It wasn’t to be.
Wolves huffed and puffed but were ultimately beaten by the better team.
Not winning the game is frustrating, given the length of time we were in the lead.
But to leave the Emirates completely empty handed is a bitter pill to swallow.
Credit to Arsenal, I thought they were excellent. Their decision to stick with Mikel Arteta is really paying off.
Ultimately, it was the Spaniard’s substitutions that won the game. Pepe and Nketiah gave them fresh impetus when they needed it most.
It seems silly to question Bruno’s decision making, given the stellar work he is doing, but it did leave a lot to be desired on this occasion.
This group of players will always default to the uber cautious mentality that defined the Nuno era, but it was clear to see that fresh legs were needed sooner in the second half.
Whether that was an extra man in midfield or an earlier introduction for Neto, we should have given the Gunners more to think about.
Alas, we didn’t and the game was lost in the dying embers.
The players certainly can’t be faulted for their efforts, despite some of the moronic Jimenez slander I’ve seen on Twitter, but ultimately it was all in vain.
With the top four seemingly out of reach, attention turns to the battle for a top sixth berth.
In that context, Sunday’s clash with a faltering West Ham is huge. Win that and this defeat will soon be forgotten.
A quick aside before I sign off – huge credit to Max Kilman for playing despite the tragic events in Ukraine. I’m pretty sure I heard the commentator say he still has family there. Here’s hoping they and the rest of the Ukrainian people stay safe.
Whilst i largely agree, but for a couple of slight brushes of a heel or a trailing leg we would have been 3 up and coasting. Yes we allowed them to come onto us too much and tried to be too flashy at times when a simpler option was available, but our gameplan almost worked.
We should have had a pen had had other chances. Don’t see how you feel you should have been 3 up ??
The penalty wasn’t given.
Get over it. We’ve had to enough times.
Coady was through on goal when your man flung himself to the ground with no contact.
It happens.
And if Raul had scored to make it 2-0 I’m pretty sure we would have won.
But in the end, we were hanging on and your lot finished a lot stronger.
Arteta’s substitutions made the difference.
We’ll learn from this.
Gutted as I am, I think being cautious with Neto is wise at this stage.
I know Keith Smith will be delighted if he isn’t, but is Semedo OK? I thought he was excellent at times.
We do seem to become very defensive once we score. I do wish we’d push more.
Anyway, all is not lost yet, even if Top4 now looks very unlikely.
Not quite good enough yet. A bit more work needed and a movement away from being overly cautious would help. Whilst our defence is of a high standard, putting them under constant pressure will obviously lead to errors.
I am very happy with our season so far, and if we are all miffed at failing to get a point away from home to one of the “big” clubs, then that alone shows how far we have come,
Wolves Ay We
Well said that man. It says it all that I was hopeful of at least a point at kick off.
I was at the game. I thought we were dire – so many loose balls and missed passes. Ait-Nori and Saiss were constantly beaten by the long ball over the top down our leg side and the time wasting was frankly embarassing.
We’ve had a great season, but we stunk last night. Arsenal were excellent I thought.
I’m with you NW, didn’t think we played at all well and went into our shell far too early. I really hate to say this and won’t be popular for doing so but I’m not convinced that Jiminez is really “at the races”. It’s completely understandable but if he does have psychological issues it’s something we have to address because after over 6 months I’ve only seen brief flashes of the pre David Luiz attack Raul.
We’re a work in progress, but fine margins cost us last night. Having taken the lead against Leicester, we were pegged back and absorbed almost non-stop pressure at times, but hit back after the inevitable equaliser. Last night was a re-run of the Leicester match, but Arsenal have more attacking quality than Leicester at the moment. Jimenez missed a gilt-edged chance t0 make it 2-0. If that had gone in, the result could have been very different. Coady was ludicrously penalised for a non-foul when through on goal. Neto was off target. Hwang put us in the lead with a real poacher’s goal, but missed a glorious chance late on. We had more genuine scoring chances than Arsenal, but just couldn’t take them!
In my heart of hearts I know we are not 4th place quality, and even 5th place this morning might have flattered us. But as I say, we are a work in progress, with an improving squad and probably the highest-achieving head coach in the division, relative to the cost of our squad. The trip to the London stadium on Sunday takes on even more importance. It is still my opinion that a 6th place finish this season would be a fantastic achievement, and 7th place would be excellent. Neither of these places were ever expected last summer by Fosun. If they had been, I’m sure that more would have been spent in the last two windows,
Really disappointing that we couldn’t capitalise on our early goal. But this is yet another match where we were unable to close the game down in the last quarter. Arsenal did change things around in the second half, but if we have aspirations of Europe, then we should have strengthened our defence and settled for the point. West Ham is now a must win.
