38 bloody seconds...

By Tom Bason
November 11 2010

Well, it's over. A few weeks ago, before the Chelsea game I wrote that there's a fair chance we'd head into the Bolton game rock bottom of the League. We've managed to avoid that, just.

I took an American Arsenal fan to his first game at Molineux, moving my seat from the South Bank to the Steve Bull to sit with him. While I'm not used to sitting down all game, there seemed to be far less space between the seats, my knees felt like they were ingrained into the back of the person sat in front of me. I hoped I could show off the talent of the Wolves team, yet 38 seconds into the match we were 1-0 down. I've just seen a replay of the goal, and it appears that Richard Stearman lost Marouane Chamakh, while Kevin Foley could have done better covering from right back.

So, less than a minute gone, 1-0 down and I'm fearing a white wash. I'm imagining the train ride home with the Arsenal fan, cowering in my seat. I wrote here that if we continue to pass the ball out from the back, we will make mistakes. We can clear it long with zero risk, or pass the ball out with potentially disastrous consequences.  This nearly happened a couple of times. I think the main reason for this was the positioning of Nenad Milijas. When he plays deeper in midfield, he offers the easy ball to the defence. Neither Karl Henry nor Michael Mancienne look for the ball in the same way, and so we weren't able to build up a rhythm.

But we continued to pass the ball, mixed in with a few long balls to Kevin Doyle who caused Johan Djourou and Sebastian Squillaci plenty of problems. Unfortunately, the way the team lined up meant that we struggled to get players in support of Doyle and so any momentum was often lost. It is not the natural game of any of the midfield three to run beyond the striker. I assume that by playing Matt Jarvis and Steven Hunt as inverted wingers, they were instructed to be the players supporting Doyle, but their direct opponents Gail Clichy and Bacary Sagna, who on their day are as good as any fullback pairing in the world, made this difficult.

When Jarvis and Hunt switched back to their natural wings, they saw a little more joy and both put in excellent crosses that with more midfield support could have led to goals. There was an argument two seasons ago that in playing Frank Lampard at the top of Chelsea's diamond, Phil Scolari actually reduced his attacking threat as he was getting into positions to early. The same could have been said about Milijas today. Think back to his goal against Manchester City, or Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s goal against their cross city rivals. Both came when Milijas arrived late, unnoticed by opposition midfielders. He was far easier to pick up playing further forward.

We deserved to go into the break behind, but the second half was far better. I lost count of the amount of times the ball flashed across the Arsenal goal, begging for a touch, and Fabianski made three excellent saves, the most notable late on from Christophe Berra. Arsenal being Arsenal, pretty much went straight up the other end and Chamakh made it 2-0. One thing that struck me about Arsenal was the speed in which they closed down our defenders, giving them no time on the ball. In addition, I'd never realised Cesc Fabregas was such a whining little <insert swear word of choice here>, arguably he was lucky to stay on the pitch and I was quite surprised he wasn't withdrawn in the aftermath of the second goal.

The major casualties of tonight were surely Dave Edwards and Steven Ward. Anyone who reads these regularly will know I don't rate Edwards, but he's been impressive in the last couple of weeks, and we definitely missed his running off the ball today. With Adlene Guedioura out as well, this is a definite hole in our squad, and without this sort of player our midfield might look pedestrian. And Ward- I've liked Ward, I had his name on the back of my shirt in 08/09 but he has been poor defensively the last couple of weeks and the left back spot is definitely up for grabs now. If George Elokobi plays on Saturday, I don't think it says more for Jelle van Damme's Molineux future.  As I mentioned earlier, the nightmare run is over, and we’ve played well in every game.  But there’s no point in playing well in defeats to the top teams if we don’t turn this form into points against the lesser teams. I suspect we may move back to a 4-4-2 formation if Edwards doesn’t recover, and this I fear may be our downfall.

And finally, word has just reached me that Blackpool made 10 changes tonight. I assume that the Premier League will hide behind the squad system to avoid fining them, but it will be interesting to see how the media treat their favourite team this season. Will Ian Holloway get the treatment dished out to Mick McCarthy last season? I think not

Wolves 0 Arsenal 2

Discussion started by Wolves , 11/11/2010 00:04

Wolves
11/11/2010 00:04

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Bergmars
11/11/2010 06:25

We were fortunate to win,Wolves played very well and if they continue to play like that they will have no problems.

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Stourport Wolf
11/11/2010 08:53

Regarding Fabregas, he was lucky to stay on the pitch but I'm not sure luck is the right word. More to do with the different treatment given by officials to players from the top teams. Had a Wolves play made the same tackle on an Arsenal player a straight red would have been brandished, no question.

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kightly37
11/11/2010 09:32

Henry was also lucky to stay on the pitch after his tackle

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toomb
11/11/2010 09:39

Quote:

kightly37
Henry was also lucky to stay on the pitch after his tackle

I didn't really see what happened there, and they didn't show it on MOTD. It wasn't two footed was it?



toomb's twitter

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kightly37
11/11/2010 09:41

Henry's studs were up

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The Tipton Wolf
11/11/2010 12:57

Quote:

Stourport Wolf
Regarding Fabregas, he was lucky to stay on the pitch but I'm not sure luck is the right word. More to do with the different treatment given by officials to players from the top teams. Had a Wolves play made the same tackle on an Arsenal player a straight red would have been brandished, no question.

I genuinely think Cesc's tackle was hard, but rather fair, we have too many namby pamby players in this league, i like the guile and strong tackles. I play football on a saturday morning at a decent level for my age, and i see tackles like that 3/4 times a game, and yet we carry on, no bookings or harsh exchanges. I'd much rather see the same rules adhered by all the way through from grassroots right up to the premier league!

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an angry wolf
11/11/2010 16:41

I know we had more possession and as mentioned earlier by Tom , I lost count of the number of times the ball flashed past the arsenal goal begging for a tap in but the reality is arsenal could have been 3 up in the first 15 minutes , plus a number of chances second half they missed.We played ok but dont think we were as "desperately unlucky" as the media suggests.We lost down to poor finishing , great goalkeeping from Fabianski and poor defending.There is no luck about any of those things

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