Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Arsenal go into the World Cup break five points clear of champions Manchester City after a routine win at Molineux
Updated
Sat 12 Nov 2022 17.22 EST
First published on Sat 12 Nov 2022 13.45 EST
Live feed
Key events
Mikel Arteta speaks to Sky. “Today was about being very patient … they made it difficult, there were no spaces to attack … they were waiting for a mistake to catch us on the break … Granit Xhaka was not feeling good and was sick, and could not play on … unfortunately there were a few players not feeling great … we are feeling it for Gabriel Jesus because his contribution is valuable … the love and respect we feel for him is huge … we will focus on being a better team every single day … we still have huge margins to improve … it’s been a long time since we have been in this position, so fans fully deserve it, the huge transformation they have made with their energy that transmits to the players … the unity from the top of the club to our people, they are the soul of this club … we have to keep winning … we have a big challenge before us.”
Wolves interim manager Steve Davis talks to Sky Sports. “There were good moments in the game, first and second half … we slowed them down really well … our shape was fantastic, hard to get through and over and round … we defended the box … we were happy at 0-0 … obviously there was a decision in the first half that should have gone for us, Guedes is onside clearly … you can see it was a foul and the last man, so it could have been a goal or a red card, because it would have been a penalty … so we feel hard done to, because those moments are important for us at the moment … if that decision had gone for us, it might have been a different story.”
Hot managerial chat still to come … but Ben Fisher was at Molineux tonight, and his report is in. Don’t forget to come back, now.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard talks to Sky Sports. “We had to dig deep today … we were a bit slow … but we know the quality we had and stayed patient, and it paid off in the end … we have to stay calm, it’s a long way to the end of the season … there are some good teams around us.”
Aaron Ramsdale is by his side. “Every win is very big … this place is a really tough place to come … it’s a massive win that gives us a boost and a bumper, but things will change over the break, and we have to come back how we finished up … we’ll enjoy every minute of the World Cup and hopefully go and win that, then come back and focus on Arsenal!”
Mikel Arteta’s smile is as wide as the gap at the top of the table. He celebrates with his players in front of some very happy fans. Arsenal weren’t at their best tonight, but still had more than enough for a Wolves side who played to a higher level than their unfortunate position in the table suggests. At the start of the season, their goal was merely a top-four finish. When it resumes after the World Cup break, it’ll be title number 14 in their viewfinder. Four months is an awfully long time in football.
FULL TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Arsenal
Arsenal go into the World Cup break five points clear of the second-placed champions Manchester City! Wolves will be bottom at Christmas, but at least they’ll have a new manager to unwrap.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 14 | 22 | 37 |
| 2 | Man City | 14 | 26 | 32 |
| 19 | Southampton | 15 | -14 | 12 |
| 20 | Wolverhampton | 15 | -16 | 10 |
90 min +3: Julen Lopetegui is pictured in the stand. He doesn’t look overly concerned. Wolves certainly haven’t looked like a relegation-bound side tonight, against the most in-form team in the country. Plenty to work with.
90 min +2: The second of four added minutes. Bueno is booked for excessive yap.
90 min +1: Arsenal run down the clock by making a triple change. Saka, Vieira and Zinchenko are replaced by Nelson, Elneny and Cedric.
90 min: One corner leads to another, then Neves hoicks over from distance.
89 min: Arsenal ping it around. The fans crack out the olés! Zinchenko ships possession and allows Adama Traore to stride off towards the box. Traore lays off to Podence, who aims for the top right. Ramsdale sticks out a strong arm to deflect out for a corner, then bollocks the rest of the team for showboating.
88 min: The Arsenal fans run through their current favourite song: Tequila (Version). “So much depends on the World Cup for Arsenal,” writes Kári Tulinius. “They don’t have the squad depth of Manchester City, so need most of their first eleven fit. I can see a scenario where the Arsenal players have an uneventful World Cup and return raring to go, but equally five or four of them could return injured or exhausted.”
86 min: Podence, to the left of the Arsenal six-yard box with his back to goal, flicks the ball into the air and sends a bicycle kick towards the bottom right. It’s beaten Ramsdale, but it’s also wide of the right-hand post. Ramsdale grins and pokes out his tongue. The Arsenal keeper enjoying life right now.
