Once again, Arsenal finished a game with 10 men, but they came away from Molineux with all three points as Gabriel Magalhaes’ first half goal was enough to ensure victory.
The home side were boosted when Gabriel Martinelli was sent off for two yellow cards inside 10 seconds, a scenario which has never been seen in the Premier League to my recollection.
It meant a big defensive effort was needed, and substitute Rob Holding played a key part in keeping the clean sheet with a litany of clearances.
Tense, but also enjoyable … in the end.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Wolves 0-1 match report and see the goals here
Wolves 0-1 Arsenal – Player Ratings
The ratings are hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Aaron Ramsdale. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
0/10 Neves at full time bitching that we were celebrating like we’d won the league. Big game away where we’ve lost twice in recent years (every time I go to Molineux, in fact!), with 10 men to boot, that’s a bloody good win!
So right. Refs are trying every possible way to get our players sent off. Oliver clearly wanted to get himself on record for doing something never done before.
There have been thousands of cases of players getting yellows and being careful not to get a red. Martinelli was involved in a situation where he could have got a foul against him and a minute later is sent off. Absolute embarrassment for the referee.
The ref should’ve stop the play for the first foul, so the second offense won’t counted. A bit weird in my opinion. Unless, players become abusive towards the ref, this one is understandable as we have seen it before.
That’s the thing, Gabi shouldn’t have committed the first foul, you can’t raise your hands to an opponent + he managed to get back to Budget Adama Traore anyway so he could’ve let the quick throw go but on the other hand, if Oliver pulls the play as soon as he commits it & books him, he then doesn’t commit the second foul
Why though…the throw-in is completed so no need to stop play unless a straight red.
you can’t push a player about to take a throw.. .completely yellow card & so was the second… just stupid play by Martinelli… when will we learn??? all this the refs are against us crap is pathetic… and Arteta like a good politician is play it up… I’m gonna talk to the officials!… bullshit … bet nothing comes of that
Oliver just seemed really pissed off that we decided to time waste so early in the 2nd half. Once he’d sent Gabi off, his mood changed, like he’d got his anger out by doing it
Garbage
L😂L. I’m sure Neves was celebrating their victory against 9 men Arsenal back in February 2021.
In fairness to him I think he was more using it as a way to demonstrate how far they’d come and that they’re now classed as a ‘scalp’ rather than necessarily criticising us.
Yeah, I also took it as harmless flattery his own side rather than celebration policing of Arsenal.
Ya, a trophy
In his defense, he may have just been annoyed he wasn’t wearing blue tonight.
In his defense, he may have just been annoyed he wasn’t wearing red and white tonight.
Well you’re banned from going there then.
Love the bonus rating.
Indeed. I do wonder if Arteta should focus his training sessions on 4 versus 5 players just so we can get used to playing PL games with 10 men
No need, we are used to it.
A yellow card is meant to be a warning!!
Obviously the ref thought it was such an important warning that it was worth saying it twice.
hahahaah
My only way to rationalise the decision, and again i still think it was wrong is 1) first yellow is not a yellow for professional foul breaking up an attack since the attack went through, but 2) because he pushed him he has got the yellow for violence or something 3) the second yellow is obviously a yellow.
but it’s still bullshit and i dont recall ever seeing this happen, in any league, ever, in my 37 years.
Yep that’ll be the excuse. Yellow card foul for raising pushing his opponent, advantage played then a yellow for the subsequent challenge.
No need for an excuse, it is what it was, 2 yellows. As soon as I saw it I thought it could be 2 yellows. Really daft from Martenelli.
It was total bs. If the first foul was a yellow play should have stopped at that point.
He made 2 two bookable offenses, just didn’t get the 1 for 2 discount..
that’s rubbish.. .where is that in the rule book?
Page 46, paragraph 2
lol Arsenal Supporters Guide 🙂 Thou shall not give 2 yellows to an Arsenal player
Has this ever happened before? We witnessed history.
how come their keeper didn’t get a yellow for that dangerous foul on Laca on the goal? No consistency
You missed Eddie, easily done!
Who?
Fuck me. Another red card for us. The fouls are nothing like other teams are allowed to give.
Great victory, 3 points. This team can play damn well with 10 men
May be we are practicing for next season’s CL final. A sent off is guaranteed, so why not prepare for it !
