Key events
Will Unwin was at Molineux, and here’s his verdict. Thanks for reading this MBM.
A much happier Rob Edwards talks to Sky Sports … though he still takes the opportunity to fire a shot across the bows of grumbling supporters. “It was a great moment … a good night for the Football Club … it was only a draw but to come back from 2-0 down against one of the best teams in Europe is pretty special … a good performance as well … that’s three defeats in 11 games so we’re not doing that bad … we’re not giving up … we know what could happen but we’re never going to give up, all the way to the 38th game, and we’re showing that … I hope everyone has a little bit of realism and understands what we’re up against … we were never going to roll Arsenal over easily … especially when you go 1-0 down early on … I’d have liked a little bit more backing at that point if I’m being honest … but the way we finished, the energy was around … the lads are fighting hard, but Arsenal are really good … we didn’t lose our heads … took control for long periods … really proud of the players … we want to try to build some momentum and a connection around the place … I can understand the frustration and anger … it’s been really tough … but we have to try to find a way to energise the players in difficult moments … some really good energy tonight … we have to try to bottle it … I don’t want to make a big headline of it … the fans are well within their rights to feel hurt and angry this year … I get it … but during the game it’s going to help the players if they have their backing … it was there at the end.”
Mikel Arteta – whose team have only won two of their last seven in the Premier League – fronts up on Sky. “It is very tough to accept … the second half we didn’t perform at any level … in any aspect of the game at the standards required to win a game in the Premier League and we paid the price … too many things went wrong one after the other … we never got dominance or control … it is not the time to judge it … we are all too emotional … not the moment to do it … you have to take the hit and we deserve it … it is very easy now to say things that can damage the team … everybody wants to do their best … when you want to be at this level, you have to take the hit … the enjoyment comes from moments of suffering as well … get through and find a way to do it … today we paid the price … we have to do simple basic things much better than we have done … we need to be very critical with ourselves … it is the reality that we have not been as consistent in the league that we were through the first months … you have to stand up when you have a moment of difficulty … we have the perfect game, Spurs away, to show how much we want it.”
An extremely grim-faced Bukayo Saka talks to Sky. “[The Arsenal dressing room] is very flat … we are very disappointed with the result and especially how we played in the second half … far from the level we have set this season … it’s not so much about a reoccurring theme … it’s time to reflect on the last few performances … fix the issues immediately … get back to winning games … go on a run and build momentum … we’ve lost that a bit right now … I don’t think about [big prizes and pressure] … we just need to get back to our level … do the basics right … we’ve got more than enough quality to win games … that’s all our focus is right now.”
Edozie awarded equaliser
The 19 year old Wolves sub Tom Edozie – who will hopefully be awarded the equalising goal, though I’m not 100 percent hopeful, with it currently being credited as a Riccardo Calafiori og – is nevertheless delighted! He tells Sky Sports: “Playing football as a kid, you dream of things like this … I am so thankful for Rob [Edwards] putting me on the pitch … a dream come true … hopefully it is my goal! … when [Edwards] said my name, I didn’t think he said my name! … I looked round … my heart just started beating! … but I was ready to go on the pitch … just do what I can to try to help the team.”
He’s then informed mid-interview that early reports suggest the goal is indeed his! “It just means the world … to score on my Premier League debut … the feelings I can’t describe … it is just amazing!”
Next to Edozie, Wolves’ other goalscorer, Hugo Bueno, who also scored his first Premier League goal tonight, adds with a twinkle: “It took me a little longer than him!”
It was a strike worth waiting 67 top-flight matches for, to be fair. One of the feelgood interviews of the year!
Sky Sports co-commentator and Arsenal legend Alan Smith gives his post-match verdict. “It feels like a pivotal moment … it’s in Manchester City’s hands now … having been two goals up against the team that’s rock bottom on nine points … just not good enough for a team that’s hoping to win the title … the way things unravelled at the end … Trossard trying to waste time … Raya panicking, coming out when he didn’t need to … it doesn’t bode well about Arsenal being able to handle the pressure … they got twitchy … there seem to be a lot of nerves in the camp getting the better of them … hopefully that won’t be the case going forward but it doesn’t bode well.”
