Arsenal Vs Wolves: 5 things we learned – What the f***?

1. Spineless

Arsenal actually played quite well for the first 28 minutes. Although they had not created all that much, a theme that run throughout, they controlled possession, quieted the crowd, and limited the Wolves counter-attack excellently, with Lucas Torreira doing a wonderful mopping-up job in deep midfield positions.

But then Wolves scored. Everything changed.

Rueben Neves’ freekick was superb. Questions should be asked about the wall, but sometimes, those type of goals will happen. What is unforgivable, however, is the response to conceding that goal. Players looking round, lacking any fight or leadership. Granit Xhaka losing his temperament, later getting booked for shouting in the referee’s face. Mesut Ozil going missing, again.

Wolves then went two up from a poorly defended corner, a two-on-one immediately allowed with Wolves going short, a hapless defensive line and panicked Bernd Leno letting Matt Doherty to sneak in behind and glance the header home. And then, just before half-time, Granit Xhaka and Henrikh Mkhitaryan gift away possession, Sokratis forgets how to tackle, and Leno forgets how to make a save. Diogo Jota, who was superb, took full advantage.

It was a spineless response in a must-win game. And that is a damning criticism of the mentality of this team, these players, and this club.