Result: Wolves 3-1 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 24th April 2019
Venue: Molineux Stadium
Starting XI: Leno, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Torreira, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Ozil, Lacazette
Subs: Cech, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Elneny, Willock, Guendouzi, Nketiah
Arsenal’s hopes of finishing in the Premier League top four are no longer in our own hands after a disastrously cowardly performance was punished by Wolves who won 3-1 at Molineux.
After the disappointment of Sunday’s defeat to Crystal Palace, Unai Emery needed a big performance from his players but they let him down badly, as Ruben Neves, Matt Doherty and Diogo Jota took advantage of lax defending and bad goalkeeping to give the hosts an unassailable three-goal advantage before the break.
Sokratis grabbed a consolation – our 100th goal of the season – with 10 minutes remaining but a comeback was never on the cards.
First half
Arsenal were very much in charge of the opening exchanges, probing with intricate passing triangles that pushed the home side, who looked somewhat sluggish, onto the back foot.
Iwobi, Ozil and Mkhitaryan all looked sharpish, however, for all the possession, our most dangerous moment in the first 20 minutes was an effort over the bar from the edge of the box by the Armenian. We’ve been here before. We know how this script goes.
After that, momentum swung the way of the home side. There we go.
Joao Moutinho had the Molineux crowd off their seats with a curler that whipped wide of Leno’s left post and a long throw in caused havoc in our defence leading to a chance for Jimenez; he flicked over.
The chance spurred on the home side who soon after won a free-kick on the edge of our box when Monreal accidentally clashed with Jonny. Ruben Neves stepped up and curled over the wall, most of whom turned their back on the effort, to beat Leno. (1-0)
We needed a big response. Instead, we shit the bed. Wolves came close again when Jimenez fired wide and Xhaka picked up a booking for dissent after Koscielny made another foul on the edge of the box. This time Neves’ set piece was deflected over.
There was a brief moment of excitement when Lacazette went on a solo run but he lost his head at the decisive moment and shot well wide. Back came Wolves.
Jota’s dancing feet deceived Maitland-Niles and Leno was lucky that his attempts to stop the cross saw the ball go out for a corner. The German was lucky. From the resulting corner, his luck and judgement deserted him. A short corner led to a ball into the box and Leno’s flapping did nothing to put off Doherty who headed into an empty net. Monreal pleaded for offside. He was ignored. (2-0)
To add to our misery, deep into first half stoppage time Jota beat Sokratis, indulging in the type of half-arsed defending that saw Mustafi singled out for abuse on Sunday, and slid a shot through Leno. Not around him. Not over him. Through him. The German’s decision to have his worst game in an Arsenal shirt couldn’t have been more untimely. (3-0)
Second half
In the second half, the home side were happy enough to sit back and soak up our toothless possession. It felt like they were waiting for our interest in a comeback to wane before they picked us off.
Lacazette had a claim for a penalty waved away. He was probably offside. It was probably a foul. Neither were given.
Guendouzi replaced Torreira and we started to go sideways a lot. “You’re fucking shit” was the chant from the terraces. It was probably the home fans singing it, but the travelling Gooners would have been forgiven indulging in such a ditty.
Nketiah replaced Iwobi and briefly shut up the Wolves fans, who’d taken to oleing every pass, by setting up Lacazette. Boly came to the rescue.
Sokratis did head home a corner by Xhaka to reduce the deficit with 10 minutes remaining but by that point, you could tell we just wanted to get on the bus home. (3-1)
We don’t have much time to pick ourselves up. On Sunday afternoon we’re at Leicester City where Brendan Rodgers and Jamie Vardy will no doubt be lining up to stick the knife in. After a performance like this it’s very hard to see us getting anything at the King Power.
If we don’t pick up three points we can pretty much say goodbye to the top four. Our only saving grace is that Manchester United and Chelsea, who play each other on Saturday, have also been doing their best to cock things up recently.