84 min: Matt Dony will enjoy this. Adama Traore takes advantage of a Zinchenko slip and strides into the Arsenal box from the right. He then launches an absurdly overhit low cross through a crowded area, clearing the danger for Arsenal himself. The visitors go up the other end and win a corner that leads to nothing but eats up some time.
82 min: Nothing comes of the corner. But Wolves come again, Adama Traore bustling his way down the right and cutting back for his namesake Boubacar, who drags a shot wide left from an ambitious distance. “For defenders, there are varied challenges,” begins Matt Dony. “In footballing terms, there must be different fears when they come up against skilful players, or fast players, or direct players, or relentless, scrappy players. But when you see Adama Traore running at you, it’s not a ‘footballing’ fear. It must be an existential, guttural terror. A serious worry for your health and future. The man is incredible. If only he was a little bit better at, y’know, football.”
81 min: Nunes comes on for Toti. Lembikisa makes good down the right and wins a corner.
79 min: Guedes nearly dribbles his way through the middle of the Arsenal defence, having left Saliba behind with an audacious over-the-head flick and spin. But he can’t make space for the shot. Arsenal counter, Odegaard nearly making himself enough space for a shot that might bring him his hat-trick. But he’s closed down too. White eventually drags harmlessly wide.
77 min: Podence rolls a ball down the inside-left channel and releases Guedes into the box. Guedes goes for the spectacular, hitting a first-time shot on the turn … but only flashes the ball into the side netting.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Arsenal (Odegaard 75)
Young Lembikisa is penned in near his own corner flag on the left, then stripped of the ball by Martinelli. Then there’s some pinball in the Wolves box. Martinelli takes a whack. Blocked by Sa. The rebound falls to Odegaard, who slams into the bottom left from 12 yards. Arsenal are going five points clear!
74 min: Boubacar Traore flicks the ball this way then that on the edge of his box before clearing his lines. The crowd enjoyed that little moment of sweet, simple skill.
72 min: Ramsdale is booed for having his Adam’s apple flattened into a frisbee. Of course he is. Then Zinchenko curls into the Wolves box from the left. Sa claims under pressure from a couple of red shirts.
70 min: Happily, Ramsdale is back up quickly. He tells the referee he’d taken that whack in the throat, so there’s no need to worry about concussion. Play restarts.
69 min: Podence wedges a pass down the inside-right channel. Gabriel heads backwards. Ramsdale half-gathers, then spills, and Adama Traore, competing for scraps, clatters into him. Ooyah, ow, oof. Ramsdale stays down and on comes the trainer. No malice there.
68 min: Wolves make a double change. On come Podence and the 18-year-old Lembikisa for Moutinho and Semedo.
67 min: Adama Traore drives his way down the right to make himself a bit of space. From the byline, he loops towards the far stick. Ramsdale claims well, under pressure from the nearby Collins.
65 min: White creams a long pass to release Jesus down the left. Jesus twists and turns his way into the box, but is held up by Kilman. He tries to find Odegaard rushing in from the right with a clever diagonal ball, but Toti extends a leg to concede a corner. Nothing comes of that. A general sense that this won’t end 0-1, but who’ll score the next goal is anybody’s guess.
64 min: Bueno crosses from the left. Semedo and Boubacar Traore get in each other’s way. Wolves aren’t finished yet.
62 min: White crosses from the right. The ball ends up at the feet of Martinelli, in Vieira Country to the left of the six-yard box. He crosses. Sa flaps. Odegaard tries to steer a header into the top right. Not quite. Jesus takes a fresh-air swipe and Wolves clear their lines. A second Arsenal goal would put the tin lid on it, you feel.
61 min: Guedes takes the free kick. He sends in a low drive from the left-hand corner of the Arsenal box. Ramsdale stoops to claim confidently. Guedes was probably hoping for that to take a nick off someone, but it flew through clean.
60 min: Gabriel is booked for sliding in late on Adama Traore, in flight down the left. Just outside the Arsenal box. Free kick in a very dangerous position.
59 min: Semedo whips in a cross from the right. It’s almost immediately blocked by Martinelli … right in the fruit bowl. Ooyah, oof, that’s gotta hurt. After a sip of water and a quick inventory, he’s back up and good to go.
