Arsenal 2-1 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Anyone blaming Sa for the second needs to go to Specsavers.

Yeah a deflection before it got to him, very unlucky/lucky depending on where you sit.

We lost a bit of umph losing Semedo to injury, i hope he isn't out for long, could be 6 weeks if it's a bad one you'd think.

 

[Mild 'n' Scratchins]

Our tactics were poor, trying to defend a 1-0 lead. Having said that some crucial decisions went against us, surprise, surprise...Coady potentially clear through when Arsenal player throws himself to the ground. Pedro Neto's goalbound effort, clearly deflected for a corner, not given. Fine margins but the officials have to get those right or it's not a sport anymore. But you cannot play football like we did tonight and expect to hold out, especially against a half decent team like Arsenal. Oh well. Probably go and beat West Ham and be right back in the mix. We are still in it anyway, despite tonight. Let's see where we are and Arsenal are, come the end of the season. Still plenty to play for. Great to see Jonny back. My MotM, Joao Moutinho. UTW!

 

[PuntsWolf]

Sa made some very good saves. The second goal is quite unlucky I think

Agreed. No clear cut chances but as you say if you’re allowing all that pressure then your odds of getting unlucky increase.

We’re over egging our chances a bit too. The Raul header is miles out, they rarely go in even if their on target. Hwangs was a tight angle and Ramsdale shut him down, that only goes if if it goes thorough him and I think Ramsdale actually deflects it closer to the goal. The Neto shot he doesn’t catch fully and Ramsdale probably saves it without the deflection as there’s not enough of it. We also can’t say “without the deflection this…” when we’ve blocked about 15 goal bound shots…

The Raul chance is the big one. Yard either side of Ramsdale and it probably goes in. Completely shanked it though.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Just for a bit of balance as that shot stat seems to be gathering a little too much weight in my opinion, 21 of those 26 Arsenal shots went over or wide.

 

[Tony Towner]

Just for a bit of balance as that shot stat seems to be gathering a little too much weight in my opinion, 21 of those 26 Arsenal shots went over or wide.

Not really the point, look where they were taken from. You are banking on their inefficiency

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Not really the point, look where they were taken from

I have, over half from outside the box or at angles very unlikely to score a goal? And as i said, only 5 of the buggers were on target anyway. They had a lot of the ball, and as a result had a fair few desperate shots at shins and knees (Freddy Eastwood styleee), or Partey would fire over (3 or 4 times alone, just himself?).

I'm not for one minute saying that they didn't have a lot of sustained pressure, but they didn't often threaten our goal, as the mere 5 shots on target, (2 of which were goals) prove.

 

[YoungWolf]

Not really the point, look where they were taken from. You are banking on their inefficiency

Which to a large extent is what we’ve got away with in a lot of games. Not given up huge chances but we give up a lot of shots and eventually that will catch up. I’m keen to see us play higher up the pitch but I do understand why we don’t.
We’ve done well to get to this point. Positive result at West Ham sets us up for a good run of games we can get points from

 

[Carrotdude]

We’re not great fun to watch right now which is a shame as we’re having a great season. I hate our shithousing and watching us just defend for 80 minutes and not even try and attack when we have the chance isn’t enjoyable.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

We’re not great fun to watch right now which is a shame as we’re having a great season. I hate our shithousing and watching us just defend for 80 minutes and not even try and attack when we have the chance isn’t enjoyable.

I think we're great to watch, we're 7th placed in the best league in the World.

 

[Tony Towner]

I have, over half from outside the box or at angles very unlikely to score a goal? And as i said, only 5 of the buggers were on target anyway. They had a lot of the ball, and as a result had a fair few desperate shots at shins and knees (Freddy Eastwood styleee), or Partey would fire over (3 or 4 times alone, just himself?).

I'm not for one minute saying that they didn't have a lot of sustained pressure, but they didn't often threaten our goal, as the mere 5 shots on target, (2 of which were goals) prove.

See the post I put up earlier as to where those shots were taken

 

[PuntsWolf]

I have, over half from outside the box or at angles very unlikely to score a goal? And as i said, only 5 of the buggers were on target anyway. They had a lot of the ball, and as a result had a fair few desperate shots at shins and knees (Freddy Eastwood styleee), or Partey would fire over (3 or 4 times alone, just himself?).

I'm not for one minute saying that they didn't have a lot of sustained pressure, but they didn't often threaten our goal, as the mere 5 shots on target, (2 of which were goals) prove.

We’ve literally just had a run on wins where we’ve scored goals from our only meaningful chances in the game. This is exactly the same.

Same as people can’t say “didn’t deserve to lose against Liverpool” and then say “didn’t deserve to lose against Arsenal at home”.

You can’t have it both ways. Can’t offer nothing going forward and cling on for dear life and say you’re unlucky. Then when another team does the same (but we didn’t actually create any chances) and say you’re unlucky.

FWIW balance of play in both Arsenal games a loss and a draw were probably fair. We are 1 point worse off which isn’t a big deal. Arsenal aren’t our rivals now so let’s concentrate on finishing top 6 ahead of Spurs and West Ham

 

[Throbber3]

The only plus for tonight wa that daughter got herself Cundles shirt. That will be treasured.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

See the post I put up earlier as to where those shots were taken

I was referring to that!

