Late Gunner Goal Salvages Home Draw with Wolves

For a while, there, it was difficult to tell which side entered this match on a ten-game unbeaten streak in the Premiership and which one had lost three on the trot.

Wolves had swooped into North London looking to change their fortunes, and they almost did it.

Arsenal were saved by an 86th-minute goal and then held on for an eternity of stoppage time to keep the Wolves at bay and squeak out a 1-1 draw.

The real question should be where were the Gunners at kickoff?

After running off a string of seven straight Premiership victories, Arsenal's been dodging bullets for the three weeks. Dudes had drawn at Crystal Palace and with Liverpool at Wembley, and now Wolverhampton wandered into town hunting for points.

 

It didn't take them long to pounce, either.

Their first good chance came quickly and, as soon as the 13th minute arrived, dudes found their goal.

Raúl Jiménez found Ivan Cavaleiro in close range, and the Portuguese international made quick work of slotting home past Bernd Leno:

The first half kept going, and Arsenal had more the ball.

Actually, all in, much more:

And yet, the Gunners' couldn't mount a sustained threat.

Clearly, manager Unai Emery needed some sort of shift in strategy that would make what was clearly a stronger side prove it in the second half. And that's exactly what happened, which is why dude earns the big bucks.

Arsenal switched to a  4-3-1-2 alignment, turned up their short game, and the constant jabs gave constant trouble to Rui Patrício, who bailed out his squad time and again.

But that's a tough assignment to sustain, and, in the 86th minute, dude ran outta options.

The Gunners gained a corner, in which Aaron Ramsey quickly moved it to Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who shot from outside the box. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang jumped, but couldn’t make contact. Instead, the ball ended up inside the top left corner:

 

There was one more round for the home side to dodge, though.

Morgan Gibbs-White pounced on a long carom and blasted a heatseeker that missed becoming a ricochet goal by centimeters:

 

Wolves sit mid-table and look like they'll be staying there. All in all, that's not a bad fit for their first season back in the Big Show.

Arsenal, on the other hand, showed the dogged flexibility that's kept them unscathed during their current run. Maybe they should've won, but they did enough to make certain they'd get something outta the day.