58 min: Such a clever pass from Jesus, too. Do Arsenal care if he’s on a personal goal drought?
57 min: Wolves, bottom of the Premier League, had given as good as they got against the leaders. But now it could be all for nought. Arsenal have taken the lead in 11 matches so far this season. They’ve won ten of them and drawn the other.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Arsenal (Odegaard 55)
Jesus plays a cute reverse pass down the inside-left channel to release Vieira, who makes it to the edge of the six-yard box before whistling a low cross into the centre. Odegaard races in to slam home. He couldn’t miss. Wolves opened up brilliantly, and Arsenal could be going five points clear!
54 min: Boubacar Traore clips Vieira to the floor. He wants to watch himself, having already been booked.
52 min: Partey is booked for throwing a cynical leg across Semedo. The actual foul happened nearly two minutes previously, but an advantage (that came to nothing) was given to Wolves, and it took an age for the ball to go dead.
50 min: Zinchenko attempts to release Jesus down the inside-right channel. Jesus can’t quite gather his long pass on the edge of the box.
48 min: Odegaard floats a ball into the Wolves box and nearly finds Vieira. But Wolves clear, and Adama Traore zips down the right wing at speed, before cutting infield and finding Guedes in acres on the opposite flank. Guedes tries to complete a long-range one-two but his return ball is well anticipated by Ramsdale, who smothers just before Traore can get there.
47 min: Arsenal get into their sterile passing rhythm. Not a particularly dynamic start to the second half.
Wolves get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time entertainment. Jonathan Wilson explains how the beautiful game could suddenly go the way of your tatty old titfer. Hear him out.
HALF TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-0 Arsenal
That’s the end of the first half. Wolves will be the happier of the two sides as everyone trudges off for their half-time orange segments.
45 min +2: Boubacar Traore is booked for hauling back Jesus as the Arsenal man hares down the left. A free kick and a chance for Arsenal to load the Wolves box. Odegaard swings it in, but Collins clears. Jesus grimaces as he rubs his achilles.
45 min +1: Guedes has been a right old handful, and now he finds himself on the right-hand corner of the Arsenal six-yard box, but with no route to goal. He tries to find another old gold shirt with a forensic cutback, but isn’t successful. Arsenal clear.
45 min: Nothing comes of the needlessly conceded corner. There will be two added minutes.
44 min: Saliba gets away with a huge mistake. He plays a blind backpass down the Wolves left. It hits Guedes, who scampers into the Arsenal box. He should work Ramsdale at the very least, but in opening his body and aiming for the top right, gets his shot all wrong. But it takes a flick off Gabriel and out for a corner.
43 min: Vieira has a dig from 25 yards. It’s blocked easily enough. Wolves are holding their shape nicely, and Arsenal are struggling to find a way through.
41 min: Guedes is half-wrestled, half-clipped to the floor on the edge of the Arsenal D by Gabriel. You’ve seen fouls given for much less, but the referee is in a particularly laissez-faire mood tonight, and allows play to go on. Guedes and the Wolves fans not happy. Even less so when Adama Traore then blazes wildly over the bar.
40 min: White crosses deep from the right. Jesus comes haring in from the left and tries to steer a right-footed shot goalwards. He can only pull it wide left, and nearly adds injury to insult by crashing into the post. He avoids that slapstick fate. Just.
39 min: Martinelli probes down the left but ends up running the ball out of play for a goal kick. Kind of sums up Arsenal’s uncharacteristically impotent play so far.
37 min: Toti is booked for a cynical trip on the in-flight Jesus. It’s a booking all day long, but Wolves aren’t happy about it, in the wake of the non-decisions that were beneficial to White and Odegaard. Two wrongs, etc.
36 min: Saka slips Jesus clear down the inside-left channel. Jesus enters the box, opens his body, and sends a curler meant for the top right pinging off the top of the bar and out for a goal kick. The flag then goes up for an offside. Probably correctly, though there wasn’t much in it between Jesus and Wolves’ last man Toti.
35 min: Kilman beats Zinchenko to a header down the right wing, sending Guedes into space. Guedes dribbles his way into the box … then trips over his own feet. Good football up until then.