Lucky Late Lacazette Equaliser Seals Double Over Wolves

Wolves held steady for 70 minutes. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from this season; there’s 90 minutes in a football match.

Disappointingly, Emile Smith-Rowe was ruled out of the fixture due to a non-COVID related illness, coming off the back of a brilliant goal against Brentford. This opened the gap for Gabriel Martinelli to return to the starting line-up, having served his 1 match suspension from his red card in the previous encounter with Wolves. Other than that, the Starting XI was left unchanged from the game against Brentford, with Cedric getting the thumbs up over a recovering Tomiyasu once more.

As soon as the whistle blew, the action started. The Gunners with a blistering attack moving the ball from right to left, before Gabriel Martinelli was brought down by opposing defender Nelson Semedo. Although the Portuguese did not make contact with the ball, the contact with Martinelli was minimal and the penalty shouts were waived off.

10 minutes into the game, however, Gabriel found himself on the wing with the ball. Close to his own by-line and with a Wolves player hot on his tail, he decided to attempt a back pass to Aaron Ramsdale. The pass was left short, inviting Hwang Hee-Chan to swoop in, win the ball, take it past Ramsdale and guide it into the open net.

10th min: Arsenal 0 vs 1 Wolves

The rest of the first half didn’t feature nearly as much action than the first 10 minutes, apart from a 1v1 chance from Raul Jimenez nearly directly after the opening goal that was pulled wide. A brilliant chance gone begging that would come back to haunt the Wolves.

Arsenal’s defence seemed a bit too far open at times and they failed to really pose an attacking threat in the first half, but with Wolves unable to capitalise the deficit remained at a single goal.

Half Time: Arsenal 0 vs 1 Wolves

The second half started out much like the first half did, however this time the chance fell to Wolves. Hwang Hee Chan was played in behind the Arsenal defence via the gap between the LB and LCB. With only Ramsdale to beat, the Korean could not convert, his shot hitting the keeper’s inner thigh and going wide for a corner.

Arsenal kept pushing (not to say that Wolves didn’t push back as well) throughout the second half but to no avail. Whether it was a Lacazette shot from inside the box, a long shot from Partey or a combination around the top of the box leading to a shot, Arsenal failed to break down the Wolves defence and produce a proper scoring threat.

It was Wolves’ game to lose.

In the 71st minute, Arteta brought on Nicolas Pepe. In the 76th minute, Arteta brought on Eddie Nketiah. That’s when Arsenal won the game.

82 minutes into the fixture, the substitutes combined to give Arsenal its’ opener and give the fans hope. Eddie Nketiah – I will be honest, I have not been confident in his abilities at all this season, but he was brilliant today – found himself on the by-line in the box and managed to cut it back to Pepe, who spun his defender and finished over Jose Sa.

82nd minute: Arsenal 1 vs 1 Wolves

All of a sudden, it was Arsenal’s game to win.

The Gunners pressed on and kept on pestering the Wolves defence. Despite many attempts at time-wasting, especially Raul Jimenez’s antics whilst apparently being substituted, the home team came close on occasions with both Odegaard and Lacazette looking to provide the finishing touch, yet ultimately failing too.

Substitute Nicolas Pepe again made his presence felt in the dying stages of the game. Following a saved shot from Saka, Pepe had the ball on the right wing. He passed backwards to Odegaard at the corner of the box, who turned out, found Lacazette. The Frenchman did brilliantly to get a touch on it, leaving it in the path of the underlapping Pepe to give the ball straight back to Lacazette. The ST went for the cutback but the ball deflected off the nearest defender’s shin, hitting Jose Sa’s gloves and finding a way into the open net. The goal went down as an own goal but it was all Arsenal’s doing.

95th minute: Arsenal 2 vs 1 Wolves

I’m glad I’m not Arteta because the decision of who to play out wide between Saka, Pepe, Martinelli and Smith-Rowe would keep me up all night.

Although Wolves held on for 81 minutes, they received their first loss this season after leading the game (previously 11 W, 1 D in 12 games). We saw it against City the second time around – top teams find a way to win no matter what the circumstances of the game are. Today, it was Lacazette. In the last minute. Again.

We can celebrate this win again, all night long, and there’s nothing Wolves can do about it. Unlucky champs, maybe next time.