Wolverhampton Wanderers (1) 2 Arsenal (1) 1

Premier League

Molineux Stadium, Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton WV1 4QR

Tuesday, 2nd February 2021. Kick-off time: 6.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, David Luiz, Cédric Soares; Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Nicolas Pépé; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Gabriel Magalhães, Dani Ceballos, Martin Ødegaard, Willian Borges da Silva, Alex Rúnarsson, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Calum Chambers, Mohamed Elneny, Gabriel Martinelli.

Scorers: Nicolas Pépé (32 mins)

Red Cards: David Luiz, Bernd Leno

Yellow Cards: Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 45%

Referee: Craig Pawson

Assistant Referees: Daniel Cook, Peter Kirkup

Fourth Official: David Coote

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Jonathan Moss; AVAR Tim Wood

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

Vitally important that we win this match at Wolverhampton this evening. Make no mistake about it, a victory here at Molineux means that we catapult ourselves into sixth place, one position above Tottenham Hotpsur, our “friends” and rivals four miles up the road. All to play for, then. Let’s go!

Within a minute of the start, our intentions were clear when Bukayo Saka was played on by Thomas Partey behind on the right. He raced away and on and into the box but his shot smacked against the crossbar from close quarters; a couple of minutes later, he also snapped a quick shot on the turn, in which Rui Patricio in the Wolves goal was fortunate enough to get down to his left and make a save. After eight minutes, Bukayo Saka did get the ball into the Wolves net, but it was disallowed for offside after a VAR check, but at this point in the match, Arsenal were running rampant. Thomas Partey was completely dominating the midfield area, and had complete freedom to spray balls here and there, much to the dismay of the home side’s defenders. Wolves had a couple of good chances that were well saved by Bernd Leno; we broke out and the subsequent attack saw Nicolas Pépé hit the Wolves crossbar from close range. Emile Smith-Rowe was absolutely devastating out there tonight, with superb movement on and off the ball, switching the play seemingly at will. Just after the half hour, Nicolas Pépé fought and shrugged off two Wolves defenders, and with his right foot (yes, his right foot) slotted the ball neatly into the net to give us the lead, quite deservedly. The goal appeared to wake the home side up, and put us under pressure, but time and time again we neutralised them, and broke out quite easily. With three minutes left before the break, Nicolas Pépé beat a man out on the left, went to the byeline and fired a pass across an empty goal, but there was nobody there to score what would be, an easy goal. Literally, on the stroke of half-time, fate took a hand. As Jose ran through and bore down on our goal, David Luiz only slightly touched him, but it was enough for him to go to ground. Penalty was given, David Luiz was sent off, Reuben Neves didn’t miss, and we went into the break one apiece, when we should have been by rights, well ahead.

Gabriel replaced Alexandre Lacazette at half-time, but as expected, the home side fancied their chances. And sure enough, four minutes into the second half, Joao Moutinho beat Bernd Leno with a 25-yard screamer to give the home side the lead. The match started to get scrappy and slip away from us. Nicolas Pépé was replaced by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang just after the hour and we started to look all at sea. In a crazy five minute period, Granit Xhaka got booked for a ridiculous tackle, and with eighteen minutes left, Bernd Leno was shown a red card by Craig Pawson when he ran out of his area to clear the ball, badly misjudged it, the ball hit his hand and he was sent off. Unbelievable. Almost immediately, Alex Rúnarsson replaced Thomas Partey in order to get some kind of stability at the back, and we faced the prospect of containment, when at one time in the first half, we were the only team on the pitch. The home side were just simply stroking the ball around at will, using their numerical advantage on the pitch to the maximum. At times like this, it always seems like forever until the final whistle blows, and sure enough, it looked truly awful now out there tonight. The remaining players did the best they could under the circumstances, but in essence they were truly up against it, and when the final whistle blew after five minutes’ injury time, it was merciful.

What a disaster. Up until David Luiz getting sent off, we were totally in the driving seat, and in the time it takes to blink an eye, everything unravelled and started to tumble down like a house of cards. On a filthy, wet and dismal night in the West Midlands, two controversial sending offs may just be a turning point for us. We will find out just how much a turning point it is when we play Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime.

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: Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday, 6th February at 12.30pm (Premier League). 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.

With Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi  both terminating their contracts, it continues a trend at Arsenal of generating very little, if anything from players sales.

A brilliant piece of analysis by friend of the site Swiss Ramble really highlights the issue over the past decade:

Arsenal have finally moved on Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi via free transfers, which raises the question of how good the club’s recruitment has been. Looking at this over a longer period, we can see that since 2010 they have lost (in cash terms) a cool £236m #AFC pic.twitter.com/17augNMb2W

— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) February 2, 2021

Arsenal have made an 8-figure profit on just two players – Emiliano Martinez and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain (note: players to have come through Arsenal’s youth system have been excluded).

