We moved four points clear at the top of the table thanks to a quick-fire double in the opening quarter of an hour.
Bukayo Saka struck the first after Gabriel Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu were involved in the build up, before Martin Odegaard doubled our lead after more one-touch wizardry from Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah both hit the post and Wolves ensured a tense finale when they pulled one back through Matheus Cunha, but we held on to complete an excellent week.
Early double
Coming into the game on a real high after last weekend’s late win over Brentford, and the dismantling of Lens in midweek, we started as you might expect - with a spring in our step.
The game was just six minutes old when we took the lead. Saka started and finished the move, with some wonderful work on the right flank. Faced up by two defenders, he fed a pass through to Jesus, who in turn laid it off for Tomiyasu outside the box. Meanwhile Saka had continued his run into the danger area, received Tomiyasu’s first time pass, beat his man before sliding home right-footed.
On Wednesday our early goal opened the floodgates against Lens, and we threatened to do the same here when we added a second seven minutes later.
It was another excellent move to carve out the second goal, this time on the left flank. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus and played a quick one-two to get behind the Wolves defence, and the Ukrainian pulled his pass back to where Odegaard crisply found the net with a first-time shot low into the corner.
It was a rampant start by Mikel Arteta’s team, and Leandro Trossard was next to go close. He just about got a toe to Odegaard’s clipped throughball, but he shot was smothered by Jose Sa in the Wolves goal.
It was Sa’s last involvement, as he had to go off injured, to be replaced by Dan Bentley midway through the half.
Flowing forward
From our position of strength, we continued playing with plenty of aggressive and attacking purpose.
Trossard had a shot blocked in the box and Rice saw an effort deflected wide as we racked up the shot count.
Gabriel Martinelli was denied a wonderful goal by the upright, after Saka found him at the end of a counter-attack. Just moments earlier he had ran back the length of the pitch to stop a promising Wolves attack.
During the seven minutes injury-time at the end of the first half, Gabriel Jesus shot tamely at Bentley when free in the box, and Trossard scuffed a shot wide after yet more geometric artistry in the build up.
The last act of the opening 45 minutes though was David Raya – a virtual spectator so far – standing firm to deny Hwang Hee-Chan when he suddenly picked up possession on the edge of the box.
Penalty appeal turned down
At the start of the second-half we had a penalty appeal turned down, when Max Kilman appeared to have hold of Jesus, preventing him from getting on the end of a Tomiyasu whipped cross. Despite a VAR review though, the referee’s decision not to award the spot kick stood.
The pace of the game had dropped though, and Wolves sensed a way back in. Matheus Cunha drew a smart save from Raya at the near post, and we responded with another long spell of possession. But the build-up play was patient rather than explosive.
Rice dragged a shot wide and Saka saw a dipping effort from 20 yards fly over before Trossard had a real chance for the third. A wonderful flick by Odegaard set him through on goal, but Bentley was out well to deny the Belgian, and then save from Saka’s follow up shot.
Wolves hit back
Without that third goal, Wolves were always alive, and they capitalised on some sloppy defensive play to pull one back.
Zinchenko and Rice failed to clear the ball inside the box, and Cunha thrashed home superbly, with five minutes of the 90 left.
Eddie Nketiah so nearly restored the two-goal cushion instantly. Again Odegaard was the creator, this time Nketiah slid the ball past the keeper, but his shot hit the inside of the post and bounced away to safety.
Wolves piled more pressure on in injury-time, but we stood firm to record three more Premier League points.
FACTS AND STATS
We have scored at least once in each of our last 32 games against Wolves in all competitions, the joint longest scoring run against an opponent in the club’s history (also an ongoing run of 32 vs West Brom).
Bukayo Saka's opener was our 100th goal of 2023 (now 101), becoming just the fifth big five European league side to reach this total across all competitions this calendar year after Man City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen.
Wolves remain winless in their last 13 Premier League trips to London (D3 L10) since a 2-0 win at Tottenham in February 2022, losing each of their last four visits to the capital.
Both teams have scored in each of Wolves’ last 11 Premier League games with Brighton the only current side in the division on a longer such run (17).
Each of Saka’s last nine Premier League goals involvements (4 goals, 5 assists) have either drawn us level (2) or put us one goal in the lead (7). Meanwhile, Takehiro Tomiyasu has three assists in his last two appearances in all competitions, as many as in his first 70 games for the club combined.
We scored inside the opening 15 minutes of a Premier League game for the first time this season, finding ourselves 2-0 up after just 13 minutes.
What’s next
Today’s match was the first of eight fixtures for us in the month of December, they come thick and fast now, and next up we travel to play Luton Town on Tuesday night in the Premier League, and we’re away again next Saturday at Aston Villa.
100 Goals in 2023
This was our 48th game of the calendar year, and Bukayo Saka’s goal was the 100th we have scored in 2023.
It was fitting Saka should bring up the milestone, he’s our top scorer over the year so far with 16, followed by Martin Odegaard (15), then Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli with 11 each. We have had 21 different goalscorers, not including the five own goals scored in our favour.
The goals were scored in six different competitions: 77 came in the Premier League, 15 in the Champions League, three in the Europa League, three in the FA Cup, two in the Carabao Cup and one in the Community Shield.
Of the century, 64 were scored at Emirates Stadium, 36 came in away games, and one was scored at Wembley Stadium in the Community Shield. We scored in all but six games so far this year, the biggest win being Wednesday’s 6-0 victory over Lens.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
