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Wolves to a man look sick. But when the sting of defeat subsides, they’ll look back on a brave performance against the form team in the division. It took one freak own goal, and one slightly more garden-variety own goal, for the leaders to defeat the bottom side. Arsenal were worth their win in terms of attempts and possession; Wolves would have been worthy of a point thanks to their sheer moxie. But when it all comes down, two stunning deliveries from the right flank by Bukayo Saka proved too much for Wolves to deal with. So Arsenal might have got lucky on one hand; Saka’s brilliance forced those mistakes, though. You do have to wonder about the policy of sitting back at 1-0, mind. But Arsenal won’t care for now. They’ve escaped a below-par performance with all three points … and now the pressure is back on Manchester City and Aston Villa in the title race!
FULL TIME: Arsenal 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arsenal find a way to win. Two own goals by Wolves gave them a big helping hand. What a finish! The Emirates erupts with relief.
90 min +8: On the touchline, Rob Edwards looks totally drained. But his team have done him proud. There are things to build on from this.
90 min +7: … but it’s not, and Arsenal counter. Jesus goes on a monster dribble down the inside-right channel, before threading a weak shot towards the bottom right. Johnstone smothers.
90 min +6: One last throw of the dice for Wolves. A literal throw from the right. Mosquera to send it long. Before he does that, he shoves Trossard to the floor and is booked. Then the ball comes in. Arsenal clear their lines. That should be that!
90 min +5: Mosquera is utterly sickened. Flattened. Wolves were on the front foot, but they’ve been stunned by that second own goal! For the second time, Saka’s delivery was the key.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Mosquera og 90+4)
Arsenal somehow find something! Saka crosses from the right. Jesus nips in ahead of Mosquera. He doesn’t connect. Mosquera does, though, and plants a header into the top-left corner of his own net!
90 min +3: Andre tries to release Arokodare down the right. Raya comes to the edge of his box to claim. Just in time.
90 min +2: Wolves look like they fancy a winner, too. They’re not letting up.
90 min +1: … and there will be six additional minutes. The first of them is spent by Wolves celebrating, and Mikel Arteta hopping around in a funk, trying to whip his men into action.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Arokodare 90)
This had been coming. For the last few minutes, anyway. Gomes crosses from the right. The ball’s half cleared. Tchatchoua swings in from the left. Arokodare nips in ahead of Hincapie, and flashes a header into the left-hand side of the net, Raya wrong-footed and beaten!
89 min: Arsenal are sitting back, inviting pressure. And …
88 min: Wolves split Arsenal down the middle with a couple of cute passes, Agbadou to Gomes to Lopez. The latter tries to feed Arokodare, free on the edge of the box, but the pass isn’t great, and his team-mate can’t dig it out from between his feet. For a second there, Arsenal were exposed.
87 min: Wolves continue to pass it around. Arsenal are sitting back, looking to keep hold of what they have.
85 min: Wolves ping it around in pretty triangles. They’re most likely going to lose this game, but they’ve looked organised tonight, determined, and increasingly confident. Rob Edwards might be facing a fifth defeat in his first five games, but at least there are a few small green shoots sprouting. Probably too late for Premier League survival, but stranger things have happened.
83 min: Trossard in space, just inside the Wolves box on the left. He looks towards the far corner, shapes for that curler, then switches and fires a snapshot towards the bottom left. Inches wide. That would have been a fine goal. Clever attempt.
81 min: Gyokeres is replaced by Jesus. A huge roar for a returning hero, back from his ACL injury.
80 min: Odegaard blazes a shot over the bar. Meanwhile Wolves make another double change, replacing Hwang and Krejci with Arias and Lopez.
78 min: Arsenal slow things down, now they’re in control. “Cardinal Mazarin, Louis XIV’s chief minister, opined that the most important quality in a general was being lucky,” writes Kári Tulinius. “I think Rob Edwards has done an admirable job turning this rabble of a team into coherent side, but if he didn’t have bad luck he’d have no luck at all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a goal like this.” You’ve given me an earworm now.
76 min: Trossard chips a cross in from the left. Gyokeres chests down, and spins around Agbadou, before whipping a low shot across goal and not too far wide right. That’s much better from the big striker, who has made his presence felt tonight at last.
74 min: The pressure off, or at least lessened, Arsenal fancy a second. Odegaard works his way down the inside-right channel and lashes a shot into the side netting. He hit that with some feeling.
72 min: Adding to Wolves’ frustration, the Rice pass that led to the corner found Saka a couple of inches offside. But the flag didn’t go up, Toti headed behind, and the rest is slapstick history. Meanwhile Trossard has the opportunity to shoot, racing onto a pass down the left channel, but takes a heavy touch and out for a goal kick.
71 min: That’s so unfortunate from Wolves’ point of view. They’ve defended staunchly, and were doing a fine job of frustrating their hosts. But Arsenal were, to be fair, slowly turning up the pressure, and it led to that huge stroke of luck. Lovely teasing delivery from Saka, mind.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Johnstone og 70)
Arsenal win a corner on the right, Rice’s speculative wedge forward headed behind. Saka takes, looping long. The ball sails over Johnstone’s head, off the left-hand post, back off the keeper and in! A complete freak, but Arsenal will take it!
69 min: Strand Larsen and Doherty are replaced by Arokodare and Tchatchoua.
67 min: A rare pocket of space for Rice in open play, 25 yards out. Rice curls powerfully towards the bottom right. Johnstone extends fully and palms away with a strong left hand. That’s a very good effort and fine save.
66 min: Rice tries to recreate one of his Real Madrid screamers, aiming a curler towards the top right. Johnstone fingertips over the bar. It might have been missing anyway, but the keeper couldn’t take any chances. He deals with the corner anyway.
