Wolves Fans' Verdict v Arsenal: A deserved loss

Clive Smith

Lets start with MOTM – it was the Wolves fans. The vocal support was outstanding, culminating in a 10 minute early second half rendition of ‘Wolverhampton Wanderers... Wolverhampton Wanderers’ accompanied by clapping. Well done guys and girls – a good effort.

A by-product was, by joining in, it kept you warm on a bitterly cold day.

Few of us probably expected much from this fixture and after 20 minutes we were matching our position from this fixture in May. With Lemina, Gomes, Ait-Nouri and Neto missing, plus Sa from the 20th minute, all starters, we were always up against it playing the League leaders.

In those opening 20 minutes we were pretty much torn to shreds by their pace and accurate passing interchanges. However, not for the first time this season, that term resilience was demonstrated admirably from then on.

Possession stats can be misleading, and they probably were in this game because in the first half it felt like most of our time with the ball was in our own half. We desperately need that physical presence in attack, someone who can hold the ball up. Hardly the first time we’ve said that. When good teams press us, in numbers, we find it hard to play through that. Hwang and Cunha are just not strong enough in those situations.

As the game wore on we grew into it more, Arsenal could not maintain their opening pace, although every time we attacked they always seemed to outnumber us. Although we offered little in attack we did manage to look better without the ball and restricted Arsenal’s chances.

We stayed in the game right to the end and a Cunha strike, somewhat out of the blue, made for a frantic and nervy final few minutes.

Two vital, critical, massive, huge (copyright the Media) games now. With some of our absentees back, hopefully we’ll be able to improve our points tally considerably.