- Arsenal v Wolverhampton. What Arsenal need to be wary of.
- Are Wolverhampton the worst team ever in the Premier League?
- Another staggering win, as Arsenal players take another kicking
By Tony Attwood
And so we are getting closer to kick off, which means it is time to contemplate any last-minute news and, indeed, the possible teams.
The sensible thought is that with Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli doing rather finely in the last game they should be running things again in this match. But Arteta does not always work that way as we know. And indeed only one of the newspaper predictions that, as usual, we finish this final piece with, includes just one of them. No one includes both.
But there can be a bit of logic in NOT bringing in Saka and Eze straight away, as some of the tackling of Wolverhampton can be a bit juicy at times, and the last thing we want is either player injured just before some much harder games that are on the horizon.
Plus, we don’t want either Madueke or Martinelli thinking, “I’m never going to get a regular spot – I’ll try for another team in January. After all what else does Martinelli have to do to get a regular starting place?
Against this thought is the notion that Madueke has scored four goals against Wolverhampton. On the other hand, Eze has scored in five of his last six Premier League appearances against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and that includes goals in each of the last three games. Then again, Saka has scored in each of the last three home league games he has played in against Wolverhampton.
Saka has also had a few assists of late and this is an increasingly important part of the team’s approach. He has two men marking him and can’t get into a scoring position, so he picks out the perfect pass…
Then again, Madueke scored four goals against Wolverhampton in each of his games against them for Chelsea in 2024/25, which could mean that maybe we’ll just give up on defence and play a bunch of forwards instead and try to get into double figures.
Then again, and again, and again, Madueke scored two against Club Brugge, and that normally means a reward of playing in the next game, even if he did once play for that bunch of n’er-do-wells from down the Lane.
Certainly, in the most recent matches, there has been a move away from scoring from free-kicks to scoring from open play, so the question turns on what we think Wolverhampton will be doing in terms of defending.
The key point here is that Wolverhampton are top of the fouling league, creating 14.5 fouls a game. Arsenal are penalised for 10.3 fouls a game according to WhoScored statistics which puts Arsenal 14th in the Premier League fouling table. That means Wolverhampton give away over 40% more free kicks because of fouls in each match than Arslenal do.
But then again a lot of clubs are now reduced to just fouling Arsenal players rather than doing anything else, and as a result Arslenal scored 12 of their first 17 Premier League goals this season from set-pieces, according to WhoScored.
However, of late the number has dropped, as opposition teams have got wise to Arsenal’s style. But then again, Wolverhampton will most likely get desperate. They might start with the instruction, don’t give away fouls, but panic is liable to set in.
So what of the team? Sports Mole give us
Raya;
White, Timber, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly;
Odegaard, Norgaard, Rice;
Saka, Gyokeres, Eze
Raya;
White, Timber, Hincapie, Calafiori
Odegaard, Zubamendi, Rice;
Saka, Gyokeres, Eze
The Standard chimes in with something of a combination …
Raya;
White, Timber, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly;
Odegaard, Zubimendi, Eze;
Saka, Gyokeres, Madueke
So it is going to be something along those lines. A win by anything less than four goals will be something of a disappointment, but the main thing is just to keep winning so that, come the end of the season, the issue of goals and goal difference really is forgotten among the celebrations and street parades.
Not our best performance…. the whole team looked flat. We played too slow. Let’s hope a week between 2 matches can bring back some energy. And who knows raise the fitness level of a few players. But a win is a win in he end so we have to be happy with the 3 points.
It was an interesting game from a philosophical and strategy perspective.
We have seen the next level in Dark Arts.
If scoring from the field does not work, scoring from set pieces does not work, well Arsenal turns to scoring from the opposition.
I winder how long it will take for the ‘press’ to pick-up on that new trend.
Are Arsenal using a psychic in the stands ? Directing mivrowaves to the opposition players ?
Anyway, any other team it would be hailed as a great result and one a winning side needs to have when push comes to shove.
Let’s hope Crystal Palace stand up to their new found status !
The referee allowed Wolves to disrupt the game with no punishment , fouls , feigning of injury and time taken at every set piece . How did Wolves not have a player sent off “ he was pulling out of the tackle , we hear “ there’s a new prescedent for Arsenal . I never expect much from referees but this is new .
I only saw the game on MoTD but the team seemed listless and devoid of originality. Still, they got the result which is important. Up the Gunners!
