It wasn’t pretty, but Arsenal won’t care… too much at least. Mikel Arteta’s side needed two own goals to get the win against rock bottom Wolves at the Emirates on Saturday (December 13), but champions know how to win ugly, right?
Bukayo Saka’s corner bounced off the post and onto a clueless Sam Johnstone only to end up in the back of the net to open the scoring for the home side in the 70th minute, but Wolves didn’t let their heads drop.
Heading into the final minutes of the game, Wolves had a rare spell of possession before Mateus Mané’s ball took a deflection and landed perfectly on the head of Tolu Arokodare to level things up.
Luck was on Arsenal’s side though, and Saka’s cross that was intended for Gabriel Jesus found Yerson Mosquera instead, and Arsenal got a very fortunate win.
The hand break stays ON against Wolves
Arteta was heavily criticised by plenty of pundits after their 1-1 draw with Man City earlier in the season for playing with the “handbreak on”. It was a little unreasonable then, but their lack of attacking impetus against bottom placed Wolves should be a concern.
Arsenal didn’t have a shot on target in the first half, the first time that’s happened in a Premier League game this season. They only managed two across the whole game despite having 69% possession.
An xG of 1.02 is also really poor for a title chasing side against arguably the worst in the competition’s history. Of course, there will always be “those games” where the performance is poor but it’s not the first time Arsenal and Arteta have been anxious to attack, and it probably won’t be the last.
It can’t keep going on like this…
It can. Wolves have now lost nine consecutive topflight games for the first time in the club’s history, and despite there been a couple of positive signs here, it’s really hard to see where that elusive win might actually come from.
Rob Edwards can take some belief from the fact that they kept fighting against the league leaders after going a goal down and were genuinely unfortunate not to at least get a point, but another defeat must feel like a gut punch.
Right now, this Wolves side are the worst in Premier League history and relegation is nothing but an inevitability. With ongoing issues with the ownership too, it’s not a good time to be a Molineux regular.
Viktor Gyokeres isn’t the answer
The tenacious Swede was meant to be the missing piece of the puzzle for Arsenal, so far though, he’s been a disappointment. Many will point to how his runs stretch play and help teammates get more involved, but strikers are, and should be, judged by the number of goals they score.
Without a goal in his last five games across all competitions, and just four in his 14 Premier League games, the return of Jesus couldn’t have come at a better time for Arsenal and a worse one for Gyokeres.
The Brazilian only played for nine minutes, but he had one touch in the opposition box compared to Gyokeres’ five, and one shot on target compared to the former Sporting star’s zero. That’s not a good look for Gyokeres.
At Sporting, most of his goal came on the transition, that was never going to happen at Arsenal as they face sides that stick everyone behind the ball and defend in low blocks. Arteta’s side needed a top level striker to kick on, Gyokeres may not be that guy after all.