A big team should reflect it on the pitch. We should aim to dominate our opponents instead of looking timid and naive. It is foolhardy to try and defend one goal against a team which has scored just two goals all season!
Don’t know , he still mentioned the refs straight away lol
No, the three points first Dan, then the ref… I didn’t say he had a bad game, just mentioned a observation as a former referee. lol
I just watched Arteta’s post match interview and I’m glad he saw what we all saw and felt what we all felt. Let’s hope he changes his tactics and gives us a better game next week against a better side in Everton cos if we play like we did yesterday against Everton we are definitely going to lose.
I just thought “thank god for rice” – he stepped up and drove the team forwards when everyone else looked out of ideas. I didn’t watch the full game but he made sure we were always on the front foot from what I saw.
I do think the performance was down to complacency – some of the comments before the game concerned me. People seemed to think it was a gimme, including some inside the club. You can never think like that.
We played bad because we didn’t deploy the right players to their low block tactic and By players I mean our wingers.
Martinelli is trash , he can’t take nobody on really ,not even himself, saka tried and gave us 2goals But why didn’t arteta use madueke at all. He is our best dribbler on the wing
Eze could have been useful on the wing instead since he wont start trossard coz he just comin from injury. But overall I’m so glad we won, I was the only arsenal fan where I was.
I was so more relieved than happy when the noise of the banters and haters suddenly went mute as we scored d 2nd goal,.. we cannot have such performance again. Arteta should utilise the players well
Tea, you just won’t give up with your “play Eze on the wing”. He’s not a wing, never was & never will be. He didn’t look too good in the more right-sided role he played yesterday either, and I was pleased to see him go off.
What a painful watch that was. What happened to the full gas we were promised. I think the pilot light must have blown out. 🤦♂️
I think the only two positives I can take from that game is the fact that we managed to get a very fortunate win, and the fact that going into the game we had all but 4 players available.
Although I understand White has a Hamstring injury now. It looks like this free week couldn’t have come along at a better time.
I’m with Ken1945, regards our obsession of playing down the right, we have got a left side as well you know. But overall the least said about that game the better.
Just a word for those poster’s who were quoting what we were going to do to Wolves. As I’ve said more than once, don’t tempt fete, one day it will come back and bite. It nearly did last night. 🤦♂️
I did try and warn people
Derek
You most definitely have a point
There have also been posters who have already thrown in the towel. I call that showing a weak mentality after one game when the unexpected almost happened and Wolves didn’t choose to roll over to have their tummies tickled.
Isn’t making excuses and eventually saying trophies are not important equally a weak
mentality?
I have never said trophies are not important but I have always considered that they are best achieved when the club is on solid ground and unfortunately, by the time that AW left the club and Emery was removed, the direction of travel was not upwards.
I have told you before that injuries here and there are nothing like the levels experienced over the past 12 months, and hardly amount to making excuses, imo. Its up to you to see it from a different perspective, it just isn’t the same as mine
But you predicted we win 3-0 ?
I did indeed. I thought we would do better than that. Disappointing of course
Just pointing out you trusted the squad depth to comfortably deal with the injuries and schedules ( I would argue we had a strong 11 and bench ).yet the day after it’s ….. injuries
I did trust the squad depth when I gave my prediction. This was loosely based on the poor track record of Wolves only now to learn that White went off injured after 30 minutes, and this only raises the thorny issue again of injuries which are plaguing the club.
But you have raved about Skelley ?
Our back 4 still ended up being
Skelley – the next Ashley Cole.
Saliba – one of the best in Europe
Hicap ( not going to try and spell his name lol ) – a title winner In Germany
Timber – some call the best in the League in his position
Good enough you reckon ?
Have I? I thought he’s done very well so far. Got attitude and took his chance well at the time. Raved is a bit excessive for me. I rarely comment on who Arteta picks to play. I’m not as great on tactical stuff as you blokes, but if he prefers Calafiori then I’m backing his judgement.
SueP,
Good evening. 👍
Have City won it’s today’s game? Not yet.
Will they? We will see.
How many injuries do we have? I don’t know for sure, but one of the highest, or maybe even the highest number in the league, considering especially our key players.
Would somebody tell us why (some statistics, analysis)? Probably not, almost everyone loves focusing on cheap emotions.
Hypophoric🤣
So you looked at our 11 yesterday and thought we struggle ?
Raya , Saliba , Timber , Zubimendi, Rice , Saka Gyokeres are all first team players who played
Eze / Odegard and Martinelli/ Troaasrd all fit
Your telling that team is injury hit?
Well, the defence is injury hit. The other self inflicted curse was Calafiori collecting a suspension for too many yellow cards
Sue
Go look at our bench yesterday
Skelly – the next Ashley Cole apparently
Trossard
Noorgard
Odegard
Maduake – didn’t even get on
Jesus
Can’t with a straight face blame injuries for that display
I can only say again that I did not watch it. You appear to be trying to make out that I’m defending a poor performance. I can’t defend what I didn’t see. Now if you are saying that with the squad for that match we should have done better , then I would agree because thinking we’d win 3-0 in your predictor says as much.
Losing White 30 minutes into the match and having Calafiori suspended would have had an impact but even so , I would have expected the team to have put up a better display (going on reading match reports)
It’s okay , City got some games over Xmas where I hope they slip up.
We have 5 injuries including Dowman that rarely plays….on par with the average while having a better squad than most
Try again
Wolves had loads of players out?
Agree can’t blame injuries now. We have a deep and awfully expensive squad. We haven’t often looked like one, other than our fully fit first choice back 4.
People are entitled to get a bit twitchy. We have form with mid-season wobbles. We were lucky to beat a team which is already relegated, at home, with our awfully expensive/deep squad, Meanwhile, City are hot on our heals and just pumped a good Palace team, away from home.
Meant to br reply to David…
Arsenal fans are a really curious bunch.
Not sure how anyone could call Saka a passenger in that game but I suppose this the kind of thing that passes for analysis on this forum. The best player of the game and the driving force for the eventual win is considered a “passenger”. And apparently, he should have been substituted instead of Martinelli.
Some independent observers have suggested that Arsenal going on to win the game was evidence of Arsenal’s “mentality” whilst so-called fans suggest that we have to question the mentality of the Arsenal players.
The Arsenal backline required significant reorganisation due to injuries before the game and during the game itself. Yet, according to prevailing rhetoric amongst some fans injuries are merely “excuses’.
We also have the unedifying catastrophizing of fans who have already written off the season even though we have yet to reach midpoint of the season and Arsenal are still top of the PL.
Unfortunately, it seems that we need to remind everyone that Arsenal actually won yesterday, they are still top of both the PL and CL, and are still in contention for 4 trophies.
I have not seen many write off the season
To be fair I seen more fans say things like Arteta will win everything , has eclipsed Pep Guardiola, has tactically surpassed Mr Wenger , we have the best squad in the world, City are a one man team , etc
I seen more of those fans then anyone say the title race is over
I myself have said we need to try and build up a lead before March to give ourselves a best chance
That’s not saying the title.race is over
That’s such a misrepresentation of what I’ve read Dan.
You have said we’ll win nothing under this ownership and been backed by many.
That, in itself, is saying the title race is over isn’t it?
Yes, some fans have said the other things you attribute to them, but there are extremists on both sides.