Absolute shite. That loss makes the poor line up against Palace look like an even worse decision. The way we were stroking it about at 3-0 down was infuriating. You’d have thought we were 3-0 up! No energy, no drive absolutely fucking terrible.
One thing is sure though. Emery isn’t gonna have the luxury of time Wenger did. He better sort this shit out next season or it’s his arse.
Everton, Watford, Crystal Palace and now Wolves. Have we ever played so badly consecutively against such mediocrity?
Huge issues with this side in every position bar centre forward. Huge.
I think that’s a little exaggerated. 1 x top flight CD, 1 x top flight CM, and 1 x top flight winger and we could be much better.
If we want to challenge the top 2 we’re going to need a lot more than that. Taking into account style of play, I can only see Laca, Ramsey and Bellerin having a chance of getting into those sides (neither play with poachers like Aubameyang or orthodox 10s like Ozil).
Totally agree!
What was the point of getting rid of Wenger? My goodness, nothing has changed. What a weak, fragile, and wimpy squad. Absolutely pathetic.
Think Wooves have taken more points from the top 6 than anyone except City and Pool, would not call that mediocrity
The league doesn’t lie. They’re mid table.
That’s ‘cos they can’t buy a win away to shite opposition.
Sound familiar at all?
Bring back #LeProf
What you meant is that players were to be blamed not Wenger. Saying this is not against Emery in my opinion. Why these players think they deserve wages that should be paid to very rare exceptional talents?
I’m not watching any more of this season. Don’t care if we somehow luck into the Europa and/or 4th. Cannot get behind a team where atleast 2/3rds of the riff-raff should be playing for their careers, but aren’t.
That comes from the top, yet we are hearing messages about cost cutting. This club has become a money laundering operation for possibly the scummiest 1 percenter on the planet, it’s cost a good man his job, it’ll probably drive another decent manager to insanity. The heart’s not in it any more, good luck all.
Well said thw14. It’s now about profits for some scrupulous people. Imagine the commission paid to agents on transfers.
Some serious Auditing needs be done on finances and commitments.
The problem is, they spent the last few weeks saying it’s in their hands. There’s been no urgency because they thought they could afford to drop points. Now it’s out of their hands, I bet they perform better than they have recently, although it will be too late .
We created so few chances it was laughable. Felt like the tail end of Wenger’s reign. Look to be completely out of ideas. It has the same feeling for years where no one ever crosses the ball because what’s the point? There is zero chance anyone gets on the end of it. It’s only Laca in the box and everyone else lazily lurking on the edge instead of gambling and showing some desire to get on the end of something. Absolutely pathetic, we don’t deserve top 4 after closing the season so miserably.
Spot on!
Many will blame our defense (not that they don’t deserve) but what about our attack? They all were sh*t today. No creativity from anyone.
Exactly. We should’ve gone all out at home, considering we don’t have the mentality to beat even a league two side away from home this season it’d seem. These recent performances in the league against mid table teams are more worrying than our bad streak against big teams in the late Wenger era. Absolute shit we’ve been, we’ve treated Wolves and Watford like Bayern or Barca in the UCL. Its disgusting to watch.
I cannot believe that was worse than Sunday, but it was. To a man that was an absolute disgrace. Make them walk home.
Gotta keep those possession and pass accuracy numbers up though. Wouldn’t want to take a hit there now, would we?
Bunch of bottlers. Don’t blame emery at all, despite him getting the lineups wrong these last two games. These players are mentally weak. Whenever they’re faced with adversity too many of them crack under pressure rather than relish the fight. We don’t deserve champions league. It’s been in our hands for so long this season and we’ve been given chance after chance. In a weeks time we could have nothing to fight for. At the start of the season we all said we’d give the new manager time and we were open to the idea of finishing outside the top… Read more »
Sorry to jump in before “By the Numbers” but:
70% possession, 25% of goals.
690 passes to their 285
90% pass success – how many were forward passes though?
