Arsenal blew a 2-0 lead with 30 minutes to go to drop points against Wolves. A team with title aspirations cannot blow a 2-0 lead to the 9-point, bottom of the league side. That’s an absolute disaster. This bunch need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and get right.
They should have cruised to a win after taking the lead through Bukayo Saka in the opening minutes. Instead, they slogged through the match (helped by the rain, of course). Piero Hincapie doubled the lead with a lovely finish into
the roof of the net in the 56th minute. That should have been that.
Instead, Arsenal did what they so often do. They let Wolves right back into the game. Hincapie was slow to close down Hugo Bueno, who scored on the best shot he’s ever going to hit in his entire career. It would be great if Arsenal’s opponents would stop doing that. Six of the 19 goals against this season have come on shots worth 0.04 xG or less, that one included.
The equalizer came because David Raya and Gabriel both took the ball away from each other in the air in the box. If either one had left it to the other, Wolves don’t score. It’s either caught or cleared. Riccardo Calafiori was unable to keep the shot out on the goal line too, despite getting the initial block.
Wolves scored two goals against Arsenal today from two shots on target worth 0.29 xG. So there’s a way of looking at it that it isn’t as bad as it seems. That’s horribly bad variance and if you clean up the little mistakes, it should all be fine. That doesn’t do much to draw the sting out of today’s calamity, though.
For what it’s worth (not much), Arsenal had two penalty shouts not given. I think both easily could have been awarded — Piero Hincapie in the first half, Gabriel Martinelli getting cleaned out in a shockingly similar way to the penalty that handed Manchester City the win against Liverpool. Santiago Bueno should have gotten a second yellow (or straight red) for his violent shoulder to Leandro Trossard’s chin. Par for the course in the Premier League. The referees consistently get key decisions wrong.
Mikel Arteta got plenty wrong, too. We’ve seen time and again that the front three of Madueke-Gyokeres-Martinelli doesn’t work. He keeps trotting them out there. Madueke looked the most threatening of the three — he came off first. Gyokeres was an absolute zero. He doesn’t get any of the calls most strikers get, but he should know that by now. He has to adapt and find a way to win the battles around midfield to make the ball stick. Gabriel Martinelli seems to be running low on fuel. He also missed a great rebound chance just after Arsenal took a 1-0 lead that might have killed the game then and there. He needs to pick two of those three and pair them with one of Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus, or Ebere Eze. The speedsters out wide need someone who can make the ball stick and distribute it.
Jurrien Timber played as if he’d forgotten how to physically make his body play the ball to where his mind thinks it should go. Bukayo Saka did fine playing in a more central role, but it was clear at various points that he doesn’t have a mastery of what that position is meant to do in the setup (as you’d expect). It was middling to poor all over the pitch from Arsenal. And it still should have been enough to beat Wolves and would have been enough but for a worldie and a terrible gaffe.
To cap the night off, Gabriel Jesus got into it with Yerson Mosquera. You’ll see the highlights of the Arsenal striker shoving the Wolves defender over, who goes theatrically to the ground holding his face after getting shoved in the chest. You won’t see whatever it was that Mosquera did to Gabriel Jesus that left him on the ground nor what he said to him to make him pop up and retaliate. I’m sure Mosquera deserved it. That dude is a filthy footballer and a prick. I hope he has an unpleasant time in the Championship and that I never have to watch him play again.
That’s all I’ve got. I need to unplug from Arsenal for the rest of the evening.
