LADY LUCK PAYS HER TAB

​Well, Gooners! What did you all make of that? I'm guessing you sit on one of the sides of the fence that I'm going to present to you today. Yes, the 'Sanity Spin' and 'Dissatisfied Debate' are back.

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OPENING THOUGHTS

I think the game was always going to go one of two ways. When people were saying things like "Pray for Wolves" and "What's stopping us getting ten?" we were either going to get an early goal and batter them off the park, or it was going to be a hard night's work. Unfortunately for us, it ended up the latter.

 

THE LINEUPS

We had a good stab at the lineup. We called Odegaard and Merino to get a rest, correct. We didn't see Saliba returning or Hincapie moving to left back to accommodate Timber's return to central defence. We also called Gyokeres leading the line right.

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Have to say I was surprised to see Timber returning at centre back rather than right back, as White was in the same fitness bubble as Odegaard, who was rested. This proved costly: White pulled his hamstring and, with disastrous timing, is now injured again. We were also surprised that MLS didn't get another start at left back. We thought he played well in Belgium, but for now, he seems to have lost Arteta's trust. He is now third choice, it seems.

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Our final surprise was Martinelli on the left instead of Madueke. We thought Mikel might have tried to ride the back of Noni's midweek performance. This tells us, without a shadow of a doubt, that Arteta doesn't fancy Madueke out there and will only play him on the right when Saka isn't.

 

​THE MATCH

I don't want to say too much, as I will discuss it in greater detail in The Sanity Spin/Satisfied Debate.

 

We all saw it. There's no sugar coating it. Against the statistically joint-worst team in Premier League history, we dropped an absolute clanger, a turkey, stunk the gaff out. Call it what you will.

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Our first half was slower than a mandatory training course at work, lacked any imagination, and Wolves arguably had the best attacking moments. In the second half, we improved, but rather than one of our players taking the game over, it seemed Lady Luck wanted to be the main protagonist.

 

Saka was marginally offside in the lead-up to the corner for our first goal. We then get more luck when the corner itself hits the post, off the keeper and in. 

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We then had bad luck by not getting what I think was an obvious red card for Hwang's foul on MLS. It's a red card all day long for me. Studs up, out of control and catches MLS on his standing leg in an absolute ankle breaker of a foul. If that's the other way round, we know Myles is heading for an early bath.

 

We then suffer more bad luck with their equaliser: in injury time, two subs combine; the first shoots for goal, only for it to land right on their striker's head for his first-ever Wolves goal in 15 appearances.

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Lady Luck then plays another huge part when we go up the park in complete panic mode. Saka slings a speculative cross in the box, and their defender, not Gabi J, heads it in for our winner. Lady Luck owed us for Villa's winning goal last weekend. I'm glad she hadn't forgotten and decided to settle her debt pronto.

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Which brings us to where you stand with the performance?

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SANITY SPIN

We won the game. We played our worst game of the season by some margin, yet we won. We would have drawn that last year.

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We hear it all the time about 'Mentality Monsters' and how potential champions find a way. We had the pain of conceding another late goal, had six minutes to put it right, and we did. We somehow, from somewhere, summoned up the energy, the will, and the fight not to accept drawing the game. How do you think Man City felt watching it? Did it send them the message that we are built differently this year and will not give up the fight for the title easily?

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Is it a case of we won the game, so who cares? Take the three points and move on. Get our worst performance of the season out of the way, put it in the bin, and hopefully never to be repeated this season.

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DISSATISFIED DEBATE

​Is the awful performance a reflection of a bigger picture? One could argue we haven't played great since Bayern. 

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If we struggled embarrassingly at home against this Wolves side, then how are we ever expected to win the league? If we go away to Merseyside next Saturday night (another 8 pm kick-off), and play anywhere close to those levels, we will get turned over. Of that there is no doubt.

 

Nothing seems to be clicking for us, especially in the attacking sense. We don't seem to be carrying the same imagination and threat we had earlier in the season. We seem to be more open defensively. This could undoubtedly be partly due to injuries/fatigue. Arteta said in his post-match presser that it is also due to the two-game-a-week schedule, leaving no time for work on the training pitch. When that is the case, bad habits become harder to eradicate.

 

What's for sure is performances must improve, or our title tilt will be over as quickly as you can say 'Christmas Schedule'

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WHAT IT MEANS

At the end of the day, we stretched our lead back to five points over City. Whether we won 10-0 or scraped a 2-1, the league table says the same thing. 

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We hope our London neighbours, Crystal Palace, can do us a favour later today and give City a beating that, in all honesty, has been coming for them for weeks—another winning goal for Eddie would be nice.

 

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

In such a poor team performance, the honourable mentions, for once, will be brief. 

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First up is Declan Rice. I thought he pushed the team forward in the second half. He looked more determined than anyone that we weren't going to drop points. His forward running, time after time, was pivotal to the victory.

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I don't usually give honourable mentions to subs, but I have to shout out Leo Trossard. What a difference he made. Our attacking creativity output ramped WAY up when he came on. He's such a clever player and carries a goal threat that the team misses when he's absent. Hopefully, that's him over his injury and will be good to go against Everton.

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Our MOTM goes to .....