On Thursday evening the Emirates Stadium hosted a game between two Champions League-chasers which was full of excitement. After playing two weeks ago at the Molineux, Wolverhampton Wanderers visited Arsenal for the postponed twentieth matchday fixture.
Wolves achieved their first away win over Arsenal since 1979 last season, while the last time they were able to beat The Gunners in two games back-to-back was 43 years ago.
Bruno Lage’s men came into the game in superb form, collecting eighteen points in their last eight games. Except for the loss to Arsenal, they were unbeaten in their last 8 games, while winning their last four away from home grounds, conceding only once and sitting in 7th place. A win here would do Wolves the world of good, getting one over their rivals for European football.
Facing a tough opposition, Arsenal stood strong at their home ground. With seven matches still to play, The Gunners have already collected more home points (29), than last season’s total (28). Being the last team that beat Wolverhampton Wanderers, the North Londoners led Wolves by two points, also having a game at hand.
Both managers made only one change. Mikel Arteta was forced to make a change to the side that beat Brentford at the Emirates five days ago, replacing Emile Smith Rowe with Gabriel Martinelli as he returned from the suspension he received from his red card at Molineux.
Smith Rowe was out with an illness, delaying his opportunity to become Arsenal’s latest player under 21 years old to score more than ten goals in a season – the last man to do so was Nicolas Anelka in the 98/99 season. Takehiro Tomiyasu was expected to return, but he was not available with a new calf injury.
Bruno Lage added Hwang Hee-Chan to the side that beat Leicester City at Molineux four days ago, at the expense of Leander Dendoncker.
Although favourites both in this particular fixture and in the race for the final Champions League spot, the game didn’t start promisingly for Arsenal. After their penalty shout was denied by Martin Atkinson in the 10th minute, both teams weren’t really warmed up to the game. Gabriel’s sloppy backpass to Aaron Ramsdale was intercepted by Hwang, who then later gave the visitors the lead after Ramsdale was caught in no man’s land, seeing the ball go into his net.
After conceding early, Arsenal did something that their supporters have missed for a long time. They responded positively, dominating the game for a good eighty minutes at minimum as The Gunners tried to pull one back and equalize.
Able to go man-to-man with Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 3-4-3, Arsenal pressed high and intensely. Kieran Tierney and Cedric Soares pushed higher up the pitch to control Wolves’ wing-backs Nelson Semedo and Rayan Ait-Nouri, while Ruben Neves tried playing right in front of the centre backs to conjure a move from the back. Joao Moutinho wasn’t left unchecked either, as Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka were both more than willing to disrupt Moutinho’s attempts at getting involved. The Arsenal backline were also able to follow and recover the long balls attempted by Wolves, meaning Arsenal took control of both the ball and the game.
Wolves lost the ball, yet they weren’t hesitant to set up a very high line. Arteta seemed to have plan though, although the Spaniard perhaps thought that Dendoncker would also be playing so that Wolves would confront Arsenal with three central midfielders, due to their last game’s personnel choices.
Xhaka played higher up the pitch than any other appearance in an Arsenal shirt, while also not neglecting his main duty in the Arsenal build-up, which is to cover for Tierney pushing forward. With Alexandre Lacazette’s tendency to drop deeper, Arsenal formed a three-man structure in front of regista-like Partey to offer him options going forward.
Arteta’s first guess didn’t turn out to be fully accurate, but the Spaniard’s idea of this three-man line worked extremely well. The Wolves backline’s unwillingness to follow Lacazette into deeper areas of the pitch, with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka pinning back their wing-backs in their own half resulted in Arsenal outnumbering Wolves, especially in central areas.
With this advantage, Arsenal were able to beat Wolves’ high line and carry the ball to the opposition half over and over again.
Unable to create anything significant until the 22nd minute, Arsenal’s presence was felt for the first time since the action of the opening minute. Ben White found Bukayo Saka running forward with a long lobbed pass, but Saka hesitated to shoot from a decent position, allowing Conor Coady to catch up and clear his box at the expense of a corner.
Five minutes later Lacazette’s presence in deeper spaces again proved beneficial for The Gunners, when the Frenchman received the ball on the half-turn while taking on Neves, then dribbled and shot with his left foot around the edge of the box, only to find Jose Sa’s arms. A minute later, the Frenchman tried again with a bicycle kick to get on the end of Saka’s pass, but Arsenal were again unable to turn their dominance into an end product.
In the 35th minute, Wolves escaped again, after losing out to Arsenal’s high press. Lacazette crossed hard and low for Martinelli, who put the ball just above the post.
Failing to capitalise on their chances, the 38th minute brought the first booking for the Gunners, when Saka was punished with a yellow card for cutting Wolves’ counter short.
Five minutes later Martinelli ran into the space which Lacazette cleared and was found by Martin Odegaard’s terrific lob pass. The Brazilian tried to chip Sa as he rushed out, but the Portuguese was able to save and hold onto the ball.
The first minute of additional time in the first half brought Wolves’ biggest chance after the goal, where Raul Jimenez was unable to hit the target with his header at the end of Daniel Podence’s cross.
The Emirates saw the first half end with the visitors one goal ahead – a worry for Arteta. Arsenal have previously been behind at half-time on nineteen different occasions, and have only managed to come back to draw four times, and lost the remaining fifteen. Wolves’ record of not conceding more than one goal for the previous three and a half months was unlikely to encourage the home side either.
