One stunning win, two tricky traditions broken. What a night for the Gunners. Yes, they didn’t play against City or Chelsea, but this win was as good as it gets against a really unpleasant (to say at least) Wolverhampton. On the night when they did the worst thing possible against the Wolves, and that is to allow them to score first, Arsenal players never gave up, they pressed, attacked the best they could, and eventually won the game deep in injury time. The Champions League spot looks closer than ever, since Gunners are now only one point behind Manchester United, with two games in hand: Arsenal – Wolverhampton 2-1.90+ – José Sá’s own goal (94:56) was Arsenal’s latest winning goal in a Premier League game since January 2017 when Alexis Sánchez netted from the penalty spot against Burnley after 97 minutes and 14 seconds. Scenes. pic.twitter.com/Ev9Gg6Et64— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 24, 2022 In tonight’s game, manager Mikel Arteta and his team managed to overcome two tricky traditions. Until tonight, the Wolves were unbeaten in their last 45 Premier League games in which they have opened the scoring and won 39 of them. Tonight they lost. Also, Arsenal haven’t won a Premier League game under Mikel Arteta where they were trailing at halftime (4 draws, 15 defeats). Tonight they did, and most of all because of one great player: Alexandre Lacazette. The underrated striker was the best man on the field, along with a super-sub Nicolas Pepe (goal and assist). Gunners striker was always a loyal soldier but often overlooked, as some other strange characters were wearing the captain’s armband ahead of him (Xhaka, Aubameyang), and what’s even worse, this player will probably end up as a free agent in May. But he fought a hard battle tonight, created chances, was denied by Wolves keeper, and in the end, scored a winner in injury time, which was somehow ruled as goalie’s own goal.Stunners 🤝#ARSWOL #AFC #Arsenal #COYG @Arsenal @LacazetteAlex @NicolasPepe18 pic.twitter.com/CESLFc26pl— Jayshri Raghav (@jayshriiyer) February 24, 2022 The first half was a half of double frustration for Arsenal. First, they fell behind after only 10 minutes, and then they tried but couldn’t break Wolves’ steady defense for the rest of the half. The opening goal was the combination of a careless move by Martinelli and a precise shot by Hee-Chang Hwang. The Gunners defender made a bad pass back to Ramsdale and Hwang was there to intercept the ball and then score from a really tight angle. But Wolves didn’t stop there, in fact, they continued with unusually high pressure on Arsenal players, which caused a lot of problems for the hosts. Wolves had one more excellent chance in the first half (Jimenez), and along with another Hwang chance in the 47th minute, those will be moments which they will be annoyed about. If they managed to score from at least one of them, this game would certainly end differently.The guests continued with a good defense for most parts of the second half, as Arsenal had only one good chance when Lacazette’s excellent shot was saved superbly by Jose Sa in the 72nd minute. Arteta made two great substitutions, and both players were involved in an action that ended with an equalizer 10 minutes later. Nketiah passed the ball back to Pepe, who turned in one motion and passed the ball into the net. But the best was yet to come. Deep in injury time, Lacazette finally scored the winner, after another good move by Pepe. First, he scored, and then he was involved in the second one. The Frenchman combined with Odegaard before and passed the ball to his countryman who scored for the win.PREMIER LEAGUERearranged gamesWednesdayBurnley – Tottenham 1-0 (0-0)/Mee 71/Watford – Crystal Palace 1-4 (1-2)/Sissoko 18 – Mateta 15, Gallagher 43, Zaha 85, 90/Liverpool – Leeds 6-0 (3-0)/Salah 15 pen, 35 pen, Matip 31, Mane 80, 90, Van Dijk 90+3/ThursdayArsenal – Wolverhampton 2-1 (0-1)/Pepe 82, Sa og 90+5 – Hwang 10/