5 accurate crosses out of 16 attempts
4 interceptions to their 20
6 tackles to their 15
1 attempt on target
Added to total lack of attempts on goal when losing a game – yet again = Disgraceful.
What a shower of shit.
Average team, average manager.
How Torreira got hooked instead of Xhaka I’ll never know. He ducked the wall for the first and can’t have made more that 3 forward passes all night. Carthorse.
Utterly shameful. Only up from here.
Or stay the same
Or down
Cowards indeed. Nobody took responsibility tonight, passing the buck, every last one of them. Without Ramsey and Auba this team attacks like a 2am piss in the wind.
That was up there with one of the most shambolic displays I’ve ever had the misfortune to clap my eyes upon. Since that statement about it being ‘in our own hands’ we’ve made an absolute hash out of it. Today we didn’t even look bothered. After it even went to 1-0 down you could tell we wouldn’t have the mentality to get back into the game. And the worst thing is we put out the best possible starting line up :/
What if, and hear me out for one minute, it’s not about working hard but instead we’re just bad. Our players are sadly not good enough. Midfield has no one who can carry the ball, no real pace on the wings (no, Iwobi is not fast, though many people think he is). We don’t even have an attacking philosophy except our LWB.
Two of my top three worst performances of all time have happened this month. 🙁
you weren’t around in the seventies then…
Yes, yes.. terrible result but…IT LOOKS LIKE LIVERPOOL MIGHT NOT WIN IT AND THAT MAKES ME SLEEP EASIER TONIGHT.
On a serious note, I had very little hopes of us getting anything tonight…but the reality is, top 4 is still achievable, champions league football is still achievable. If this lot do not want it that bad then I am not going to get worked up by these silly losses anymore, not worth it.
?
That’s what I don’t understand.
The players look/play as they don’t want it bad enough.
Don’t they realise what’s at stake?!?!
How can you serve that up with so much to play for?
I know the blame goes all round, Manager included but f*ck me that was bad
Many (if not most) of them are not as passionate about Arsenal winning as we are. Their relationship with the club is economically profitable, they are not there for the glory.
And the one player who is really passionate about the club is leaving – not by choice – at the end of the season.
the vast majority of our players are average. Average players put up average results. It’s that simple. I can only think of 2 maybe 3 players who could play for man city or Liverpool.
Currently, this is the (sad) reality.
unfortunarely if they had ambition… they would have left already… thats the bloody truth
Again … constant back and sideways passing due to very little or no movement up front …
It’s like we try so hard to get the ball in the 6 yard box for about 3-4 minutes, and then with one swish, Wolves are on our end threatening to score a fourth.
Such performances show that we are quite a distance from getting top four, let alone winning the title.
The only positive was Nketiah tonight. Let’s hope he can get some more game time.
What is wrong with Liverpool winning it ? Do you want Saint fucking Guardiola who can do no wrong with his open cheque book to win it again ?
Liverpool fans are insufferable, in person and online. They are a smug, self-righteous lot who go about thinking they ought to be allowed to play in the world cup on account how big of a club they are.
I’m okay with city winning it, their fans are not that loud in Nairobi.
City is the lesser evil (IMO)
… Am I missing something?
Bit like Arsenal fans then
Trust me, even of you’re not old enough to remember, their current behaviour (and the media’s) should be enough to make you realise it would be nigh unbearable. We all know Pepto can’t win without an open chequebook, but do we really want to give Dr. Teeth a chance to flash his fake enamels? Not to mention that sheightbag Lawrenson.
Don’t know what’s funnier; the result or that people are surprised.
That’s the thing- when you keep saying the same things about Emery on this, people downvote you and crowd you out. This was always going to happen- we are no different to how we were under Wenger. Whilst you can blame a lot of the players (Iwobi, Mustafi, Mkhitaryan are all a joke and should be flogged off), Emery was NEVER the manager you wanted if you wanted to improve the team defensively. That is obvious to those who are aware of his career. People like to cover their ears though and ignore the obvious. But whilst we have Emery,… Read more »
I think you missed few main players from Sh*t list
He’s been underwhelming, to say the least.
