This was always going to be a tough fixture against a team known for being hard to break down and quick on the break. Arsenal’s attitude was going to be key, matching the intensity of David Wagner’s boys. 🙂
First Half
Unfortunately Arsenal’s attitude stunk the place out early on. Yet another slow start not helped by yet another dreadful referee who allowed the same niggly fouls all over the pitch as the norm. He even allowed a blatant bodycheck on Wobbly which was a stonewall penalty if you view the replay.
The stats for the first half were …… shots for Arsenal 3, with a big fat zero on target. Wolves had 7 attempts with 3 on target including a decent goal on the counter after a Xhaka-induced turnover. The only stat we won was fouls – Arsenal 1 Wolves 8 which adequately illustrated both teams’ commitment levels.
Second Half
Emery’s tactical change at half time to shore up the exposed left flank of Arsenal’s defence, was both timely and effective. The Wardrobe looked anything other than a competent left back in that first half but why the players on the pitch couldn’t see he wasn’t getting any support, Dennis only knows.
Guendouzi made an immediate difference and with Wolves content to protect their lead and hit us on the counter, the game took its familiar ‘second half at the Emirates’ shape with all the action moving towards the North Bank goal.
To be fair, Wolves restricted the red and white chances to some extent. Terrier drew a fine fingertip save from the keeper. Hector failed to keep the ball down with his left foot when scoring appeared a formality and worst of all, Auba (POTM for October due to his impressive strike rate) hit the post from the edge of the 6 yard box when it seemed impossible to miss. If we’d have scored then, I don’t doubt we’d have gone on the win even if we hardly deserved it from the balance of play up to that point.
The subs sparked new chances which found the Wolves keeper in the right place when called upon, until he was finally beaten by a fizzing curling cross from Micki which was missed by everyone and nestled into the far corner. The Wolves players bleated about a non-existent offside assuming the ref would reprieve them in the same fashion as he’d given them everything else, but hard as he tried, him and his linesman couldn’t find anything wrong with the goal.
Wolves had a couple of excellent chances to seal victory on the break as Arsenal resorted to the old kamikaze Wenger style of throwing everyone forward, even when the opposition have brought on a speedy forward who looked as though he had a dead hamster on top of his barnet.
We couldn’t quite manage an undeserved victory in amongst our attempts at professional suicide and the game ended in a draw.
Summary
Wolves played very well with little possession and are an extremely well-organised and efficient outfit. Expect them to become features of the Premier League for many seasons to come.
The first half was appalling yet again and it was a miracle it didn’t cost us defeat. Auba and Laca on the pitch from the start is shoehorning which just doesn’t work. How many more times? The back 6 and front 4 had no link. Poor.
The amount of stoppage time at the end of the second half was a complete joke. There were 5 substitutions (the Wolves’ ones taking at least a minute apiece); the Wolves lad at the end play acting was on the floor for 3 whole minutes including one of the added on minutes; the referee himself wasted 3 minutes by insisting play was halted every time there was a booking so that he could find his pen to write the player’s details on his piece of card; not to mention all of the time wasting at goal kicks and when the ball went off the touchlines. A conservative estimate would have been 8 minutes. How can you discourage time wasting if you don’t add it all on?
The unbeaten run continues ………… just. 🙂
Ratings (based on the BR ‘miffed that we played so poorly’ system)
Leno – MOTM, which says a lot …9
Bellerin – as dangerous as ever, missed a glorious chance …7
Mustafi – iffy in defence and his passing isn’t that good either…6
Holding – holding the defence together – who would have thought …8
Wardrobe – not a left back, more of a massive Welsh dresser …3
Xhaka – another costly mistake …6
Torreira – efficient and tidy – the ref allowed him to be kicked as usual …7
Ozil – before the game Arsenal put up a clip asking him who people should put in their Fantasy teams, Auba or Laca? He replied “both”, as he would assist both. Not on yesterday’s performance, Mesut …5
Iwobi – never looks comfortable on the right – sacrificed for Douzi at the break to give us some balance …6
Aubameyang – left his scoring boots at home with his award. Seems to have lost that smile he was playing with when he first arrived at THOF. Mind you, there wasn’t a whole lot to smile about for Arsenal on the pitch yesterday …5
Lacazette – not much service, but poor touches when he did get a sniff didn’t create a good impression of the Frenchman’s performance …5
Subs
Guendouzi – gave Arsenal some control back …7
Mkhitaryan – scored …7
Ramsey – popped up in a couple of good positions …6
chas
p.s any Wolves fans daft enough to read as far as this……yes, it’s biased but if you read between the lines, you’ll see that it agrees you should have won. 🙂
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David Wagner is not our manager. That’s just the most blatant of all the things you’ve got wrong.
