Early goals by Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard helped Arsenal to a routine 2-1 win over Wolves although the Gunners endured a nervy ending to the match after Matheus Cunha reduced the deficit with four minutes remaining.
While the scoreline suggests the two sides contested a tight encounter, in truth, the Gunners were good value for the three points and should have won by a bigger margin.
The victory temporarily extends our lead at the top of the table to four points with Manchester City and Liverpool not in action until tomorrow.
“I’m very happy, I think the team was excellent again today,” said Arteta afterwards.
“The way we played, the way we competed, we looked a real threat. Going forward, we created so many chances and openings, we scored two beautiful goals, and it could have been three or four.
“But it wasn’t, and in the second half as well, we had some big chances to put the game to bed and we didn’t. And we gave them something around the box, they took it and that’s the Premier League, game on.”
The manager was particularly impressed by the performance of winger Gabriel Martinelli who came desperately close to making it 3-0 before the break with a curling effort that came back off the post.
While the Brazilian’s key metrics numbers are slightly down on last season, the boss isn’t concerned.
“I think he’s been unlucky in certain moments,” he told his post-game press conference.
“I think today he had two big chances as well to score. But the contribution that he has on the team is immense and I’m really happy.”
The manager also touched on his side’s ability to produce solid performances on a regular basis having stretched our winning to five games since the defeat at Newcastle.
“The improvement and the consistency,” he replied when asked what impresses him most from his team, “because when you play every three days it’s very tough to do what we’ve done in the week [against Lens].
“There are certain things that if we keep doing them in games, the outcome is going to be really positive for us. The team has to rely on that. The rest is coming.”
”defeat” should be in quotes when referring to the Newcastle game…
A win is a win, and credit to the team we won. But going 2-0 so early I feel lwe switched off a bit. Zinchenko great going forward and a great pass, but some of his defensive decision making is like a 5 year old. He could have cost us 2 points today with his brain farts. Also, not sure if many noticed but Nketia was awful. He was second to every ball, every tackle, so slow an lethargic. The center back who has played 75min is faster than him. His hold up play was just not good enough. Unlucky… Read more »
To think we haven’t peaked! TP5 and jurrien timbre will come back
Hopefully just Timber
What exactly wrong with our best defensive midfielder?
Only thing I can think about presumably happened outside of the pitch. On the pitch, he’s been perfect.
How about reinforcement up front?
Not sure it is totally the fault of our 2 strikers not scoring enough. The truth is that many teams parked the bus in front of goal when they play Arsenal. Jesus and Neketiah in the centre will give our wingers more space to do their creative things.
We as fans probably underestimate how difficult it is to gel two completely new midfielders into the heart of your team, even if they cost 170mil. The machine is still clanging and creaking at times but there are signs that it’s starting to run more smoothly, maybe just a tiny bit more grease on some of those cogwheels…