Arsenal 1-1 Wolves: One of Those Days...

To use the age-old phrase, yesterday was just one of those days. It was disappointing, but all credit goes to Wolves, and in particular Wayne Hennessey, their keeper, who had a fantastic game to stop us getting the points. As a whole, Wolverhampton looked like a team 17th in the league, but their keeper sure didn't. Don't you just hate it when they have the game of their life against us?

In all fairness though, as good as the saves were we could've made more of the chances we had, but it just wasn't our day: we were very unlucky. Shots flew in right, left, and centre, and in the second half we literally laid siege to the Wolves goal and all to no avail.

We had 27 shots yesterday, 11 of which were on target, and in any normal game that would be enough to secure three of four goals, but not this one. Should we deride the team for being not being clinical when 11 less shots gave us a comfortable victory at Wigan or when 14 less gave us the win at Chelsea? Yesterday just wasn't meant to be.

The match started well. Rosicky and Benayoun came in for Walcott and Ramsey, one rested and the former ill. Both had excellent games. Rosicky, who I'm a big fan of, was again magnificent, creating chances, linking together passes, and putting in a solid shift in midfield. Benayoun assisted Gervinho for the opening goal with a fantastic pass and looked excellent until his 64th minute removal.

When the Ivorian was sent in on goal Van Persie was to his right and certainly a good option, but in watching Gervinho lately I've realised that he almost always likes to go it alone and attempt to put it in the back of the net himself. Well yesterday was no different, but this time he did the job very well. Clever cut-back and a smooth finish.

When it went in it looked and felt like today was going to be a stroll in the park. "We'll score another," I said, "in fact at the rate we're going we'll score 3 or 4 more." Not to be. It's almost as if once the goal went in we stopped trying. Sure, the chances still fell for us and we hadn't given up the match, but compared to the urgency displayed in the second half once Wolves had drawn level, there was an apathetic feel in how the team played.

Arsene Wenger noted as much in his post match comments:

"At the moment what we have to learn is that when we are 1-0 up in some departments we cannot be too comfortable. We were caught in a position where we can only blame ourselves."

That's two matches in a row now where we have grabbed an early lead and then let it slip, only this time there was to be no late, late goal to bail us out. Try as we might it just wasn't to be.

Ultimately if we're honest, four points from the last two games isn't too bad, and certainly if we beat QPR this weekend then we'll be just fine, but there's no denying yesterday was a bit of a disappointment. Hopefully it'll be a good lesson for the lads, and one which they'll remember in the coming weeks and months.

If it were up to me, I'd say let's start every game the way we played for the last 20 minutes of yesterday's. Wouldn't that be far more effective than scoring once then laying back and just passing between the back four? It'd sure make for a thrilling game this weekend, wouldn't it?

Anyway, what's done is done, so with the appropriate lessons learnt and with a point at home, let's push on and have a great weekend and start to the new year shall we? Here's hoping for a comfortable win this weekend as we hose QPR. Till then,

Fab 4