Arsenal (2) 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers (0) 1
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Saturday, 2nd December 2023. Kick-off time: 3.00pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Takehiro Tomiyasu, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Kai Havertz.
Scorers: Bukayo Saka (6 mins), Martin Ødegaard (13 mins)
Yellow Cards: William Saliba
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 57%
Referee: Peter Bankes
Assistant Referees: Eddie Smart, Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth Official: Thomas Bramall
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR John Brooks; AVAR Neil Davies
Attendance: 60,262
For this afternoon’s important match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, our midfielder Fábio Vieira has undergone groin surgery recently, but sadly would have missed this match anyway through suspension; however, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe and Jurrien Timber unfortunately remain sidelined with their respective injuries. Mikel Arteta has made only one change from last Tuesday’s match against RC Lens, and that is Leandro Trossard, who is preferred to Kai Havertz, who sits this game out today on the substitute’s bench.
We started quickly, with an urgency to take all three points today. The visitors started to get themselves together and were playing a posession-based, high press game, which should be interesting. After just six minutes, we took the lead when Bukayo Saka played the ball into the path of Gabriel Jesus who then found Takehiro Tomiyasu who quickly passed it back to Bukayo Saka; having being played through on the visitors’ goal, he made no mistake, blasting the ball into the net to open the scoring magnificently. Seven minutes later, we grabbed our second goal when Oleksandr Zinchenko rescued a wild and wayward pass and intelligently passed the ball inside the Wolves’ penalty area for our captain, who having received the ball in the centre of the box, made no mistake in burying the ball into the corner of the net from about fifteen yards from goal. Play was halted briefly when Wolves’ goalie José Sá was receiving treatment for a minor injury from a member of the Molineux medical team, and a couple of minutes later, Leandro Trossard got onto a Martin Ødegaard cross and his first touch almost took him through on goal, but José Sá was quick off his line to narrow the angle to block Leandro Trossard’s shot, but unfortunately the Wolves goalie’s injury was causing him distress, so substitute goalkeeper Daniel Bentley (formerly of Bristol City), to take his position between the sticks for the rest of the match. We look both confident and dominant this afternoon, and although the visitors do indeed have their moments, it is certainly very few and far between. Six minutes before the break, a Gabriel Martinelli shot hit the post, and as the ball came loose, Gabriel Jesus blasted it over the bar from close range. As referee Peter Bankes blew the whistle for the half-time hiatus, our dominance during the first half was there for all to see.
The second half got underway, and by the look of the early exchanges, Arsenal are carrying on exactly where they left off at the end of the first half. We had a penalty appeal when Gabriel Jesus was appeared to have been pushed in the penalty area, that was turned down by the match officials, and then completely out of the blue, Matheus Cunha twisted around in the penalty area, and fired in an effort which David Raya athletically palmed away at his near post. In the aftermath of this effort, Declan Rice was on hand moments later to stop another through ball falling to Matheus Cunha, and then Leandro Trossard’s left-footed shot from outside the penalty area was just a little bit too high and flew over the Wolves crossbar. The amount of space that our forwards are getting today is truly unbelievable, and as the crowd are willing our boys onwards and upwards, it is felt that in the stadium, a third goal appears somewhat inevitable now. An excellent right-footed shot by Declan Rice (beautifully assisted by Martin Ødegaard), from outside the penalty area went wide of the Wolves’ goal to the left-hand side. After our centre-back William Saliba received a yellow card for a silly tackle on Hwang Hee-Chan, Mikel Arteta made our first substitution of the afternoon when Eddie Nketiah replaced Gabriel Jesus with twenty-three minutes left of the game. A lovely Bukayo Saka shot curled and flew over the crossbar, and Ben White and Kai Havertz replaced an injured Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus with about ten minutes of the game remaining. Yet again, we should have grabbed a third goal when Martin Ødegaard played in Leandro Trossard who went through on a one-on-one situation with goalkeeper Daniel Bentley, but he did very well to stop our man from scoring. Again. Totally against the run of play, the visitors got a goal back when Matheus Cunha capitalised on a mistake by Oleksandr Zinchenko to make things a little more worrying as the game ebbs away. A minute or so later, Eddie Nketiah was played through by Martin Ødegaard; he was one-on-one with the Wolves goalkeeper, but his strike cannoned out off the inside of the post and into play. Incredible! In the six minutes injury time period, Wolves claimed a penalty, but thankfully the VAR team at Stockley Park cancelled it out, as the ball clearly hit Gabriel’s thigh and bounced up and hit his arm. Phew. The visitors threw everything at us, and we defended deep with all of our players back behind the ball in order to stop the visitors grabbing that equalising goal, which we did, and we ran out worthy winners overall with a spirited two goals to one victory.
A superb victory by the chaps this afternoon, and it was a pity that their dominating play did not bring the reward of more goals, when by rights, it should have done. Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli played very well, and maybe the only worrying point was the injury to Takehiro Tomiyasu, the results of which we will no doubt find out in time. The story of the stats tell us that we should have done far better than we did, but three points is the name of the game, and with four points clear of Manchester City, along with the joy that we are indeed top of the Premiership tonight, it was truly a good day at the office for everybody, players and supporters alike. Well done, chaps!
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Luton Town at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday, 5th December at 8.15pm(Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
