Premier League: Wolves beat nine men Arsenal at the Molineux to halt a run of eight without a win
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| Ruben Neves drove his penalty past Bernd Leno after David Luiz was adjudged to have fouled Willian Jose. (Photo credit: Premierleague.com) |
Arsenal’s resurgence from the woods experienced a bit of reality check on Tuesday after Wolves beat them 2-1 at the Molineux after being down to ten men.
Joao Moutinho's stunning
long-range effort shortly after the break ended an eight-game run without a
league win for Wolves and ended Arsenal’s unbeaten run since beating Chelsea at
the Emirates 3-1 in December.
Arsenal,
however, have only themselves to blame for surrendering an unbeaten league run
which had stretched to seven games before their night of self-destruction.
The Londoners should have led by
more than Nicolas Pepe’s sensational 32nd-minute goal as they completely
outplayed Wolves in the first half before everything changed in an instant,
owing to gross indiscipline.
Seconds before the interval
Arsenal defender David Luiz was sent off for inadvertently bringing
down Wolves striker Willian Jose and Ruben Neves converted
the penalty.
Four minutes into the second half
Moutinho's pile driver flew past Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno and off the
right upright and the visitors' night went from bad to worse as the German
was later red-carded for rashly handling the ball outside his area.
It meant Arsenal played the last
20 minutes with nine men and they rarely looked like troubling a Wolves side
who could hardly believe their good fortune as they claimed a first league
double over Arsenal for 42 years.
Defeat left Mikel Arteta's side
in 10th spot with 31 points from 22 games, five points ahead of Wolves in 13th.
When Arsenal started the match by
carving through the Wolves defense at will the final score looked improbable.
Bukayo Saka could have had a
hat-trick in the opening 10 minutes. In the first two minutes he hit the post
after being played in by Thomas Partey’s pass, then he forced a fine save
from Rui Patricio with a sharp shot on the turn.
Saka did beat Patricio with a
brilliant finish in the 10th minute after Alexander Lacazette’s cut back
but the Frenchman was correctly ruled offside after a VAR check.
Wolves had their moments with Max
Kilman heading over from a corner but it was no surprise when Arsenal went
in front.
Receiving the ball out on the
left, Pepe went through two flimsy tackles and then arrowed an angled
drive beyond Patricio.
Wolves would have been happy to
reach the interval only one goal in arrears but they got a massive helping
hand.
In a rare Wolves attack, Daniel
Podence slipped a well-timed pass to Jose, making his home debut, and he
looked poised to score before Brazilian Luiz, trailing behind him, accidentally
clipped his heel, sending the striker tumbling to the deck.
There was minimal contact but as
the unfortunate Luiz trudged off, Neves sent his penalty high past Leno.
"Well it was a big decision.
If they got it right and can justify that they got it right I hold my hand up
and apologize," Arteta told reporters of Luiz's red card. "I've just
seen the replay 10 times in five different angles and I cannot see any contact.
"I
would like to see if VAR has different angles. All I am saying is that I'm
sitting here and I cannot see any contact and that's really, really frustrating
because it's a big moment.
"Of course it changed the
game. You play with 10 men for 45 minutes without your central defender against
this opposition of course it changes the game."
Arsenal sacrificed French forward
Lacazette at half-time, bringing on defender Gabriel, but they were
stunned in the 49th minute when veteran Moutinho looked up 30 metres from goal
and sent a right-foot drive into the back of the net off the post.
The visitors faced a tough task
even before Leno inexplicably used his hands to clear the ball after dashing
out of his goal to intercept a long pass. After that it was a mountain to climb
for Arsenal.
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