Well said that man!
If we’re going to stop these sort of setbacks occurring then we have to invest in some midfield steel to win control of the game in that area. Moutinho and Neves are excellent at the creative side in midfield, but we need some ferocity and grit to win the ball for them. The nearest we have is Dendoncker, but we need something better than that and maybe more than 1 of them
Our defence has held up so well under pressure this season that I can understand Bruno trying to hold on to the 1 goal lead ( I think the match commentators said we had only dropped 2 points from a winning position all season prior to yesterday).
We did drop too deep and invite them on, but that has worked nearly every time under Bruno – still gutted though.
I know It is sacrilege to find fault with raul but last night his out ball hold up play was …well…to say the least abysmal. Everything bounced off him going straight back to them and wang was no better the only one who seemed to be on it was podence.
If you are going to fall back and defend your lead you have to have an out ball to take the pressure away and its blatantly obvious time and again that we dont have that skill which is why we are much more convincing on the front foot.
Yes we do revert back to nuno ball and that is a bad habit bruno has to rid us of. It seems we are paranoid of giving a goal away which makes us ultra conservative and results in us defending deeper and deeper.
When we play teams with the multi million pound firepower of arsenal that tactic as we saw last night is virtual suicide.
Ok we almost held out but come on it was pretty much desperation rubbish constantly giving them the ball back and ruining my finger nails .
The ref missed a few things on both sides of the fence but the worst was the coady breakaway when the defender fell like he had been shot without any contact what so ever …would coady have scored had he got away ???
I believe wang is no more than a striker he took his goal really well but his messing about in midfield and his distribution are well below par perhaps he should play down the middle .
So thats forty quid I now owe mike at the chippy and as its almost certain the arses will finish above us that will be sixty.
The west ham game now takes on a more urgent need for a result AND a much better performance .
Top six can be ours and that would be a superb season also we will finish well above the vile .
Which means a lot where im from.
Chins up sort it out move on .
cmon bruno
Can’t speak for your dealings with the man at the chippy but agree with every word of your post. And I’m glad that someone else has mentioned the elephant in the room because sadly I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll ever get the old Raul back. He’s still an excellent footballer but I fear the “battering ram” element has understandingly gone forever so we probably need to utilise his remaining skills in a different way. Which means different attacking tactics or a very expensive like for like replacement which I don’t see as being Fabio.
I think going forward he’s a number ten not nine. He’s still got it, maybe it’s what Bruno is asking of him.
My thoughts also – he certainly has the skills to do it. Raul can still be a major asset to us.
When a team is behind in an important match, they can throw men forward without fear of conceding as they are losing anyway. The team in the lead pulls men back to defend because they don’t want to lose their advantage.
I know it’s teaching granny to suck eggs, but the same old cry of ”we are too negative when we are winning ” is, I believe, grossly unfair.
We have to nullify the opposition if we can, and we are no different to virtually every other team in the league in trying to defend a lead.
Bit of a reality check, but still on our highest top flight tally since 1971.
Fairplay to the Arse, they kept going for the winner, and frankley laid seige to our goal 2nd half.
Mrs Wolf has put her tulips away, retreated to her smelly old comfort blanket, and told me not to wake her until we win the Premier League. FFS.
Nothing like an injury time winner to proper rub in the humble pie. Nevermind…we did the double over them last season. A bounce needed for the Hammers Sunday.
Thoughts with Max Kilman and any with family or friends in Ukraine. Thanks for the post, Ben.
1 lv & COYW
Can’t disagree or add any pearls of wisdom to any posts on here. Top 6 will be an absolutely brilliant season. That said we are already secure for another season in the greed league. I am content with that small piece of news.
I was angry, disappointed, frustrated after the game, still hate freckin Arseole with a passion.
But in context of what else is happening in our world today, it pales into insignificance for me.
KTF.
A win is met by certain Wolves fans with jubilation and a defeat treated as a disaster. I think we need to take a step back and just remember where we are and what we’ve achieved this season. We’d won five in six before this game, something which is extremely hard to do in this league, and I’m not sure why we would seemingly have the right to dominate and beat Arsenal on their own soil. Compete? Absolutely. Believe we can get a result? Sure. But come to expect it and believe nothing else is acceptable?
Totally understand frustration with elements of the performance but a look at the bigger picture is always required. I actually thought we started the game really well, and it was the early goal which dictated how we approached the rest of the game. We tried to get out and play when we could and still posed a threat, as the Hwang and Neto chances showed. We were nowhere near our best but credit to Arsenal, they were all over us in the final half hour. I guess it was always going to be the way when it had been billed as a ‘grudge match’ and the momentum was firmly with them once they finally got the equaliser.