Among all the positives so far this season – our Hale End ‘star boys’, Tomi, Gabi blossoming into a huge player, Ramsdale, Benny Blanco and Gabriel’s partnership etc – I particularly the relentless, never-say-die spirit we saw tonight (and against Man City at home, Liverpool in Carabao Cup first leg etc). More of that and less red cards, and this team can go in to great things.
5,5 for Laca who created our winning goal and 7 ESR who created nothing is pure nonsense. Sorry.
Lacazette rating indeed is a bit low, I would have given him 6.5 (not a 7 because he missed a sitter).
Blogs – on principle – never gives Laca more than 6
“created” is a bit of a stretch.
If he hadn’t touched the ball, the goal would not have been scored.
If he had touched the ball better, he would have scored the goal himself. Please call a spade a spade
Striker didn’t exactly “strike” well though did he. His job is most importantly to stick the ball in the net and he had multiple chances yet couldn’t do it. I like the guy but goodness me we are in trouble if he continues this form in front of goal.
There’s always a 20% reduction applied to any Laca rating before publishing.
I think we need to start taking a player off and playing with ten men once we score. The City, Liverpool and now Wolves games when we have played with a man short have been our best defensive displays in the last decade.
Gives new dimension rotating the squad
Lacazette got the assist and put himself about as he normally does, so I think 5.5 is a bit harsh. But my god, that miss had me fuming. With only Nketiah to replace him, it’s clear where top 4 will be won and lost for us. Also, not sure what Pepe has done to offend Arteta so much that he’d rather play someone who was winding down their contract and had zero prem goals all season.
I assumed he went with Eddie instead of Pepe for their work rate off the ball. Pepe may get a chance next game with Martinelli suspended, unless ESR slots in on the left instead…
I’ll be gobsmacked if Pepe starts ahead of ESR!
Not sure I see a marked difference in Eddie’s workrate off the ball vs Pepe’s. Maybe once upon a time, but not any longer. And one can hold the ball up extremely well, the other has proven himself worthless in this regard – I’ll leave you to figure out which is which.
Can we get a hint?
Completely agree – I’ll say it again on here: given a consistent run of starts, I think Pepe will surprise many of the doubters.
It’s totally ridiculous Pepe doesn’t get played. The amount of goals he scored last season was no fluke. We need goals more than ever and yet he never gets off the bench. This is the one issue I have with Mikel’s team selection. Actually I have another as well…starting ESR on the bench now every week makes no sense either. He’s better than Odegaard. He’s the future of the team that should be built around him.
I love our Arsenal, but that red card was fair. Too obvious yellow cards in 10 seconds. Just because you make one apparent foul (and yellow card) does not mean you can make another daft foul (and obvious yellow card) without consequences.
COYG!
Arteta’s I’ll discipline
Absolutely agree. Ref really had no choice there. I love Martinelli to death, but it looked like both fouls were pure petulance after not getting a call. He’ll grow up.
Rubbish. That was a mean spirited red card. The kid didn’t know he’d been given a first yellow card as Oliver played advantage and as he hadn’t stopped play, how was he to know? Had it been Harry Kane, Mane…. I rest my case. As Arteta said, Oliver was very willing to send him off. Not something you would expect to see.
Sorry, I respectfully disagree. He had to know that blatantly interfering with a throw-in was going to get him booked. The second foul was also stone-cold yellow under any circumstance. Where do you draw the line on how bad the second foul in a single passage of play has to be to warrant a second card? You can’t change the standard for what’s bookable based on whether or not the player also did something bookable 5 seconds prior.
https://twitter.com/HTTRGoonerNate/status/1491900851815866373?t=cXT7cNQD0tOlXkxvmZY_pQ&s=19
Worth checking out.
Clear and obvious foul play from Wolves on Gabi before. Oliver has not been of EPL level for a long time.
Ramsdale is a real bottom half keeper, and I mean that in the best way. He knows what to do and how to play in the difficult situations. Winds up the opposition because they’re not used to seeing it from Arsenal.
I think that Laca played big part in the goal and we have to give him credit for that. But later he was off. He didn’t follow ESR in counter when he should. Every striker sometimes can miss chance he missed tonight but he did it every time. During the summer we will need to buy two strikers. We should buy one in January, the reserve if we were not able to by the first choice.
