By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal team at the start : Leno; Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Kolasinac; Torreira, Xhaka; Iwobi, Özil, Aubameyang; Lacazette.
On the beach: Cech, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Mkhitaryan, Nketiah
All stood up in silence to hear the always impressive Last Post and an even more impressive minute of complete silence to commemorate the end of WWI today 100 years ago before the match would start.
A very silent opening 10 minutes in line with the pre match silence one could say Arsenal having most of the ball but not really in a high tempo. Kolasinac with a ball between two Arsenal players in our own half with Xhaka letting the ball run and Wolves can intercept. And in 3 passes they carve open the defence and Cavaleiro can score from close distance. 0-1 after 13 minutes. Another goal given away by Arsenal. 72% possession for Arsenal in the opening 15 minutes but nothing to show for it.
Finally a good attack but Bellerin can’t get his foot around the cross from Kolasinac. Arsenal twice having the chance to equalise but the shot from Lacazette and Iwobi was blocked by lots of defending bodies. Wolves counter but Leno makes a great double save risking his life and almost losing his head. Wolves defending with all they can. Leno again with a good stop when Arsenal not clear their line in a convincing way. Arsenal again having to defend when they lose the ball in their own half but this time Mustafi can clear. Bellerin with a shot that looked goalbound after a corner but again a body in they way. Still 0-1 behind after 30 minutes.
Arsenal still playing too slow and not finding any spaces in the packed Wolves defence. The first assistant who saw already two wrong throw ins in favour of Wolves calls Iwobi back for offside when he was onside as there was a defender at the other side. Just when for once we had a bit of space. Arsenal having a poor first half and Wolves defending in high numbers for 95% of the time but countering sharp when they can. Leno was our best player in the first half and this is telling the story so far. Arsenal go in 0-1 down after 45 minutes.
Guendouzi started in the second half in the place of Iwobi. Guendouzi with a first shot but not too difficult to top for the keeper. Arsenal keeps going forward and Wolves not really getting out of their half. Torreira with a dipping shot but the keeper pushes it over. Still 0-1 after 60 minutes.
Mustafi with a good sliding block on a low cross from Wolves to prevent a Wolves goal on a rare counter. Attacking wise the ball always falls kindly for Wolves. Crosses that get deflected can mostly be cleared in front of Arsenal players. The passing just not good enough to break down the packed defence. Wolves in full time wasting mode now and no reaction from the ref and no yellow card for shirt pulling either. Özil then gets a yellow card for throwing the ball to the ground. A low cross finds Bellerin but his left footed shot sails over the crossbar. Doherty also gets a yellow card for a swing of the arm against the face of Xhaka. Even Attwell now trying to waste time with having the free kick retaken… A bit chance for Arsenal with Bellerin with the low cross but the goalpost saves Wolves from the equaliser as the shot from Aubameyang hits the post. Helder Costa gets a yellow card and then goes down to win time much to the furstration of Xhaka. Ramsey comes on after 74 minutes in the place of …. the 4th official winning extra time with messing with the board in the place of Özil and Mkhitaryan comes on for Kolasinac. Still 0-1 down after 75 minutes.
Bellerin gets a yellow card for holding his opponent. Arsenal continue to press but not getting through the defence and then Wolves counter but Leno makes a vital stop. Ramsey picks up a cross from Guendouzi but the keeper with a vital stop. Arsenal get the the corner and it goes to Mkhitaryan and his cross finds the back of the net to the surprise of everyone. GOAL! 1-1 after 87 minutes.
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Doherty then goes down with a head wound. Probably the first real injury from a Wolves player today. Only 5 minutes indicates the 4th official and the treatment of the headwound goes on for minutes on the field. Wolves counter and Traore is one on one with Leno but again the keeper saves the day with a great block. A cross from Xhaka almost finds Lacazette but he didn’t expect the missed interception from the defender. Wolves with a counter and his kick hits the crossbar.
We didn’t play good enough to win today and we never got in to our rhythm against a Wolves that used every trick in the book of defending but also showed how dangerous they can be on the counter attack. Let us hope that after the international break we can start again with fresh legs. Our undefeated run continues but that is only a small consolation after todays bad match.