 

[The Bion]

Arsenal aren’t our rivals now so let’s concentrate on finishing top 6 ahead of Spurs and West Ham

Yep. We're close but not there yet.

Top 6 would still be a remarkable achievement given the start, injuries and various other factors.

We know we can play better than we did tonight and we have good players coming back into the squad (Jonny's return might end up being extremely fortunate timing)

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

We’ve literally just had a run on wins where we’ve scored goals from our only meaningful chances in the game. This is exactly the same.

Same as people can’t say “didn’t deserve to lose against Liverpool” and then say “didn’t deserve to lose against Arsenal at home”.

You can’t have it both ways. Can’t offer nothing going forward and cling on for dear life and say you’re unlucky. Then when another team does the same (but we didn’t actually create any chances) and say you’re unlucky.

FWIW balance of play in both Arsenal games a loss and a draw were probably fair. We are 1 point worse off which isn’t a big deal. Arsenal aren’t our rivals now so let’s concentrate on finishing top 6 ahead of Spurs and West Ham

There are a lot of quotes in there that aren't from me?

There will be other games where we take our chances and don't have a double deflection go in our net in the last few seconds, but we play very similarly, and the verdicts will be very different.

I just feel this performance wasn't hugely different to the performance v Spurs, we were more clinical v Spurs that was the key difference, the performance was very similar.

Oh Spurs actually had 2 more shots on target against us that day, than Arsenal did tonight.

I'm disappointed about tonight, but not at all too despondent, and i certainly enjoyed the game, I love watching us, i can't get my head around not enjoying watching this team play. This is Wolves, and we are one of the best sides in Europe!?

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

It makes sense that you are less likely to enjoy watching us Mark, you're not a Wolves fan after all.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1496973930090881034

 

[Tony Towner]

I was referring to that!

Then I don't know where to go. Defend that deep you are trusting to luck

 

[PuntsWolf]

There are a lot of quotes in there that aren't from me?

There will be other games where we take our chances and don't have a double deflection go in our net in the last few seconds, but we play very similarly, and the verdicts will be very different.

I just feel this performance wasn't hugely different to the performance v Spurs, we were more clinical v Spurs that was the key difference, the performance was very similar.

Oh Spurs actually had 2 more shots on target against us that day, than Arsenal did tonight.

I'm disappointed about tonight, but not at all too despondent, and i certainly enjoyed the game, I love watching us, i can't get my head around not enjoying watching this team play. This is Wolves, and we are one of the best sides in Europe!?

They aren’t quotes from you, hence why I said “people”.

Tbh I was at the Spurs game and I didn’t feel threatened in the slightest. It’s One of the more comfortable game I think I’ve ever been to. Whereas tonight my watch thinks I’m having a heart attack.

Shots on target is a nonsense stat in isolation. Working cut backs which get blocked are far better chances than 25 yards dribblers and 15 yard headers for example.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Two sloppy goals to give away, Saiss notably bad on both in my opinion.

Jimenez should do a lot better with his chance at 1-0 after Podence did well to fashion it for him. Shocking how the guy who's about 5 foot 4 is offering a much better outlet than the big centre forward in recent games, it must be so easy to play against Jimenez at the moment.

Generally an awful performance with the ball, for a bunch of blokes that spend all week playing football they don't half do a good job of looking like strangers at times. I mentioned it at half time but people don't do enough to get themselves on the ball, especially when the opposition press, they can't wait to get rid of it and then stand watching team mates struggle.

As good as results have been this season they're still a very tough watch more often than not, there's something just not right and I can't really figure it out. I think there's perhaps some mileage in what Lage has said about too many players being too comfortable with where they are, not striving to be better, I don't think there are many out there that really put themselves out there 100% of the time.

Perhaps they're still stuck with an underdog mentality, they never seem able to really stamp their authority on games. They've shown they can play but they only really seem to do it when other teams let them. Almost too a man it's far too easy to get this team turned around and playing back towards their own goal, there isn't enough purpose or conviction in their play to force little cracks into massive openings. They're not ruthless enough, they give opponents way too much opportunity to sort themselves when they should be punished.

Neves embodies the issues as much as anyone for me, people wax lyrical about him more often than not but when you compare to him the very best it doesn't stack up for me. You look at the likes of Jorginho, Thiago, even Pogba, they all want the ball all of the time, even in tough games all they're ever trying to do is get themselves into positions to get the ball as often as possible. They have their tough games where people do all sorts to stop them, Pogba got plenty of needle from Atletico last night, but they don't hide. They back themselves to receive the ball in awkward situations, if they can't go anywhere they lay it off and try to move somewhere better for another go. They take risks to be the player their team can play through, they do ditch it on their fullbacks and turn their back as it's punted down the line again and again.

If this team really wants to push on they need to change their mindset. They have to believe they're better than their opponents and play like it, don't wait for someone to let them play just go out there and do it, show people you're good enough.