Lacklustre Arsenal drop vital points at the Emirates

Arsenal 1-1 Wolves

Arsenal needlessly surrendered two points against Wolves as their lacklustre display left the Emirates crowd extremely frustrated. In similar fashion to the away win against Aston Villa, the Gunners lacked urgency once they had taken an early lead. However, while the poor performance at Villa Park was glossed over with a late winning goal, there was to be no such reprieve on this occasion.

Against Wolves, Gervinho gave the Gunners the lead in the eight minute of the game with a fine, flowing move as Arsenal hit the opposition on the counter attack. Djourou robbed Matt Jarvis of possession and fed Rosicky who strove forward before turning on the half way line and passing the ball to Benayoun, whose excellent through ball sent Gervinho, who had made a perfectly timed run, through on goal to shimmy past the goalkeeper and fire Arsenal ahead. The early goal against a team whose game plan would have been to simply frustrate the Gunners in an attempt to leave the Emirates with a point, should have led to the proverbial opening of the floodgates. However Arsenal did not press forward in search of the crucial second goal which would have effectively killed the game off. Rather they sat back and simply passed the ball along the back line time and time again and although Wolves did not appear to possess the necessary fire power to threaten the Gunners defence, a one goal lead is always extremely vulnerable.

And so it proved in the 38^th minute as Steven Fletcher equalised for the visitors. A Wolves corner could only be headed out to the edge of the penalty area to Stephen Hunt, whose shot was deflected into the path of Fletcher to nod past Szczesny. Wolves now had something to hold on to and would not relinquish it easily. In the second half Arsenal pressed forward in an attempt to regain the lead, but were denied time and again by Wayne Hennessey. He saved well from a Mertesacker header, a Van Persie effort from point blank range as well as tipping over the Dutchman’s powerful free kick. Even when Wolves were reduced to ten men, the Gunners could not press home their advantage, with Wenger making the strange decision to bring on the ineffectual Chamakh instead of Oxlade-Chamberlain.

When the opposition are down to ten men, they will crowd the middle of the pitch and so it is essential to make the pitch as wide as possible and switch the ball from side to side to stretch their defensive lines. The introduction of Oxlade-Chamberlain, with his wonderful pace, would have terrified the Wolves defence and provided the required width. However Chamakh’s presence only served to force Arsenal to attack through the middle and so essentially played into the hands of the opposition, who were continually allowed to waste time by the utterly useless and spineless referee Stuart Attwell.

However Arsenal only have themselves to blame. The previous day they had witnessed Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool all lose points, but failed to take advantage themselves. They took the early lead but did not capitalise on this and were ultimately made to pay for their casual approach to the game following Gervinho’s opener. The poor result was then further compounded in the evening as Tottenham’s win over Norwich led to the opening of a five point lead over the Gunners with a game in hand. With performances like this, Arsenal will find it extremely difficult to catch their North London rivals.