Mane gains an advantage from being offside. 4 beats two, 3 can handle 3. He’s set up wrong. And he hasn’t the pace playing Iwobi on his weake4 side and Aubameyang wasted put wide.
Ramsey doesn’t start and Xhaka hasn’t the mobility and should he a quarter back in a 3.
Meanwhile Monaco get action against them just after Henry starts there. It’s not his fault they are losing. He has different agendas going on and potential sanctions looming.
What is thos fate, she twists a rough and wrought hands cling along icy ledges.
😉 I love it. Do you know what it means to set yourself against the wife you love for her betterment. The collapse begins. Now we can get picked off. That game shift has thrown us and a manager who cannot grasp the league.
Yes the medja your fri3new hail h9s magic changes.
Transport Secretary shifted. Now we go again. When it is said and done. I want your original name. Let it be said now.
What have o given for this? Everything onclud9ng my life by its legal definition.
I might have to have a look. Riding y0ur luck for 11 games and anytime a team ups its **te***** you flop.
Left back, starting Mustarfi over Sokratis and Xhaka over Aaron with Aubameyang out of position and Mikhi left on the bench, the reason he left United. No No, window O say were the people of take into battle over any.
Who is this guy.
Jonny, Jao, Jiminez, Bolt, Never. Good components. 4-4-2 or 1-1 wins this, he,d have 50 sacrifice Xhaka for Mikhi and ask Mesut to offer a more complete performance. They could turn this around, with more luck!
This is going to be difficult to Come back and win. Need to play the ball quickly before they can get all their players behind the ball
Looking at a commentary, Costa gets carded and the very next entry is that Costa is injured and then a minute laterhe is substituted. Did Attwell head butt him?
Come on Gunners, get a couple of goals!
How to go Mhky! Now we need another.
COYG!
Well, the undefeated streak continues.
Here is the final set of stats on the game (nominally every 15 minutes).
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _15m _ 30m _ 45m _ 60m _ 75m _ 90m
_ _Shots on target 0:1 _ 1:4 _ 1:4 _ 2:4 _ 3:4 _ 5:7
_ __off target _ _ 0:0 _ 0:1 _ 1:2 _ 2:2 _ 3:2 _ 4:4
_ _Possession _ _ 69:31 71:29 73:27 73:27 71:29 72:28
_ _Corners _ _ _ _ 0:0 _ 0:0 _ 3:0 _ 5:0 _ 7:0 _11:2
_ _Offsides _ _ _ _0:0 _ 0:0 _ 1:0 _ 1:1 _ 1:1 _ 1:1
_ _Fouls _ _ _ _ _ 1:2 _ 1:4 _ 1:8 _ 6:11 _7:13 _9:17
_ _Goal Kicks _ _ _0:0 _ 1:0 _ 2:3 _ 2:6 _ 2:9 _ 3:11
Was Costa’s “injury” self inflicted?
Looks like the annual November curse is back this year.
Costa couldn’t stomach the continuous cheating that was required to keep the score.
It was an aweful game with very little protection from PGMOL for the Arsenal. Same old same old.
Who’s this ref? Did he learn his job from Dean… Taylor… or Mason?
@Alex
All of the above and more,
How can 5 minutes of extra time be shown whilst a player is still receiving treatment on the pitch? Typical no-marks of pgmol. Attwell was dreadful all game.
Not to mention.. how long the bookings took and the laughable ‘pretending not to know’ how the sub board works. Officials time wasting is a big issue in pgmol. How often do we see unfit referees blowing for nothing, just to get their breath back. This never gets added on.
btw in a disappointing game, Leno was superb
Even though Charlie Austin is a C*nt with a capital C, I think he deserves a lot of credit for his rant yesterday.
If more players came out and said what they FEEL about the level of referees in our leagues, perhaps the FA would start to sit up and do something.
