We have heard of the need to bring in a keeper who can earn a team x amount of points over the course of a season well saves at Manchester City and at Wolves will have his personal point collection ticking over rather nicely I would say. He wasn’t finished yet

An early goal, a superb defensive display from all members of the back four along with a match winning goalkeeping performance. Just the tonic that pretty much all Gooners would have been looking for after our abject showing at the weekend.

Wolves away was always going to be a difficult game especially off the back of a good performance at Old Trafford and victory against big spending Manchester City.

I have often bemoaned the lack of an early Arsenal goal in our matches, well it couldn’t have got much earlier as Chamakh scored the fastest Premier League goal this season. Rosicky drove forward in between Wolves players and slipped the ball wide to Song, Alex once again justified his new adventurous forays forward this season with an absolute peach of a cross in between two center backs onto the hammering forehead of Marouane Chamakh to power Arsenal ahead with just over 35 seconds gone on the clock.

I had missed the goal due to a rather annoying shortage of streams available but at least we had the advantage. Before I finally managed to get a working stream, Andrey Arshavin should have wrapped up the points before the fifth minute. Shava robbed Richard Stearman outside of his penalty area and headed towards Hahnemann in the Wolves goal, his left foot shot was smothered by the American in goal.

A great start and the game could have been over and done with before the fifth minute. Arshavin was much improved during the 90+ minutes he was on the pitch for. His work rate had increased, his touch looked sharper and he was more involved in thegame. Perhaps he needed to recharge his batteries and the rest has done him the world of good.

Tomas Rosicky also looked good once again, always available for the pass and willing to roll up his sleeves and track back and win tackles by the touchline when the likes of Jarvis and Hunt were setting off on their runs forward.

Cesc Fabregas could have scored the second goal before the twentieth minute but once again Hahnemann kept Wolves in the game. Our skipper was better than he was against Newcastle but still short of his brilliant best. His sharpness will come back soon. Hopefully we will have him running the show at the weekend against Everton.

Minutes into the second half, Sagna produced one of the best moments of the game. His last gasp block tackle in between Stephen Hunt and Lukasz Fabianski was on par with the latter’s last minute stop and the Song, Chamakh goal in the first minute.

Whilst Bacary Sagna’s crossing has caused the odd murmuring amongst the Gooner faithful, his defending has very rarely been brought up negatively in conversation during his whole time as the Arsenal right back. I would venture to say that Sagna has been our most consistent defender since he made his debut in the Arsenal shirt in 2007. While Emmanuel Eboue has the flair to break teams down from full back, Sagna is the one that is called upon in the big games, in the tough away fixtures where you need warriors on the pitch. Make no mistake about it, Sagna is a warrior. I have not praised Sagna enough for his contribution to our squad and it is certainly praise that is well overdue.

Fabregas had yet another chance to wrap up the game when picked out by the Czech maestro but his half volley was lashed wide when he had time to pick his spot.

I had the overwhelming feeling that we would be punished for our missed chances, we are not often allowed the room to miss continuous chances without being caught at the other end.

Arsenal were certainly not the only team in the game, in fact Wolves ended the game with the greater possession. The likes of Chelsea and Manchester United struggle to wrestle the higher percentage of the ball from Arsenal so praise must go to the home side for being positive and passing the ball so well. They closed us down well and used their wide players to cause us many problems.

Unfortunately for Wolves they were coming up against a goalkeeper with some of the best timed reflexes that the club have ever seen. That has been said many times at the training ground. His fingertips denied a Doyle attempt that was heading for the top corner, he had earlier flung himself across his goal to turn away a cross that was heading to a Wolves player at the far post and his decision making was spot on throughout. Punching when needing to punch, catching when the need arrived.

Arshavin continued to knock on the Wolves door, when he skipped infield from the left and unleashed a daisy cutter against the base of the post, how this game was not over and done with was a mystery to me at that stage.

Johan Djourou had a late effort deflected from close range, on another day Arsenal could have scored five goals with the amount of good chances that were being carved out. Hopefully those misses can be saved for a rainy day at Old Trafford or at the Emirates against Chelsea. We are due to give someone a real spanking if we can find a clinical 90 minutes in our busy schedule.

Wolves put the pressure on our back four in the closing stages of the game as they searched high and low for an equaliser. It very nearly came when Doyle struck low minutes from time only to see his snap shot trickle wide of the far post by a matter of inches. I thought that was in.

That wasn’t to be the end of the Wolves attack at the Arsenal goal, in injury time struck a low shot through a crowded penalty area and his shot was heading into the corner of the Arsenal goal but for the speed of Fabianski who fell to the ground at superhuman speed and killed the moving ball dead with a strong outstretched hand. A two point save in stoppage time.

We have heard of the need to bring in a keeper who can earn a team x amount of points over the course of a season well saves at Manchester City and at Wolves will have his personal point collection ticking over rather nicely I would say. He wasn’t finished yet, his early and quick distribution made its way to Cesc via Rosicky and the captain played a simple through pass to Chamakh to race clear and seal the victory with his second in stoppage time after grabbing the first in the opening minute. There cannot be many players to have that on their CV. It was Chamakh’s first goals away from the Emirates in the league so fingers crossed he can gain a bit of belief and regain some of his earlier confidence.

Conclusion

The Henry tackle has been already spoken about so many times elsewhere. It was dangerous, late and could have injured our player. No action by the referee and his assistance and then the incident disappeared in any highlights we were shown. Nothing new there.

Cesc was booked for a bookable foul on the touchline and we are being hammered for it. Nothing new there and nothing new to add to it really.

Offensively we should have done much better with many chances, the team produced a very good hard working team display that really pleased me.

I was a little worried about Johan Djourou before the kick off due to his recent absence from the team but his performance was spot on and very impressive. Both full backs did absolutely everything asked of them. No nonsense Sebstaien Squallaci once again performed his role without any fuss and of course Lukasz Fabianski tossed his Newcastle misjudgment into the bin without a care in the world and produced a world class performance.

It was a defensive performance that should be the level that we need to replicate and this is with arguably our first two choice center backs depending on what side of the fence you sit on.

A great hard fought victory should be good preparation for another very difficult trip to Merseyside on Sunday.

Fabianski (8)
Sagna (8)
Djourou (7.5)
Squallaci (7.5)
Clichy (7.5)
Song (7)
Wilshere (6.5)
Cesc (6.5)
Rosicky (7)
Chamakh (7.5)
Arshavin (7.5)