Great win under the circumstances but with 11 men on the pitch our football isn’t great. Ponderous. Little end product. Time wasting. Long throw-ins like Stoke City. Just play football. If our midfield is so poor we need to waste time when ahead 1 to 0 against wolves then why not spend on players in the window. Obviously down to 10 men it makes sense but with 11 v 11 we need to be more dynamic. Defense was incredible. Red was insane but there is something that needs to be fixed because we keep ending to with 10 men on… Read more »
We did seem to be hoofing it down the pitch a lot tonight. I do wonder if a large part of that is due to the need to accomodate for Soares – usually Tomi and Saka provide such a fluid and dependable outlet, but Soares (1) doesn’t have the same chemistry with Saka and (2) isn’t as sturdy or reliable on the ball, making that flank an unappetising option in playing out from the back. To me that reinforces how having Tomi in the side makes a huge difference to our overall play. KT seemed a little off the pace… Read more »
Yes we are a bit of an embarrassment viz red cards and we need to learn self discipline. But I feel there’s a bit of an attitude now with the refs. They see us as red cards waiting to happen, whereas many other teams get away with murder. Makes you wonder how much they enjoy adding to that narrative.
This match reminded me of why I like Rob Holding so much, and also why he is not good enough. If you never try to play out (for example against a relentless attack when you have a lead and are a man down), if you don’t need to join the attack (because there is no attack), if you never need to cover out wide for a fullback (because both fullbacks are fully committed to defending), and you can judge the flight of high balls from a standing position, not while you are coming out–well, under all those conditions, his spirit… Read more »
Great analysis. He really is a back-to-the-wall defender, great to be able to put him on when we are under pressure…and like you say, hope we don’t have to play him from the start.
That is rubbish holding is a class defender and not just when were defending a 1-0 lead, Arteta doesn’t know how to rotate players so we’re only gonna be able to judge him in these situations but when wenger gave him a run of game he looked amazing.
Since holding returned from injury, he’s been good at defending but I have seen many misplaced and backward passes
He’s not a class defender. Cheese and bread 🙄
No rating for Nketiah?
No. Not ever.
That double booking was a bit like getting done by 2 speed cameras 50 metres apart and copping 2 fines. Ridiculous arseholes.
The first speed camera being invisible.
Kilman should have been carded in the first 5 minutes for a professional foul and Oliver let it go. The sliding challenge by Neves (I think?) would probably have been a ‘soft’ red if that was Xhaka.
Just gonna say it. Cedric played decently tonight. Just wish we could ongoingly have this confidence in him as a back-up RB but I’ll take this rare performance tonight
I actually thought he was very good for the first 35 minutes or so, as opposed to just decent. Dropped off after that, in my opinion. 9 more days of rest for Tomi!!!!
Gotta agree – that’s the frustration with him. Seen play like that a number of times for Portugal as well. That whipped first cross early in the 1st half was as good as you’ll ever see. There’s a really decent player in there – just doesn’t come out often enough!
Also, hope tonight should settle the thought if anyone thinking Ruben Neves should have been bought to replace Xhaka. Apart from a couple of good deliveries, I felt like he was pretty much a slightly less clumsy clone
A slightly less clumsy clone. Yep. There’s a reason we play Xhaka all the time. He has some strong attributes. If we had a less brain farty version it would be a good thing. For me you just strengthened the argument rather than put it to bed.
The good thing is these decisions create an us and them mentality which could fuel the team’s determination.
You’ll down vote me to hell…but I actually think Michael Oliver had every right to show 2 yellow’s at ‘same damn time’ to Martinelli, we are just used to referee’s choosing 1 offense to punish when 2 occur in the same play…
Yeah, agree, that red was ridiculous. Insane to me.
A lot of people here are saying the red and was wrong because they can’t remember seeing anything like it. I can. Chris Baird got a double-yellow red card for Northern Ireland in identical circumstances in 2015. He fouled an opponent who got away from him and ran upfield, where he fouled him again. The ref flourished two yellows and sent him off. At the time I was impressed. I can’t argue about tonight’s decision either – you’d want an opposition player to get a yellow for both those fouls – Gabi was hyped up and petulant. The only cause… Read more »
Arseblog is borderline stupid in match blogs too, digging at Laca, saying that he is not Bergkamp for the pass and slagging him off for missing the chance saying that he’s sometimes poo and he also just automatically assumed Laca missed the ball when he was brave to get a touch on the ball, what a jackass. You should be slagging off Martinelli too because that was fucking stupid what he did and it could have cost us, and you are defending it you blithering idiot.
vee for vexatious
While your points are salient your delivery of them was disrespectful. No need to resort to that.