The media have proven that they’re not prepared to upset their PGMOL apple cart – maybe it’s up to the players. Football fans everywhere should get behind them
Arsenal is not playing quite well against defense oriented teams(Crystal palace, wolves ) and thus I’m starting to worry about us making top four given how the tint tots are hanging on.
@ Fengunner
Hear, hear. If they started suspending several players a week for “bringing the game into disrepute” they start to look very silly indeed.
Of course, there would be several clubs whose players have no need to complain…..
Five minutes at least for the last injury
30 seconds for the goal and 5 X 30 seconds for the subs so that’s eight minutes without allowing for anything else.
It’s time not only VAR was introduced but line technology all round the pitch and time keeping done off the pitch. Refs don’t just need help they need less power.
not our best performance…but…we never stopped…last year we might not have got even a point…onward and upwards!
whenever i see kola and alex being that messy, i can’t help but wonder what ainsley and eddie might have done to unai, not to deserve one single second of playing time, either against sporting or against wolves … (as far as eddie is concerned, ever since the start of the season, actually)
i’m starting fearing the two lads might do a “marcusmcguane” on us … what a shame it would be
my mistake … ainsley did get playing time against sporting. anyway, i keep having an uneasy feeling about that, as though among the youngsters you had the teacher’s pets (matteo, emil, alex) and those who are given tough love (ainsley, eddie, joe). what keeps nagging at me is the feeling that joe, ainsley, and eddie are precisely the ones AW trusted most last year; i can’t help thinking that – if i’m right, which i probably will never know – it would be a … petty way for unai to mark his difference with the great man. i can’t make up my mind really: i like the new head coach, and think that would be beneath him to act that way, but on the other hand, i can’t see no other reason why joe/eddie/ainsley are being cold-shouldered
Did I not read that Eddie was about to come on when someone for injured,not welbeck, and a midfielder or defender had to comeon instead?
@jigsol,
Quite right Eddie was stripped and getting final instructions in the Sporting game when Lichtsteiner twanged his hamstring meaning thar our reserve trio of defenders Ainsley Maitland and Niles had to be called on instead
At least today despite being pretty poor we managed not to lose.
We all know that the PGMO are a complete bunch of weeding blankers and will do anything to ensure that the ‘right’ teams are at the top of the league and will only be too delighted if one of their designated teams takes away our unbeaten season. Hence Liverpool being given the win over Fulham earlier.
I think you are correct jigsol. Defender Lichtsteiner got injured.
—-
With respect to looking at possession data in the EPL, it would seem that about 1/3 season is about where a person can start looking at some things that related to the distribution of whatever you are looking at. To compare the distribution of possession of the home team to the away team at GameDay11, had 110 data points in each vector. And this probably works. If we just look at Top-6 data, there are 66 Top-6 games available. If you split that in half (home/away) you are now down to 33 data points, which is probably a little too small to detect differences.
Maybe there is a better test to use. But using the Anderson-Darling test, it seems to me that your long vector needs to have at least 40 data points, and the short one shouldn’t get too short.
The problem with the idea of the “right wankers” are at the top, is the season that Leicester won. That season was tilted by PGMO/FA-discipline for some reason, to demonstrate that they could make any team be the winner. Maybe. Sort-of.