12 transfers have seen Arsenal make an 8-figure loss.

Stan Kroenke has come in for criticism from many for “not spending enough money”, but in the last decade Arsenal have wasted £100s of millions on poor transfers, and the wages and fees that go with them

What is clear is that Arsenal need to start spending their own money better.

Keenos

Easy shop links….

Phone covers – https://t.co/oLoSgZ6JVF
Mugs – https://t.co/xllZYrl5JD
Posters – https://t.co/XPIEPVGxWA
Cufflinks- https://t.co/PWdSaWa5ww

— 🎗 ///SHE WORE/// 🎗 (@SheWore) December 4, 2019

Deadline day saw Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock both leave on loan to WBA and Newcastle respectively.

The pairs playing time this season has been severely restricted.

AMN looked on the verge of a break through towards the end of the season; but has started just 5 Premier League games this.

Whilst Joe Willock played 29 Premier League games under in 2019/20, and just 7 this season.

Both players have fallen out of favour and are itching for playing time.

Maitland-Niles nearly left for Wolves in the summer for a deal worth in the region of £20million. But with rumours circulating that Hector Bellerin was unsettled, a decision was made to keep him.

Eventually Bellerin remained, and up’d his game; whilst AMN has also fallen behind Cedric Soares on the right.

The feeling at the club is clearly that AMN is suited to 5 at the back rather than 4; and with Mikel Arteta now playing with a back 4 regularly; the Englishman has found playing time limited.

Arteta also likes a balanced team.

We saw against Crystal Palace that having a right footed left back in a back 4 restricted us and our ability to stretch the game.

When AMN was excelling on the left of a back 5, he had Kieran Tierney inside him. The Scot would often end up outside Maitland-Niles in attacking positions providing that width.

Expect Arsenal to go out and sign a left footed left back in the summer to provide cover for Tierney.

Despite playing a lot of games, Willock has never really forced his way into contention for regular starts.

There have always been question marks over what type of midfielder he is. Is he an 8? Box to box? Or is he a 10 with his late runs into the box?

So do either Mitland-Niles have a future at Arsenal?

My feeling is no.

Maitland-Niles is often lumped in with the likes of Willock, Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson as a “talented youngster”. But he is already 23, and turns 24 at the start of next season. He is no longer a youngster.

Moving into next season, he would be 3^rd choice right back and 3^rd choice left back (once we make a new signing).

He has never really done it in midfield for Arsenal.

Many have speculated that he could perform well there given a chance, so it will be interested to see if WBA play him in the middle or out wide.

Even if he performs well in the middle, you have to feel his future at Arsenal is still limited as we look to improve the top end of the team in central midfield, not add squad players.

The fact Mohamed Elneny has been continually picked ahead of AMN in the middle of the park highlights that Arteta does not fancy him there.

Arsenal could easily command the £20million that Wolves offer last summer for Maitland-Niles next summer. The feeling is that £20million could be spent on recruiting better than him.

Willock’s time at Arsenal is also coming to an end.

In recent weeks, Emile Smith Rowe has broken into the Arsenal first XI and is putting in performances levels ahead of Willock.

Willock has played just 1 minute of the last 4 Premier League games and has found himself either left on the bench or not even in the match day squad 14 times this season.

With the signing of Martin Ødegaard, Willock has dropped one more down the pecking order.

With Arsenal in the market for a senior 10 to go alongside Smith Rowe (it might end up being Ødegaard), Willock will at best be 3^rd choice in that position.

If he reinvents himself at Newcastle as someone who can play a little deeper, as a high energy box to box player, Arsenal might re-integrate him into the team next season.

But like with Maitland-Niles, Arsenal need to be buying better midfielders than we currently have. Is Willock better than Granit Xhaka or Mo Elneny? No.

Is he better than Lucas Torreira or Matteo Guendouzi? No.

If he puts in solid performances in the Premier League, Arsenal would expect to raise £15million selling him.

There has been a lot of hype around Hale End in recent years and it is good to see players from the academy getting opportunities for the first time in decades.

Both Willock and AMN have had plenty of opportunities and have shown themselves to be not quite at the level required.

We sell, raise funds, move on to the next crop.

Final word: It will be easy for fans to say “we should keep them for squad depth and their versatility”, but both are clearly hungry to play regular football. If we can not offer a player regular football we should not stand in their way of leving.

Keenos