Arsenal ended a difficult week at the top of the table. There are worse places to be and the champions could be 4 points ahead of Manchester City before they play again. If the final verdict is that the last seven days have cost Arsenal the Premier League in addition to the Champions League, then nobody was hurt at Molineux.
Football’s cliché is that it’s only as secure as winning champions, an away win that ended in forgettable fashion. A possible scenario could be that they finish as runners-up again. Yet if a solution was needed after defeats to Aston Villa and Bayern Munich, Mikel Arteta got one: not a lot in the quality of the performance but in the way Arsenal were determined to shrug off suggestions their season was in meltdown. Is.
Amidst talk of a summer rebuild which may take them to one other level, they received one other reminder of Leandro Troussard’s enduring ability. Pound for pound, the Belgian is a contender to be the best buy of Arteta’s reign and while his opener was lucky, his value could still add up. A deluge of goals had given way to a drought, with Troussard scoring Arsenal’s first goal in 239 minutes of football. If it was incredible in its execution, it was unstoppable. In the ninety fifth minute Martin Odegaard’s perfectly leveled finish clinched the victory.
Yet Troussard, not the captain, is Arsenal’s second top scorer, his 14th of the campaign only behind Bokayo Saka, and if the never-ending debate is whether or not they need a poaching centre-forward, the Belgian Has shown the ability to make a squad player stand out in a number of roles. For Arteta, whose selection against Villa left him open to criticism, there was a sense that he rolled the dice higher than the other side from the Midlands. He made three changes and introduced two – Gabriel Jesus and Troussard combined for the first goal.
It got here in a game when Arsenal weren’t at their most decisive or aggressive but it surely proved to be a good time for Wolves to counter. Looking Gunners supporter Sir Keir Starmer could have a day’s work in securing a forgettable win against weaker opposition.
With one other pragmatic figure, Declan Rice dominated, it was a victory for Arsenal’s strength. It was their sixth clean sheet in a row, when the major alarm got here from a mistake by Jacob Cuvier. When the floundering Pole was tackled by Joao Gomez, he was saved by David Raya, who tipped the Brazilian’s shot onto the post.
It helped, though, that Wolves, who’ve often been successful against the best this season, had a tentative form. Their injury list included Pedro Neto and Mathis Cunha, while Ryan Ettore, Mario Lemina and Pablo Sarabia were only deemed fit enough to start on the bench and He-Chin Huang never finished a game. What did This deprived the Wolves of most of their scorers. Nevertheless, they had resources. Gary O’Neill’s fluid formation, with the concentration of players in the middle of the pitch, presented difficulties for Arsenal. Boubacar Traore was a formidable obstacle in midfield, Hugo Buono a restless attacker on the left.
But Wolves’ limited attacking options – 20-year-old Twanda Chievara made his first start for the club – made the first goal more vital and Arsenal scored it. Wolves then struggled to respond until O’Neil called on his three senior substitutes. The remaining six consisted of a reserve goalkeeper and five teenagers. The manager had joked that Wolves had to take 15-year-old Wes Okodowa out of science class. Basic maths shows that Wolves’ recent run now stands at two points from five games. Concepts of a project in Europe seem fanciful.
Meanwhile, Arsenal’s determination to show more intent at the Allianz Arena was evident when Kai Huertz and Jesus each scored inside the first 4 minutes. After Jorginho was dropped, Rice anchored the midfield but made late runs into the box to shoot twice.
With English in a deeper role and Havertz back in midfield, Jesus began and played his part in the build-up. He controlled the ball, held off Matt Doherty and teed up Troussard whose shot with the outside of the boot – by some means cut and precise – went wide of the far post. Belgium had missed their kick with their previous probability. A second incomplete attempt fared higher.
The game had a high quality finish for Arsenal, with a surging Rhys leading the charge, Havartz finding Odegaard, who scored the second try. And if troubled Aprils have been a theme of Arteta’s reign, they will end the month with a north London derby, possibly still at the summit. The query then will be whether they can finish May there as well.
Credit : www.independent.co.uk