GameDay 12 update
Caution League
360 Liverpool
472 Wolves
476 Newcastle
516 Spuds
559 Chelsea
614 Bournemouth
688 Arsenal
693 Cardiff
712 CPalace
727 ManCity
729 Huddersfield
740 Burnley
745 StateAid
760 Southampton
849 Watford
854 Leicester
878 ManU
954 Everton
972 Brighton
1005 Fulham
Treatments
Number,TimeShort Team #Subs
03,09 Watford 0
04,07 CPalace 0
06,03 ManU 0
06,08 Chelsea 0
07,11 ManCity 0
08,16 Wolves 1
11,14 Burnley 3
11,14 Liverpool 5
11,20 Arsenal 2
13,25 Fulham 4
13,26 Newcastle 2
13,31 Spuds 8
15,18 Leicester 3
15,28 Bournemouth 2
16,30 Huddersfield 2
16,35 StateAid 4
17,38 Brighton 6
18,19 Everton 5
18,30 Southampton 4
20,46 Cardiff 6
Inverse Treatments
Number,TimeShort Team #Subs
05,16 Wolves 2
06,11 Leicester 0
09,38 Burnley 3
10,18 Watford 3
10,23 Brighton 1
11,15 ManCity 3
11,16 Liverpool 1
12,15 Chelsea 2
12,30 Newcastle 6
13,13 Bournemouth 2
13,14 Huddersfield 5
13,16 Southampton 3
13,21 Arsenal 2
13,21 ManU 4
13,23 Fulham 1
13,40 StateAid 3
14,19 Cardiff 2
16,21 Spuds 5
16,31 CPalace 6
18,27 Everton 3
Referee Treatment League
Total Name NumberH:A TimeShortH:A #SubsH:A
01 Simon Hooper 00:01 00:02 0:0
06 Roger East 03:03 24:05 0:1
07 David Coote 04:03 05:07 2:1
09 Lee Mason 07:02 07:01 1:0
12 Graham Scott 07:05 17:07 1:1
12 Paul Tierney 05:07 05:07 1:0
12 Stuart Attwell 04:08 03:17 0:2
14 Michael Oliver 07:07 17:08 2:4
15 Mike Dean 10:05 13:11 3:2
16 Andre Marriner 06:10 11:21 0:2
17 Chris Kavanagh 09:08 17:12 4:1
17 Craig Pawson 10:07 16:07 3:3
17 Kevin Friend 07:10 19:10 2:1
20 Jonathon Moss 06:14 09:29 0:5
20 Lee Probert 09:11 15:17 0:4
22 Anthony Taylor 09:13 16:18 1:2
24 Martin Atkinson 13:11 31:24 4:4
Caution is minutes remaining when a yellow is given, minutes remaining when a second yellow is given, the time remaining when a penalty is given (regardless of whether it is converted), twice the time remaining if a straight red is given, twice the length of time a team has to play short handed due to treatment and 1/6 the time remaining if a substitution is made because of a treatment.
Like the guys have noted , the best thing was us getting a point , which maybe in the past , we may not have . And of course continuing our unbeaten streak.
Up the Gunners !
As the media heaps praise upon Wolves and bemoans how unlucky they were not to win they seem to have forgotten that Wolves had 28% of possession and were encamped for the entire game, virtually, just in front of their own goal area and the only reason why they had so many chances was because, having parked the bus and our team having encamped around their goal area, their quick and speedy counter-attacks were extremely effective.
Now if that’s the sort of football the media want, then the beautiful game is quickly becoming pretty ugly. If you add to that rotational fouling and poor refereeing, the golden egg of the EPL may very well be breaking soon.
As an interesting contrast, there was an article by Matt Dickinson in the Times this morning, in which he, as far as I can tell, was effectively saying who cares for FFP if he gets to watch such wonderful football as can be produced by Man$ity.
It is shame that he and his colleagues, who are quite happy to ignore the billions that are being poured into 2 or 3 teams in Europe, also ignore the fact that football is a team game and if you have one or 2 teams who are able to buy all the good players, then what is the point?
There needs to be some attempt at an even playing field, otherwise the game will simply wither and die.
It is interesting that in America, where the source of all the new players every season is from the high school football teams, there are strict regulations as to who can get the better players, so that they do not have the situation whereby a single team or teams can dominate the entire league for years and years.
With such shortsighted media perhaps we should not bother to read them at all.
It was an interesting game as wolves were very dangerous on the break and scored a nice goal. However we could have taken all the points IF we had been a bit more precise . That said, Leno is showing why AFC bought him. He made at least 4 crucial saves and when his defense didn’t cover well, he did. I am concerned that we still tend to start slowly but see a big improvement in tactical and energy levels from last season. In a tough league like the EPL it is no mean feat to remain unbeaten in 10 games. The next few weeks will see us against stiffer opposition but we seem to be over the away form curse from last year…which is a great thing!
I daresay we will find it easier against the better teams who, in theory, will want to play football and not just sit back and rely on breakaways.