I noticed something from Martin Keown in his post match assessment that I don’t think I have ever heard before from an ex, or indeed current Arsenal player. The notion that Arsenal do indeed get harshly treated in the media.
He was asked:
“At that point Martin (when Wolves equalised) did you feel the title race slipping away?”
To which he said:
“Well, I said to you, I think the whole title is on this game, because, you know the commotion around. The noise around. There’s a lot of feelings.”
He continued, and this is the telling part::
“YOU wont feel it because YOU don’t support Arsenal. But if you support Arsenal THERE’S A LOT OF FEELING AGAINST THE CLUB. …..it was really important that Arsenal responded”.
It was obvious he was talking about what the medias reaction would of been. That tells me that he, and by inference all the players DO know the media is against them. Martin knew, if we had drawn, or heaven forbid lost, the media shit storm that would of hit us would of been ridiculous, because it always is.
As for the match itself. I accept we wasn’t brilliant, but to say we were ‘lucky’ is to ignore the true nature of the match.
69% possession
16 shots to 3
2 on target each.
We had 3 big chances to 1
Basically we were just not sharp enough around the box. That’s it. It happens. We dominated. Got in to great positions, but as Arteta said, we failed to make the most of them.
Okay, we benefitted from 2 own goals, but that doesn’t change the fact that on the basis of our play, even on a bad day, we deserved to score at least 2 goals. We deserved to win. Of course I have sympathy with their players and fans. It’s heart-breaking to lose so late on, as we know to our cost. Yet, I don’t remember ANY sympathy for us last week, despite the fact the stats suggest (15 shots each, 9 on target for us, 6 for Villa) we definitely did deserve a point. But we came unstuck with a late goalmouth scramble. Hardly goal of the season, but a goal is a goal. Villa took it. We’ll take it.
And talking of Villa, they only ‘scrapped’ past Wolves themselves with a 1 – 0 win just a couple of weeks ago.
Yes, Man Utd put 4 past them at Molineux but as their manager said (and I’m paraphrasing here) , “We learnt our lesson from that. We just cannot afford to play open like that or we get punished. We were determined not to do that today. We knew we had to stay deep. To stay tight. And that’s what we did.”
And they did it well. We failed to get the early breakthrough, and when you do against a well organised ‘low block’ it just gets harder and harder as the game goes on. But we got what we DESERVED in the end.
But, back to my original point. What Martin said shows the Arsenal players are all too aware of what awaits them in the media at the merest opportunity. The fact he mentioned it suggests to me it does have an effect. And I doubt it’s a good one.
And that’s not to mention the effect it has on some of our fans.
Nitram,
You’re absolutely on the money. Steve Vallins as well re the officiating. The team played very sluggishly in the first half and generated nothing. They picked up the pace in the second half and had a few chances, especially after they finally tried to get the ball to Gyokeres. Why buy a target man if you’re not going to target him? There were several chances to pass into the box but they just passed it around the horseshoe. Ineffective and predictable. Good things happened when they were more direct. Gyokeres is actually good with the ball at his feet but needs service. And against the table footer we were playing, force it to him down low. He’s a strong boy and can take the physical stuff.
But, I know the three points is the thing but they need to be more aggressive. In my years following AFC they’ve always gotten a result when they play on the front foot.
I refuse to believe that we would have got a yellow from that studs up challenge from Hwang. I am certain that we would have got a flashing red with knobs on.
Commentator delighted when Wolves scored. “This is the moment that Man City won the title”.
So pleased to disappoint him
It’sa such fun reading the post match comments on this site. What a sad load of fucks you lot are.
@ Jacko
thanks so much for your highly intellectual contribution to the debate…….
I do believe Arteta has to change his mindset about which players in which games, as Martinelli looked like he was playing for himself all game while on the field. I cannot remember a cross from left side for Goykeres and I’m surprised by it. Saka seems to have a similar approach and crosses as a last resort. I wonder if the 2 of them knows that they can help our team by finding strikers who could also score for us???
@Mikey. I knew it would be appreciated, especially by yourself. Tell me something: does anyone here ever get any pleasure from football? Years back, this was one of the best football blogs out there with dozens of good commenters, but now you just have a handful of sad regulars who moan and moan and moan and…
Jacko , O ye of little faith .Arsenal will be Champions in 2026 , With a few well chosen words in Mikel’s shell like I’ve booked your place, top front of the victory parade bus now’s your chance to be a proper Gunners supporter .