Had to ask my friends if Wolves have better athletes than us. Like, did anyone wearing that shitty blue away shirt win a race to the ball once this evening? Just a disaster of a performance.
They probably are more athletic right now. They have played far fewer games than we have.
Spineless.
Cant even blame Mustafi. The mentality at this club is all wrong. Mostly cowardly. This is not going to change anytime soon, until all these cowards are shipped out.
Well said!
Can’t blame Mustafi on this occasion 😉
Can’t blame the boss either, that was a very strong starting eleven more than capable of winning the match. Fuck knows what is wrong with them the bunch of pansies
Problem is definitely the weak mentality, festering over the past few year, the soft underbelly, spineless and all those other descriptions you can think of.. and yes, Mustafi isn’t the problem, we’ve been a graveyard for talent especially defenders. We didn’t lose a game with Mustafi in the team till very late in the season, that’s how good he played in his first season but slowly, like many before him, he has ultimately become what he’s today.
Are you seriously suggesting that all the boss does is select the players and he isn’t responsible for anything else that happens on the pitch?
Can we stop the season? I want to get off
No Ramsey for 2 matches no points so far! Coincidence?
Ramsey played at Newcastle.
And he played in many other games which we won
All these defeats happened when Ozil got back into the starting XI.
I’ll try to look to the positives: we’ve actually still got a great chance of getting top 4, so long as Chelsea don’t win at Old Trafford this weekend.
And at the start of the season, I’d have gladly taken scraping top 4 after an inconsistent season peppered with awful performances
I think you might be labouring under the misconception that we’re getting any more points this season.
Chelsea/united will get points, are you that confident we will away at Leicester?
Only if we win the rest of our matches. Which we wont.
I reckon a draw and two wins will see us 4th. Chelsea have a tough run in.
Honestly three losses wouldn’t surprise me at all
Sideways and backwards passing, no real efforts on goal, nobody moving.
And there’s a good chance Kos’ back will need some rest after that fall.
No positives at all to be taken tonight
This Arsenal team is nowhere near top four standard. Just a pity Emery got our hopes up for a while….?
Exactly my thoughts. We are not good enough to be 4th or higher. No width with Mhkataryan and Iwobi who were awful, so all through the middle and all into the hands of the defenders, easy peasy. We should have started with three at the back, Eddie up front with Laca on the shoulders of the defenders and let them have the ball like we did with the spuds, shity, Manure and the poo. Then let Ozil can pick out the runs of Eddie and Laca. That would have mobbed the midfield and they would have given us chances. They… Read more »
Review the comments when team was announced – general consensus was that this was our best lineup.
It’s awful from Leno, he can have no excuses today he’s had a big a hand it today’s defeat as Mustafi over the weekend. But how does an Arsenal side go 70+ mins before having a single shot on target?
Hope deferred makes the heart sick.
Iwobi, Mkhitariyan and Ozil is the worst line up for an away game. All 3 of them are passengers and chickens when it comes to challenges, getting stuck in which is an absolute necessity for an away game. All 3 of them are not worthy of a top 4 team in PL.
My heart sank when I saw that combination. Add the fact that Monreal suddenly looks 63, we had a shambolic left side from the get go.
We are so fucking embarrassing. How are we supposed to go out in public tomorrow?
Why Suarez in january? Why refusing to strenghten the defense when two big defenders are out for the rest of the season? Why tryng to save Emery’s darl? Why doing nothing when all the others got stronger?
Just wait until the summer when we also don’t splash the cash
Suarez in Jan as few of our attacking players were injured. Regarding defense, don’t know what option we had. But today’s game is not only defense prob. I blame our attacking players more. These was no desire at all. Only player who was trying something was Laca. Others were just useless
What a load of Bollocks!