The start of the second half didn’t bring any excitement until the 58th minute, when Nelson Semedo pulled his hamstring. Arsenal played on and Tierney was able to cross from the space that Semedo left. Lacazette controlled the ball, but, instead of looking for better options, he opted to shoot and his attempt ended up in the stands. Lage was forced to make a move due to his wing-back’s injury and he brought on Jonny to replace him.
Arsenal continued to dominate the game. In the 71st minute, Partey tried his luck from the edge of the box, but wasn’t able to hit the target.
Arteta figured he had seen enough and made his first involvement in the game. Revealed after the game by the Spaniard, Nicolas Pepe, who has been out of favour for a long time, texted Arteta after his wife gave birth, stating he wanted to be involved in the next day’s fixture. His request was accepted and the Ivorian took Martinelli’s place on the left flank in the 72nd minute.
Just one minute later, Xhaka played in White inside of the box following a corner, but the centre back shot the ball wide.
Lage decided to make his second move by taking out the goalscorer Hwang, giving Pedro Neto a run-out after the Portuguese was out for ten months due to a broken kneecap he suffered last year.
Two minutes later Arteta accepted that his primary plan wasn’t working and summoned Eddie Nketiah, removing Cedric Soares and changing to a 3-5-2.
With Saka and Pepe pushing forward, Arsenal were able to stretch the five-man defensive line of Wolves, while the spaces were constantly filled by Arsenal’s midfielders. Able to press with lots of man power after losing the ball, the Gunners’ ability to keep their heads in the game and not allowing the hard-working Wolves defence to dishearten them, was the main positive that Arteta could take from the game.
After the increase in Arsenal’s level of dominance, Wolves’ only intent for the rest of the game was defending in a low block. Lage’s men were squeezed into their defensive third, where they didn’t really try to counter in order to close out the game.
But Wolves’ resistance only could stand for 82 minutes. Odegaard was dazzling throughout the game, but the Danish international saved his best for late and found Nketiah cutting into the box, where he was able to redirect the ball to Pepe. Unexpectedly given his level of performance since coming to North London two and a half years ago, the Ivorian controlled, turned brilliantly in a tight space and managed to beat Sa.
Arsenal managed to equalise and, as the Emirates roared with joy, another change in this particular group’s mentality was observable: finally breaking down one of the league’s most in-form teams, Arsenal’s players went hunting for the ball to quicken the kick-off rather than celebrating.
Yet the traits that are maybe responsible for Pepe’s poor performances in North London almost proved costly for Arsenal, when Ait-Nouri was able to beat Pepe and dribble for fifty yards. His cross when entering the Arsenal box found Neto, but the Portuguese wasn’t able to celebrate his return from injury with a goal, putting the ball wide from a decent chance. The deflection from Arsenal’s defence was overlooked by the officials and Arsenal were awarded a goal kick.
In the 88th minute, the Wolves defence was able to clear their box from Saka’s cross, only as far as Xhaka, who found Odegaard, but the Norwegian’s attempt from the edge of the box went just inches wide of the post.
A miscommunication between the Wolves bench and the fourth official led to Jimenez getting booked for telling the referee that he wasn’t the player that was supposed to leave the pitch. Wolves were able to make their desired change moments later, with Podence was taken out for the services of Dendoncker.
The high-paced and intense ninety minutes resulted in muscular problems, for Tierney who was forced to leave the pitch due to a cramp in injury times, Nuno Tavares taking his place.
Arsenal piled on the pressure and kept looking for a way to break down Wolves’ defence. Just as it seemed like the Gunners would have to settle for a draw, the club’s captain showed up. Wasting his clear-cut chances throughout nearly 100 minutes including additional time, Lacazette’s performance made it look like Arteta would regret not adding another striking option to replace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the end of the season.
The fifth minute of the six minutes of additional time resulted in havoc at the Emirates. Saka entered the box from the left flank and shot, which Sa was able to save, but the return ball was picked up, recycled and the trio of Odegaard, Pepe and Lacazette worked wonders. Setting up in a triangle on the right flank, they entered Wolves’ box with swift and accurate passes. Finally Lacazette played a brilliant one-two with Pepe and he was free in the Wolves box. His shot didn’t initially appear to be going into the goal, but the deflections first by Roman Saiss then Sa saw it end up in Wolves’ net, going down as an own goal by Sa.
Arsenal were able to do the double over one of their closest rivals in the race for the top four in the space of a fortnight. Without the win, Arsenal would have felt like a robbery victim, due to their dominance of the game, but the team’s ability to maintain a cool head and keep up the pressure on the opposition, even in the most desperate of times, resulted in glory. The Gunners managed fifty-two touches in Wolves’ box, which is a clear indication of where the majority of the game was played.
Arsenal performed well as a team, but some stars shone brighter than others. Partey’s superb performance resulted in him leading a several statistical categories, managing the most recoveries by any player with 13, most duels won with 6, most take-ons with 3 and the second biggest chance creator after Saka’s 6 with 3.
Odegaard, while not having an assist or a goal, won the Man of the Match award. His willingness to work hard resulted in him being able to lead his team when Arsenal heads were dropping. He covered 12 kilometres – the most by an Arsenal player this season.
After the kind of victory that could change a team’s whole season, Arsenal sit in fifth place, two points behind Manchester United, with three games in hand. The Gunners are closer than ever to achieving Champions League football, since they first failed to put their hands on a top four spot with Unai Emery in charge, denied in the last game of the 18/19 season.
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