Another Arsenal great, Paul Merson, adds that “it’s gonna come on full blast now, being bottle jobs, melting, the last few years, it’s full on now.” None of which will make for easy listening around N5 way tonight. There will be chat. The north London derby on Sunday afternoon in N17 suddenly becomes even bigger, and that’s before we fold in Tottenham Hotspur’s own problems. Tune in!
Post-match postbag. “Grrr! As an Arsenal fan, I’m raging about their performance tonight. The faffing about has been an embarrasment. Squabbling on the pitch. The players need to take a long hard look at themselves. Crikey, what a self-inflicted disaster” – Mark in Cornwall
“Amazing capitulation from Arsenal” – Peter Crosby
“Arsenal going 2-0 to draw tonight is foreboding. I think it was a bit later in the season last year but it was the same situation against West Ham and Aston Villa. The demand must be to absolutely pump Spurs on Sunday. I also had the thought that does the team deserve to be champions if they can’t dispatch one of the worst teams to ever play in the Barclays” – David Bowen
“Santiago Bueno should have been a bit kinder. And as for Jesus, he wasn’t very forgiving, was he?” – Simon McMahon (Aberdeen held on for a 2-0 win over Motherwell, incidentally)
An astonishing end to that game. So passive from Arsenal, who saw a possible seven-point advantage over Manchester City shrink to five as a result of their injury-time implosion …
… and so spirited from Wolves, who are now just two points away from besting Derby’s record-low total of 2007-08. A performance that should give them great hope for the future under Rob Edwards in the Championship. Both teams with very different ambitions and targets; one very happy tonight, the other rocked to their core.
No obvious action against Jesus for that petulant tanty. But almost to a man, Arsenal storm off looking utterly furious. Riccardo Calafiori disappearing down the tunnel with a face like thunder after his late ill-fated cameo. Bukayo Saka wandering around stunned. Mikel Arteta half-drained, half-irritated. Their captain Declan Rice the calmest head among them. Wolves by contrast cavorting! That’s no more than they deserve for their second-half showing. Arsenal sat off them, hoping to see the game over the line, just like they did at the Emirates. They got away with that tactic on that occasion. Not today. What a huge result this could prove to be in the title race.
FULL TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Arsenal
The whistle goes! Arsenal have given up a two-goal lead. And as that whistle sounds, Jesus, losing the head altogether, sticks out his chest and barges Mosquera to the floor! Everyone involved in a post-match brouhaha!
90 min +8: Calafiori and Armstrong come together in a full-blooded challenge for a throw on halfway. How much this means to both sides!
90 min +7: It wasn’t so long ago that Arsenal were taking their performative time over a corner. But now look. They’re trying to pick up the speed again, but the passes aren’t sticking. They got themselves out of a similar position in the reverse fixture a couple of months ago. Can they somehow manage another escape act?
90 min +6: Arsenal try to respond to that hammer blow, but Eze’s speculative effort sails miles wide right and similarly high. But what a balls-up by Raya and Gabriel. The keeper perhaps more at fault, with Gabriel preparing to head clear. How costly could that miscommunication be?!
GOAL! Wolves 2-2 Arsenal (Calafiori 90+4 og)
When play restarts, Molineux erupts! Mane crosses from the left. Raya comes to claim. But Gabriel is preparing to head clear. They get in each other’s way. The ball breaks to Edozie, who fires low and hard towards the bottom right. Calafiori blocks on the line, but the ball shoots straight right, clanks off the base of the post, back onto the hapless defender, and in! Wild scenes!
NOTE: After the match, this goal was awarded to Edozie.
90 min +3: Trossard makes way for Calafiori, which suggests he really did feel that shoulder. His initial response looked theatrical, but fair measure. Santiago Bueno, who has already been booked, suddenly looks a bit sheepish.
90 min +2: Trossard gets up, then goes down again. This is eating into the six minutes of additional time that’s been announced. There will surely be more now.
