Arsenal: 3 massive individual breakthroughs in win over Wolves

Arsenal witnessed so many positive individual performances against Wolverhampton, but these three guys deserve extra plaudits for breakthroughs.

In case you couldn’t tell from the numerical values in the player ratings following Arsenal‘s win over Wolverhampton, I had immense difficulty picking a man of the match. It’s hard to when so many guys do their job.

While no one went above and beyond, this was a textbook example of how effective you can be if everyone does their job and doesn’t screw the pooch. It’s something we haven’t seen this year and something that thus led to arguably the biggest result of the season.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t standout individual performers. Sometimes, a standout individual performer is just someone who does their job better than usual without the usual slip-ups. And Arsenal had plenty of those.

Against Wolves, though, three guys stood out. Three guys who have had difficulties this year, or in years past. Three guys who under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in. Yet three guys who made tremendous breakthroughs in their performances here.

So let’s give them their due credit, starting with No. 3.

3. Shkodran Mustafi settles

When this match kicked off, I was on pins and needles watching Shkodran Mustafi. He was a nervy thing out there matched up against Adama Traore. And yet, by the first water break, Mustafi had done such a great job that Wolverhampton moved Traore over to the right side of the pitch to get him away from Mustafi, who had put a clamp on the fearsome attacker.

Throughout the course of the match, Mustafi continued to come up big in huge defensive situations. While I can’t say the same about the left side of the defense, the right side, centered on Mustafi, was exactly where it needed to be to deny the successful, one-sided Wolves attack any purchase across the pitch.

When Diogo Jota came on, you better believe I was nervous all over again, but Musafi yet again held his fortress and denied Wolves any momentum on his side of the pitch.

I love praising Mustafi after how much he’s had to go through since joining the club, and he is well-deserving of this praise.

On to No. 2.