Why not? Everyone else does.
And does it say “Awaiting for approval”? It’s either “Waiting for approval” or “Awaiting approval”.
Arseblog live blog is my hero. Lacazette has brain farts at inappropriate times. I like his midfield play
I thought we played well, but do not think the time wasting and shit-housery is worthy of us. I don’t know if it comes from the top; I don’t think Wenger ever encouraged it. I hope it doesn’t continue.
Agreed. If we were more efficient at taking our chances and made fewer silly mistakes at the back there would be less need for gamesmanship
Arteta was a very good shit-houser back in the day. I suspect it is encouraged to an extent but some of the players have also shown their relative lack of experience in going too far with it. Others have just been braindead. So I suspect it’s a little from column A, a little from column B.
In the man city all-or-nothing there’s a clip of him talking to players about when to take professional fouls. He’s giving us an edge, and I like it. It’ll take a bit for our players not to be stupidly blatant about it though. Both our Brazilian Gabriels seem to be too hot-headed and young to know how/when to be sly bastards. I enjoyed when wolves were singing “same old arsenal, always cheating”. I hope we play into it. City’s defense is built on the back of over-extending yourself forward and knowing how far up the pitch to foul to save… Read more »
Ratings are spot on, But we need to improve in handling referee. Too many red cards r taken by team.
Is it just me who thought both Gabi’s cards were yellows tonight
Nothing wrong with the 2 yellows Don’t like it but technically correct. Martinelli has to be more in control.
Hardwork from everyone to keep the scoreline so bonus points for all. 1) Ramsdale – Such an asset. Some massive saves and proactive work coming out to be the added man when we went one down. Like punting it long as well when one man short, no more pussy footing around our box and taking chances.But good on his feet earlier in first half when need be. England’s number One. 2) Cedric – Had a decent game if Podence gave him the run around a number of times. Got away with it where others did not. But looks like he… Read more »
Excellent analysis. Hadn’t considered it before but you’re right about a Laca v Giroud sprint being a hard one to call. Laca’s value is work rare and hold up play (and I appreciate that), but we’re sacrificing pace and finishing for those qualities. A bad trade, in my opinion. The level of quality we need at the striker position will probably come in a player who demands CL football as a prerequisite to join ‘the project’ (and I don’t rate DCL to be the long term answer for us). Don’t see Laca stumbling onto a purple patch in front of… Read more »
Martinelli’s red card was the correct decision. No valid reason why Wolves should lose their advantage by having the ref stop the game to let the offender know he was on a yellow before his second offence. Great win for Arsenal but we ain’t getting top 4 with Xhaka and Partey in midfield and no clinical striker up top. Lacazette should have put the game to bed and spared us the agony of the last 20 minutes.
Check the rules again!
I’d say foul throw on the first Martinelli incident. Our ball.
This group is convincing me in terms of team character. The latter Wenger years, and Emery’s tenure as well, were both plagued by collective team weakness and cowardice. It was very hard to watch at times. But this group, in addition to a great deal of footballing talent, is showing a collective will and character that is promising. Latter era Wenger teams and Emery’s team would have crumbled like stale cookies after the red card (maybe before it even), but this group is showing a collective fight that is hard not to believe in. Well done to Arteta and the… Read more »
Xhaka wasn’t sent off, but went in to the wardrobe after the match together with the others. Must have felt weird.
Personally it grates me when we start time wasting tactics.
Other teams do it quite effectively to frustrate the opposition (we’ve been on the receiving end more than a few times).
For some reason when we do it we become sloppy and lethargic.
What then happens we concede a goal or goals, leading to draws or losses.
I’m aware it sounds bizarre but I can’t help the feeling that if Martinelli hadn’t been sent off we would not have won that game.
Going down to ten seemed to focus us.
Couldn’t agree more, get a 1-0 lead and try to sit on it won’t deliver us to the top 6 at season end… and our timewasting and gamesmanship is poorly done almost like we are trying to goad the ref to do something about it and then when it does we start crying like we are victims in a grand conspiracy… pathetic! Gabriel really needs a good talking to about his histrionics, be more professional like Ben White have a word to the ref and then back off and do the job your paid to do