90 min: Trossard, having taken Santiago’s shoulder in the mush, thinks about going down. Then goes down in stages. Not a great challenge, but a cynical response as well. Neither man covering themselves in glory here.
89 min: Rice takes his sweet time to go over and take the corner. A theatrical row with Eze and Jesus uses up quite a few seconds. The Wolves fans are super-irritated. Rice eventually takes it … but instead of launching it into the mixer, he plays it back up the flank. Zubimendi eventually crosses over everyone’s head. A waste on one hand, but on the other, the clock has ticked on healthily from Arsenal’s point of view.
87 min: Martinelli barges into space down the right. He’s got Jesus and Trossard in the middle, but can’t force his low cross past Santiago Bueno. Just a corner.
85 min: Wolves have lost their earlier momentum, so here’s a late curveball from Rob Edwards, who replaces Bellegarde with the teenage winger Tom Edozie.
83 min: … but nothing much is going on right now, and that favours Arsenal, who just want to get over the line tonight. No extra marks for style during the run-in.
81 min: Rob Edwards is similarly soaked and equally agitated, to be fair. Wolves still need three points to best Derby County’s all-time low Premier League haul (11 in 2007-08). They should get past that mark easily, especially if they keep playing like this for the rest of the season, but time is not on their side and every little helps. What succour a draw tonight would give them.
79 min: Gabriel is good to continue.
78 min: While the medical men give Gabriel the once-over, Arteta shouts at the rest of his team while pointing at both temples, the internationally recognised signal to Keep Calm And Concentrate Will You For The Love Of God.
77 min: Gabriel leads with his head into a 50-50 duel with Armstrong. He comes off second best. On comes the physio. “That strike from Hugo Bueno had some dip on it,” observes Kári Tulinius. “People who know about these things have said that this season’s Premier League ball swerves a lot more sharply than those of previous seasons. I keep hoping that will bring a new golden age of thwacks from deep, but xG apparently still discourages that, sadly.”
75 min: A frowning Mikel Arteta, coat soaked through with rain, sleet and perhaps even a little bit of snow, comes to the touchline to offer his players some encouragement via the medium of the crisply-performed handclap. The Arsenal nerves, momentarily settled after Hincapie’s goal, seemingly jangling a little.
73 min: Saka goes down, feeling his knee gingerly. He gets up and looks well enough, but Arsenal are taking no chances with their star man, and replace him with Trossard. Saka wanders down the touchline, seemingly unconcerned.
71 min: Rodrigo Gomes’s first act is to curl a low cross from the right into the arms of Raya. Arsenal attempt to counter through Zubimendi, who is clanked unceremoniously to the ground by Bellegarde. The Wolves man is booked.
70 min: Wolves make their first unenforced change, replacing Tchatchoua with Rodrigo Gomes.
68 min: Jesus backheels cutely down the inside-left channel to release Martinelli, who dribbles left to right through the Wolves box before swivelling on the penalty spot and aiming for the bottom left. Sa reads the danger well and sweep-kicks away. All a bit moot, because had that gone in, Martinelli was surely offside.
67 min: Tchatchoua has the chance to deliver a ball into the Arsenal mixer from the right, but a heavy touch allows Hincapie to drive him back upfield. The crowd groan.
66 min: Martinelli makes space down the left and flashes a low cross through the Wolves six-yard box. But there’s nobody there in red to poke home.
65 min: Arsenal respond with a double change. On come Eze and Jesus, with Madueke and the ineffectual Gyokeres standing down. Meanwhile in Scotland … “In tonight’s rearranged Scottish Cup last 16 tie, Motherwell have clearly taken their inspiration from Dundee United, who defeated Spartans at Tannadice last night despite playing almost the entire 90 minutes a man down,” begins Simon McMahon. “Motherwell have actually gone one better, currently playing with nine men to Aberdeen’s ten but unfortunately for the Steelmen, the similarities end there as they find themselves 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go. Serves them right for playing in a ridiculous baby-blue change kit.”