I came on here after Leicester and said it wasn’t good enough but I feel the reaction to last night’s result was overboard, looking at the opposition and where we currently find ourselves. We still have a realistic shot at Europe, something way out of reach of many sides below us who have the same aims.
Had we seen it out, this would have been hailed as another masterclass in the style of Spurs but it’s fine margins which often dictate the narrative.
More years ago than I care to remember, when I first came to The States, I had numerous “discussions” with Americans about their so called sport of hunting wild animals and killing them for pleasure.
My point was that a sport between two teams has to be equal on both sides, but I got shot down when I suggested giving the deer a gun, or giving the “hunter” just a set of antlers, and pitting him against a 300 pound bull elk in mating season.
Last night brought all those discussions back.
To have a 50 year old, once average but no more, referee trying to keep up with superbly fit athletes half his age, looking like he was carrying his bung money, was the hunter’s gun, making it an unfair sporting event.
So many decisions against us, some blatant, some just bad eyesight, and the farce of the Jiminez and Podence substitution fiasco, beggars belief.
So one sided it was funny.
Having said that, as I’ve postulated many times on here, they were better than us, coz they scored more.
Simples.
It rankles, coz we all know we can and will do better.
So, onto Wham.
Not, as some have said, a must win game, coz there are plenty left to pick up some serious points, but a want to win game.
As they all are.
Great to see Jonny have a run out, as well as Pedro, who’s shooting we know will improve with more match time.
No shit eating grin in Texas, but it’s not far away!
Stay safe, fellow bloggers, and keep the faith.
I’ve told you before about postulating Clive.
It will do your eyesight no good at all.
And I believe it will eventually make you deaf too.
…pardon?
My daddy said I could do it until I needed glasses.
Then I could change my name to Mike Dean, or Andre Mariner, or Martin Atkinson or……………………….
The difference over the two games between these two teams was , we couldn’t break them down at home when they defended deep and waisted time, but when we sat deep and waisted time, they did.
We had them on toast early doors, marginal offside, goal, then jimmy missed a great chance to put the points in the bag.
The moans and groans from the home fans made for an almost ‘ highbury library’ atmosphere for the first 80 minutes and I thought they could play until Sunday without scoring!
How wrong was I !
It’s a funny old game, don’t think it’ll make much difference come the end of the season though as unfortunately, Man U will get fourth
Roll on Sunday
Come on you wolves
Why do people read so much into individual games?
We have won approx half of our games so far. If we win half of the remaining 13 then we will be on 58/61 points. With a draw or 2 that would be 60/63 points. Last 2 seasons 6th spot was avaerage 62 points. 7th spot was average 60 points. We are still in with a good shout of 6th or 7th spot. I will count that as a very good season. IF we get there ! Last night the referee was a disgrace. The Coady incident was laughable as the Arsenal bloke clearly dived. Where was the VAR? Where was the yellow/red card for cheating ? How come 6 minutes were added on. We all know if that if Wolves v Southampton or someone it’s 3 minutes. We all know if the marginal ‘offside’ was for Arsenal a goal would have been allowed to stand. That said. Like others before we do seem to go in to our shells. We struggle to keep possession and pressure builds. Still work to be done. But a massive game at WHAM coming up. We simply cannot lose that one.
Misery loves company so here I am
That kick in the goolies was just like the origi finish
Aaargh
My gunners mate says the crowd were ready for a draw
Only consolation is we’re not jose Sa’s missus
Big ask to pick ourselves up off the canvas on Sunday … but that’s what has to happen
Like many I think 60+ points and 6 th place is on… but we have to be scoring 2 / game
I like that we are now playing box office games
Have reserved Park View for weekend of
May 15
We will probably need the three points off Norwich as last game is at Anfield
Hope that’s box office too
OODCL
Please
Loose passes, didn’t take our chances, Arsenal wanted it more..oh well
Brunos going to address our mistakes and prepare for millennium fc.
Move on folks; nothing to see here.
UTW
On a different note, when are the spineless bastards that form the PL executive board and FA going to request that that the footballing interests of abramovich and usmanov at Chelsea and Everton are frozen as part of sanctions against Russia to demonstrate some moral leadership or are they once again going to do nothing until dragged screaming and kicking to the table? We all know that football sold its soul long ago but is there nothing in this world that the PL and FA won’t swallow up in the interest of money, self preservation and status quo? If necessary, bar Chelsea and Everton from all domestic competition until such a point that the Russian scum’s interests are completely relinquished . The thought of Chelsea parading silverware at Wembley when backed by blood money murdering innocent citizens in Ukraine is an affront not just to football but mankind.
