Wolverhampton 0-2 Arsenal: Instant Reaction

Arsenal are going into the World Cup break top of the table and with a five point lead.

Things opened up nicely for Arsenal at the start of the day and the team took full advantage.

Headline: Steady does it

Wolves came out in the match to frustrate.

For long stretches that is exactly what they did. They played a very compact block but interestingly kept two players up top to maintain that they were a threat on the counter (thankfully they really don’t have the final pass in those players). This really seemed to make it so that Arsenal couldn’t overcommit and create overloads to break down the defense.

Eventually, Arsenal did finally get their triangles working on the edge of the box with some great interplay between Gabriel Jesus (has there been a player on a goal drought that still provides as much as he does?) and Fabio Vieira who then created a great chipped pass that both Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka were ready to finish.

It was textbook movement and interchange to break down a deep block and was quite wonderful to see.

Ultimatley this match was another one where control was the name of the game. Arsenal didn’t come up amped up but instead looked to probe. Even after a first half that didn’t see a lot of big chances Arsenal trusted that it would come and didn’t seem desperate to try and resort to speculative shots, crosses or unnecessary risk.

This Arsenal team trusted that they had enough in this match to get the goal that they needed without opening themselves too much to the risk on the counter.

Stock Rising: Fabio Vieira