Arsenal Analysed: 5 reasons we won against Wolves

Three points on the opening day is all any manager wants, and Mikel Arteta got just that with a 2-0 success against Wolves, but there were many other things about our performance that would have pleased him.

Our resident expert Adrian Clarke has digested all the footage again and poured through the stats to uncover five reasons why we managed to collect our first three-point haul of the campaign:

Bright restarts

Set pieces don’t always have to be crosses whipped into the danger zone, and the Gunners showed the value of quick thinking from dead-ball situations too. Throughout the game we regularly got play going by taking a short free kick, or by catching Wolves off guard with an instant throw-in.

Declan Rice curled over in the 19th minute on the back of a swift move that began with an early Martin Odegaard throw to Kai Havertz that caught the visitors sleeping, and our skipper almost scored a long-range scorcher in the 70th minute too, thanks to a quick free-kick played to him by Rice while Gary O’Neil’s men weren’t looking.

Four minutes later we were finally rewarded for a piece of bright play from a set piece. Thomas Partey deserves credit for sprinting across to play a pass to Havertz, identifying that a 2v1 was on for Saka to torment left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri:

With red shirts deliberately staying away from our No. 7, leaving him with space to run at his marker, Saka duly obliged with a terrific left-foot strike to seal the victory.

Kai’s Corridor

Kicking off 2024/25 with a goal and an assist, Havertz should feel very satisfied with an excellent day’s work. Always showing for the ball to help us link play, the German enjoyed 44 touches, with five of those being shots on goal.

His movement was razor sharp, but what interested me most about his roaming role were the areas he occupied, and the parts of the field he purposely stayed away from.

Havertz's successful passes and shots

As you can see, our roving frontman was at his most effective when combining with Saka and Odegaard on the right side. Not wanting to crowd Gabriel Martinelli’s space, leaving him room to sprint into, our No. 29 very rarely ventured left unless it was to help us build from the back.

Playing in a diagonal corridor, Havertz was impressive.

Athletic prowess

Physically it could take the team a few weeks to hit peak match fitness, but two members of our starting XI produced exceptional numbers on day one.

Odegaard, as is his style, was the busiest of runners, registering more intensive runs, sprints and pressures than anyone else. He was the trigger that sparked our pressing throughout and he covered a match-high 10.81km too:

Not too far behind the skipper was Martinelli, who worked incredibly hard during his sprightly 90-minute performance. He got into some superb areas in advanced positions, and his top speed sprint of 35.08km/hr made the Brazilian by some distance the fastest player on the pitch.

They may not have scored or assisted against Wolves, but both players contributed greatly with their committed effort levels.

Raya was ready

In his first Premier League match as an official Arsenal player, goalkeeper David Raya excelled with a first-class display. The Spaniard had very little to do, but when he was called upon in the 36th minute to deny Jorgen Strand Larsen, he stepped up to the mark quite brilliantly.

William Saliba was caught on his heels by some outstanding movement by the Wolves target man, who got a clean header away from a terrific right-wing cross. Raya was expecting a downward header low to his left - as this was the only clear avenue for Larsen to find - so his body weight understandably shifted to that side.

Yet somehow, Raya was still able to react quickly enough to parry the striker’s clever angled header by stretching out an instinctive right hand, while his movement carried him the other way. This was a world-class save, which showed that Raya’s concentration levels are fantastic. 

If Wolves had scored here, it could have been a much more difficult afternoon’s work.

Sharp Saka

It was a very short pre-season for Bukayo Saka, but he hit the ground running with an exceptional 80-minute performance. A goal, an assist, five shots and five key passes tell the story of a winger who won his duel with Ait-Nouri hands down, in front of an adoring home crowd.

Forcing Wolves to backpedal every time he had possession, no one in the division came close to matching Saka’s 15 touches inside the opposition box either:

Wolves paid a heavy price for failing to close Saka down for our crucial opening strike. With time to pick out Havertz unopposed, he helped us exploit the 4v3 advantage we had over the visitors’ last line of defence.

In a strong team performance that secured three points with a degree of comfort, there is no question that Saka was Arsenal’s star.