Fully support and agree with everything you say SCW. The PL executive and FA have no moral scruples whatsoever and are a complete and utter disgrace.
FIFA allowing Qatar to go ahead with the World Cup whilst thousands of low skilled workers die building stadiums for one month is bad enough, yet we will all probably watch it?
Apparently, France just surrendered.
I think Bournemouth also have, or had, Russian ownership. The Russian money invasion into the UK really took off from 2010. So called Tier-1 visas were handed out in exchange for an ‘investment’ of a million or two, which is nothing to the Russians. Abramovich really took the piss when he refused to show the source of his money when it became time to renew his visa.
Awful team selection for such a critical game
If we’d have started with the team we had on for the last 15 minutes, we’d have won that game in the first half
Terrible stadium.
I’ve moved on from last night … and have put the defeat down to fine margins….
1) when Jimenez missed the target that could have put us 2 up.
2) when Martin (blind man’s bluff) Atkinson could see that their central defender simulated contact .. which clearly there wasn’t.. and blew for a foul against Coady…. A truly corrupt decision.. which may well have put us 2 – 0 up.
3) when Neto’s half hit shot was deflected wide only for a goal kick to be given… which could have put us ahead again.
4) when Jimenez was booked for refusing to leave the pitch when in fact it was Podence being substituted..(not Jimi).
5) when jammy Lacazette shoots in the 3rd minute of time added on to added time!!! and it’s deflected unluckily for us .. into the net.
I’m not suggesting we were unlucky but these things do have a bearing….
Still let’s move on…
I’ve just read that European powers have barred Russia from entering the Eurovision Song Contest … honest ….
That should spell the end of the conflict all right…
Last paragraph made me laff out loud your Lordship, very funny.
They will probably do as they did in the winter olympics Russia is banned from, send a team and say we are the Olympics committee from, er Russia..
🙂
That’ll stop em!
Yes we are all disappointed and frustrated by last night’s result but there is still a long way to go yet for all the teams in the League, we could finish 4th but we could also finish 14th so moving on is important,……on to the next game.
However, having the capabilities within the squad to deal with different scenarios is a big issue for me. Arsenal had the weapons on the bench to change the game in their favour, they were running the midfield area with physicality and numbers which we could not compete with, our back line was under pressure but holding firm, bringing on Pepe and Nketiah solved the problem.
I don’t recall an occasion when our substitutions had such an impact , usually it’s a like for like and not always an improvement. It’s been said many times before but that’s why recruitment is letting us down while the existing squad is busting a gut coping with the workload and the expectation.
Arse have had many years to build a Premier league squad and spent 250mill in the last couple of years to hone it.
This is years for us.
Year 4.
Away from last night’s match, I see that Everton have appointed Kevin Thelwell as Director of football.
Whilst at Wolves, Kevin had his critics, but some say that both he and Dalrymple played a big part in our development after Fosun took over, until falling foul of Jeff.
I wonder what the truth is behind their respective departures from Molineux?
If the powers that be in charge of football have any spines, the likes of Everton and Chelsea will not play any more until their Russian ownership is sorted out.
Feel sorry for their fans, the genuine ones anyway, but what is happening in Eastern Europe is far more sinister than any football issues.
However, If is the biggest word in the English language.
On an aside, a big ironic thank you to fuckin’ joe biden, as he’s known over here, and his puppet masters, for helping facilitate the invasion.
If there is one person I would like to be away from pushing the nuclear button it’s fucking Donald Trump.
France have surrounded
Surrendered
They couldn’t surround anything?
Stoic defending can only get you so far. 26 shots to our 6, that is only gonna end one way. I only saw the last half hour so all i saw was Arsenal dominate the proceedings. Watching the highlights we had some great chances to put the game to bed. Haven’t seen the Coady incident. Nevertheless in the half hour i saw we showed nothing of note and if i’d been an Arse supporter i would have felt confident we would come good, we couldn’t retain possession and Arsenal were by far the better team.
Atm we aint a top 4 team and if we were it would reflect more on how poor the rest of the Prem was rather than how good we were. Notwithstanding we are a very good team but Bruno is building and its surely all about next season. Personally i don’t want Europe next season, with the most likely being the Mickey Mouse Conference Cup. We’ll need a bigger squad to cope with the extra games and it will take it’s toll on our domestic season. We should nail that before trying to nail Europe imo.
In response to Lord Twix and his comment about Russia being banned from the Eurovision Song Contest.
I’ve heard that they are entering a song, sung by ‘The Spetsnaz’.
I think it’s a reworking of the Lulu hit – BOOM BANG-A-BANG.
Having just seen the team I have to ask if Bruno has given up on top 6 let alone top 4. Or is it another message to Jeff?