Looking at City tearing MU apart at OT. Brilliant players of course, but the work ethic impress me the most. The want to win and put their legs and muscles behind it. Wonder what goes through the valnutsized brains of our players when entering a decisive game? « I want to win, but it must not hurt or make me break a sweat»? The one player with a true winning mentality we let go for free to Italy.. I don’t blame Leno in this game, he’s saved us a lot of times this season, but the mentality in this clubs… Read more »
After getting to “valnutsized” I read the rest of the comment in a bad German accent. But I see I agree. Don’t understand why the club didn’t tell us why they took the contract off the table for Ramsey. We are a terrible team.
Possibly our worst performance of the season. Leno’s positioning for the first goal was bizarre, Koscielny and Monreal too slow (and overplayed) for the second, Leno and Sokratis poor for the third. But almost more frustrating was the lack of movement from our attacking players. No drive, fight, willingness to show for the ball or the ability to do anything with it. As poor as I can remember us being bar the 6,7 and 8 goal defeats under Wenger.
This was a Walcottian performance.
This is getting silly now. Can’t remember an arsenal side that I was so sure wouldn’t be able to get back into an away game when going behind. Need man u to do us a favour now, deep down though I fear we would be embarrassed in the champs league. Sad times. Lots of work to do in the summer, Unai.
We are a pathetic team. Its going to take years and loads of cash to change that. We can achieve the top 4 only by virtue of others’ failures. That says something about us doesn’t it?
What the fuck was that!!??
Bad day at the office, but not unexpected. Wolves are really good against the big 6. Started bright, but that free kick… Xhaka turning his back in the wall (not for the first time if i remember correctly). I am still fairly optimistic about the 4th place though. Chelsea one point above as, they play Utd and Leicester away, and Watford at home. I am confident we can win more points than them.
What makes you confident based on the last two must-win games?
We have lost our tempo going forward more often than not this season. This club has big decisions to make in the summer. We need fresh blood going forward and in defence. I fear this team’s mentality during away games is set deep into the players’ psyche.
#EmeryOuT
What’s kind of remarkable, and probably bad for our EL chances, is that we are absolute shit but Chelsea and ManU are equally shit and even still have to play each other so we still have a chance to get top 4.
Did Mustaphi play tonight? The way we were passing side to side then back to Kosc I thought we was winning 3-0…they get 3 shots they score 3…
What’s the point of getting qualified for champions League if we are going to play shit there? I don’t even know what to expect from the club…
We need the money and CL to attract good players to rebuild the squad, you know this
We were in the CL for years and never built a good squad. What makes you think we’d suddenly start now?
We’re a bang average club, with bang average players. Being hamstrung by some fuckwit owner.
I’d happily see at least 8 of our first team sold this summer. Sack the lot off.
New manager, new ideas, new project. Fuck off with this negative bullshit
Almost as disappointing as not finishing in the top 4 is seeing us 33 points off the leaders Man City. Looks like it will be a long time before we challenge for the Premiership.
The only explanation left is overpaid players who do not take care of themselves, are not up for the fight and lack motivation ( like at Man Utd). Only Emery knows who they are by observing training ( who turns up late etc). I never knew that Hleb allegedly had a drinking issue until recently. We do not know what really goes on behind the scenes. Whoever they are just get rid of them and play those who give everything (100 per cent – no less) for the shirt. Ramsey has had his critics over the years but true professinal… Read more »
Also need to look at squad and realise how many are over 30 yrs old. Today’s game involves massive running / energy with the ” high pressing” trend
What a load of BS, thanks to Oil City for providing us some VAGUE hope of getting top four!!!
Looking back I say only a massive cock up from Deeney has us in with a slight chance of UCL football still.
Going by the evidence of the other 3 recent away games, we would have surely been turned over by Watford without that sending off. Embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassing!