65 min: Gyokeres takes a rare touch, 35 yards out with his back to goal. He draws a foul from Doherty, who goes into the book. A free kick coming up, just to the right of centre. Rice and Odegaard both look like they fancy this one.
64 min: Strand Larsen buys a cheap free kick off Hincapie, nibbling at his ankle, and takes the opportunity to go over. Hincapie tries to drag the striker back to his feet, but the big man’s not having it. Arsenal are getting mighty irritated by this grift.
62 min: You’ve seen reds given for less. But nobody knows anything any more.
60 min: Hwang stretches for a loose ball after taking a heavy touch. He’s never getting there. He catches Lewis-Skelly on the foot with his studs showing, and at some pace. VAR wants a look. Just a yellow, though, probably because the tackle was made very close to the ground, and Hwang was pulling out of it at the last moment. Arsenal aren’t happy. Neither are Wolves, mind, and someone on their bench is booked.
58 min: That’s Martinelli’s last act of the evening. He’s replaced, along with Eze and Zubimendi, by Trossard, Odegaard and Merino.
57 min: Martinelli spins down the left flank and burns off Doherty with ease. He enters the box, reaches the corner of the six-yard area, and curls towards the far corner. The ball sails wide of the post. Arsenal’s second-best chance of the evening. Martinelli couldn’t convert the first one either.
56 min: Toti is back up and about.
55 min: Saka and Toti clatter into each other on the edge of the Wolves D. Play stops for Toti to get some treatment.
54 min: Martinelli’s presence forces a corner down the left. Rice delivers. Badly, as it turns out, but the ball clanks off the first man and behind, so he’ll have a chance to do better. Which he does, launching long, but Johnstone comes through a crowded box to punch clear.
53 min: Hwang nudges Hincapie off the ball and wins a throw down the left flank. But the whistle goes for a very soft free kick. The referee’s not made a friend of Hwang since the restart.
52 min: A free kick for Arsenal out on the right. Rice, Saka and Eze overthink and overplay it. Soon enough the ball’s back at the feet of Raya. Arsenal not clicking tonight. Not yet, anyway.
50 min: Johnstone takes his time over a free kick. Not once, but twice, within the space of a couple of minutes. The referee points theatrically at his watch. The crowd scream abuse. Mikel Arteta bops about in frustration. It’s panto season, kids!
48 min: Some head tennis in the Wolves box, but Martinelli can’t poke goalwards and Arsenal still haven’t had a shot on target.
47 min: A huge roar from the home faithful as Arsenal, their hair having presumably been thoroughly dried by their manager, and with some feeling, fly out of the blocks at the start of the second half. And yet it’s Hwang who nearly breaks free down the middle, again, but he’s checked by Hincapie. Hwang claims a foul, but the referee’s not buying it.
Wolves get the second half underway. No changes, but the league leaders will be hoping for some serious improvement on that first period. The xG score from that 45: Arsenal 0.43, Wolves 0.28. The visitors had the only attempt on target.
Half-time entertainment. The Guardian has kicked off a new chapter in puzzles with the launch of its first daily football game, On the ball. It is now live in the app for both iOS and Android … so what are you waiting for?
Half-time reading. We’ve already told you about Liverpool 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea 2-0 Everton. Now here’s the report of Burnley 2-3 Fulham. Just one more half of football to go, and the Premier League will be done for the day. It’s going to be a big one, to be fair …
HALF TIME: Arsenal 0-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
A few grumbles from the home support as Mikel Arteta storms off down the tunnel. Rob Edwards practically floats into it.
45 min +3: Moller Wolfe crosses low from the left. Hincapie slips. Strand Larsen picks up possession, ten yards out. He shoots. Hincapie does wonderfully well to spring up and block. The ball breaks to Gomes, who can’t sort his feet out to shoot. Arsenal were exposed there for a split second. Sharp intakes of breath all around.
45 min +1: The Emirates is pretty darn quiet right now. Wolves are two minutes away from becoming only the second team to keep Arsenal to nil in the first half here all season. Manchester City were the others.
45 min: There will be four additional first-half minutes. In the meantime, here’s an observation from Nelson Calvinho: “Wissa, Gyokeres and Isak: the three players who forced a move by skipping the pre-season are not turning out to be as good as they thought they were so far, are they?”
43 min: Timber whistles a low cross in from the right. The ball loops into the air off Toti but Johnstone claims on his line with safe hands.
42 min: Gyokeres takes touch number five, but can only divert the ball down the right wing and out for a goal kick, Agbadou ushering it over the line. The home crowd serenade their striker nonetheless.
40 min: According to TNT Sports, Gyokeres has only touched the ball four times so far. Lewis-Skelly has nine touches to his name, and he’s only been on for nine minutes.
38 min: Saka rolls a delicious ball through the six-yard box from the right. Gyokeres telescopes a leg but somehow misses the ball. Any contact and it was 1-0. Martinelli shoots from a tight angle on the left, Doherty deflecting behind for a corner. That was a hell of a cross, with a miss to match. Nothing comes of the set piece.
36 min: Arsenal probe hither and yon. Wolves hold their shape, and their poise. “I know it’s been a while, but I think the beginning of the end for Wolves was when Nuno left and took the pipeline of Portuguese talent (Jorge Mendes) with him,” writes Joe Pearson. “I mean, back then it seemed like half the team had a little Portugal flag next to their names. Now there’s, what, three? Obviously, I don’t know if Mendes’ contacts will get the Hammers out of danger this year, but it couldn’t hurt. I just don’t see a way out for Wolves.”
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