Welcome back, Stevie D.
As you commented yesterday, I though you might have realised it was an intentional joke, referencing yesterday’s post. 🙂
Nice bike, by the way.
Nice work chas …. that Wagner guy is the best thing to happen to Wolves in years 🙂
Unfortunately the game panned out as expected … except in previous years we would have lost the game. Emery’s ability to improve us in the second half by making tactical and personnel changes is proven … perhaps now he could concentrate on making us better in the first half 🙄
Fine work Chas.
Stevie D clearly has no sense of humour 😀 Good of him to read the post even if he didn’t make it to the end.
Agree completely about the penalty. Iwobi was blatantly blocked. The imbecile co-commentator (who must have been a Wolves supporter) said that the defender had nowhere to go and that Iwboi ran into him. This is clearly not the case as the defender took a sidestep to block him.
Not surpringly when Holding did the same later in the game the referee gave a foul!
Dark arts aplenty from Wolves but one has to say they played well whilst we played poorly. Our €100m+ front two disappeared though they had little service.
Bent was superb. Catwalk, Holding and Terrier very good. The rest – meh.
Not an easy post to write, but thanks for giving us something to read and something to reflect on.
All very frustrating.
Ozil’s poor perfiormance may be something to do with the “reducer” some Wolves thug gave him early in the first half. No yellow, no talking to, just a free kick.
Weak refereeing which the chap repeated throughout the game
Sorry about my earlier sense of humour failure. Must be disappointed that we lost our well-deserved three points to such a late, flukey goal. We needed more injury time ’cause we were the only team who was gonna win it..
Oh, and you can’t placate me by complimenting my bike. Thanks anyway. 🙂
And all you can do is try and blame the officials again.
You lot really are up your own backsides.
Ozil should have been in the starting line up.
Thanks for coming back on, Sharmwolf.
Your comment about Mesut is bang on the money. 🙂
p.s. I hope your comment yesterday wasn’t racist in any way.
I wouldn’t want to think that all people from Wolverhampton were Little Englanders who were just a bit thick.
By the way, when you say ‘blame the officials again’, are you talking about our home game against you in December 2011, the last time we were in the same division? 🙂
Nothing like a good cheering up after such a dire game. Thanks Chas, greatly appreciated.
Now if my wife would just give me that recipe…
9.43. 😀 😀 😀
And you two close neighbours
Apparently some fans are calling for Xhaka to be sold after his mistake yesterday ( and a few more in the past). These are the same morons who praised his performance vs the Scouse.
Every player makes mistakes – just look at PEA’s miss.
Of course we could use an upgrade on Xhaka and I am sure the management are looking ( they should ask RC) but Xhaka is a fine player and improving season by season.
Thank you, Chas and Raddy. 🙂
I am knot ear, and watched the game on my travels. We created our own troubles by passing poorly in the midfield. Despite Terrier, and that is not good. Work in progress. But in general I am moderately satisfied with what I see. Patience.
Onwards
Yes, every player makes mistakes, but some mistakes cost more than others. Not arguing in favour of anyone s sale, though, but just a thought.
My observation is that every game we make about 5 misspasses from the midfield to central defence, and there is of course a cost to pay
Thank you, GN5 and Raddy, for the very enjoyable curtain raisers day before and yesterday. Apols, I was busy with travels and music and could not come in to have a chat. 🙂
One more point. Terrier is our best enforcer in the midfield. I don’t like him falling too far back when we are under attack. Then there is no one in midfield to chase down our clearances from the box.
Raddy that same reducer tackle was not even given as a free kick!! Referee ( yes Wolves followers, I am remoaning again, terrible init) was shit, biased and quite happy for potential damage to be done to the soft Southerners. Terrier had a boot left in, down Achilles and could have been long term injured.
Simply not worthy of a talented Wolves team
Shit!
Douzi’s been called up by the French u21s.
Hi Chas, that was a brave accounting of a very poor game. Personally I was very disappointed in the teams effort plus the side ways passing was the height of tedium. The only way we got any foothold was when Wolves were ahead, our subs made all the difference and gave us a spark of life.
We were lucky and Wolves were unlucky.
Sixteen games unbeaten sounds good but hides the cracks – especially in our defending. Our coaches could learn a great lesson in defending by viewing the game video and take note of the Wolves defensive master class.
Struggling with 4.14.
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