Haha fuck it! Now im gonna call my ex for
sex and ma granny for money. Today is Screwuploonyday! Happy Screwuploonyday everyone! Do something stupid to honour our club! Preach, Fuckers!
Haha, this is actually kinda funny.
Need some wingers with hunger – at a certain point constantly relying on a “patient buildup” is exposed as not having any ideas. Wolves attacked with speed. Every time we got it into their box we tried to pass it away from goal – not incisive. I don’t know what’s behind our reservation to attack quickly. I also can’t believe Chelsea and United are equally as bad and we’re still where we are. We’re still a point off fourth after losing to Crystal Palace and Wolves. We can still do it mathematically but I’m not sure how we dig it… Read more »
Unai needs to send a message to some of his overpaid underdelivering lazy players by benching them and letting the hungry youth players have a shot. Leicester won the title with average players but by playing as a unit and with hunger and passion. Ozil has more skill in his left bollock than any Leicester player but it’s fuck all use without passion and energy and desire to win. It’s just a lazy skilful bollock.
I’ll just point to the comments Santori made day (or two?) ago, by summing it up in one sentence: we have a bunch of problems not just Mustafi. After Palace game everyone jumped on Mustafi as we all know. And I’ll say it again, okay, he has to go, but he is not the main reason for our misery. There is no desire in this team and that’s a fact. And all there is for us (for a decade now) is to just say “…next season…” That shit has to stop. Wenger was the smallest of problems. Today Emery is… Read more »
Full credit to Wolves. And they are a decent side, fully deserve their place in the top half of the PL.
Dire from Arsenal. Shoddy defending and not much offense either. Just a lot of meaningless passing.
It does make one wonder about the importance of Ramsey. None of Ozil, Miki or Iwobi looks consistently capable of generating an offensive threat. And Lacazette tries hard most of the time, but not enough of an individual threat either. Probably should have started Nkhetiah instead of Miki.
A bunch of lazy cunts….hoping all the teams we played were already at the beach but meanwhile it’s us at the beach. Fuck all of them.
Arsenal away game, when the game is not live on TV my routine –
1) check the starting line up
2) distract myself from the game by doing something else but keep hoping and praying that we are winning
3) About 5 mins after the scheduled full time, check Arseblog News for the report and usually feel dejected.
Sounds like the players follow pretty much the same routine!
I think that has well and truly fucked top four for us. It’s pathetic when we’ve been presented with a few chances to captialise on and just pissed them away. I’m fast becoming concerned we won’t do it in the Europa league either. Valencia is not an easy game, nor Chelsea. If this is the reality of life without Ramsey we need to do a lot of work in the summer.
Can’t blame this one on the selections by Emery, was a strong enough squad to win this. We have now dropped 9 crucial points in the last 4 league matches (and barely won the one game 1-0). Looking like our best chance to make the CL is to win the Europa League at this point when a few weeks ago everything was perfectly lined up for us to finish 3rd or 4th.
What is there to sort out. The team is about 200 million in transfer fees away from being able to contend. It needs 2 dominate center halves, a dominate holder and box to box midfielder, as well as a world class winger that can score 15 goals a season to help out lacca and Auba. To make matters worse, Kronke won’t give us money to spemd on anything other than average players. Also, Auba and ozil are on the wrong side of 30. And one of our best players has beem allowed to leave for free. How can this be… Read more »
Don’t forget we need to hire a manager who isn’t bang-average too!
Okay we were crap but I don’t see why people are dismissing us being in the champions league, who cares if we get dumped out of it quickly next season? We need the money and having less European games to focus on getting top four again should be the realistic goal – at least it would stop two scummers from getting champions league money!!!
‘The German’s decision to have his worst game in an Arsenal shirt’ coincided with yet another arsenal player chatting shit in the evening standard. Arsenal players need to do the talking after the game not before. Talking about getting 10 points from 12.
Emery is learning some crucial lessons about the Premier League the hard way, and it never gets any easier to watch.