Arsenal rally to beat Wolves to go within one point of 4th place

 

Alex Lacazette celebrates after firing Arsenal in front in stoppage time against Wolves. Arsenal won 2-1. (Photo credit: Premierleague.com)

Arsenal rallied from a goal down late on to beat Wolves 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday night to steer clear of Bruno Lage’s side on the log and moved within just one point of Manchester United in fourth spot.

Wolves had gone in front after just ten minutes when Brazilian defender, Gabriel’s weak back pass to Aaron Ramsdale in the Arsenal goal was intercepted by Korean forward Hwang Hee-Chee and the Wolves striker made no mistakes from a very tight angle.

Mikel Arteta was without weekend star Emile Smith-Rowe who was down to illness and Takehiro Tomiyasu suffered another calf problems, thereby giving Gabriel Martinelli a return to the squad as well as retention of Cedric Soares.

It didn’t click for Arsenal until late on despite lots of chances created in either half, Arteta brought on Nicolas Pepe and youngster Eddie Nketiah and both players combined for the equalizer just eight minutes from full time.

Nketiah raced to the byline and cut back for Pepe who turned expertly in the Wolves area and blasted in for 1-1, it was a painful goal to concede for Jose Sa in the Wolves goal after series of smart saves to deny the Gunners all night.

It went from bad to worse for the Portuguese goalkeeper when he diverted Alexander Lacazette’s effort that looked to be going wide into his own net, but Bruno Lage had apologies to make after the match for the 6 minutes that was added at the end of the regulation time.

At least two minutes was wasted when Lage changed his mind on who was going off late on, the board already showed Raul Jimenez’s number but the Portuguese changed his mind and signaled Daniel Podence to be replaced, the Mexican was booked in the process.

"I feel really happy, it is amazing to win this kind of game in the last minute," Lacazette said. "We really wanted this win because we know it is important to be at the top of the table. "A bit sad [the goal] is not gone down for me, I want to score but most important is to win."

"We don't know today how important this will be but we know the importance of winning our matches and certainly at home we know we have to be extremely good," Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. "In May we want to be fighting for those places.

"The attitude, the spirit, the energy and the quality they put in to win the game was phenomenal." It was a great night for fans at the Emirates and their noise could be heard from miles away.

Arsenal have two games in hand and would leapfrog Manchester United in fourth if they win just one of them, top four is within the Gunners’ grasps now and the pressure is very well on Manchester United, Westham and the rest of the pack.