Key events
Half-time entertainment. The Guardian has kicked off a new chapter in puzzles with the launch of its first daily football game, On the ball. It is now live in the app for both iOS and Android … so what are you waiting for?
Half-time reading. We’ve already told you about Liverpool 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea 2-0 Everton. Now here’s the report of Burnley 2-3 Fulham. Just one more half of football to go, and the Premier League will be done for the day. It’s going to be a big one, to be fair …
HALF TIME: Arsenal 0-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
A few grumbles from the home support as Mikel Arteta storms off down the tunnel. Rob Edwards practically floats into it.
45 min +3: Moller Wolfe crosses low from the left. Hincapie slips. Strand Larsen picks up possession, ten yards out. He shoots. Hincapie does wonderfully well to spring up and block. The ball breaks to Gomes, who can’t sort his feet out to shoot. Arsenal were exposed there for a split second. Sharp intakes of breath all around.
45 min +1: The Emirates is pretty darn quiet right now. Wolves are two minutes away from becoming only the second team to keep Arsenal to nil in the first half here all season. Manchester City were the others.
45 min: There will be four additional first-half minutes. In the meantime, here’s an observation from Nelson Calvinho: “Wissa, Gyokeres and Isak: the three players who forced a move by skipping the pre-season are not turning out to be as good as they thought they were so far, are they?”
43 min: Timber whistles a low cross in from the right. The ball loops into the air off Toti but Johnstone claims on his line with safe hands.
42 min: Gyokeres takes touch number five, but can only divert the ball down the right wing and out for a goal kick, Agbadou ushering it over the line. The home crowd serenade their striker nonetheless.
40 min: According to TNT Sports, Gyokeres has only touched the ball four times so far. Lewis-Skelly has nine touches to his name, and he’s only been on for nine minutes.
38 min: Saka rolls a delicious ball through the six-yard box from the right. Gyokeres telescopes a leg but somehow misses the ball. Any contact and it was 1-0. Martinelli shoots from a tight angle on the left, Doherty deflecting behind for a corner. That was a hell of a cross, with a miss to match. Nothing comes of the set piece.
36 min: Arsenal probe hither and yon. Wolves hold their shape, and their poise. “I know it’s been a while, but I think the beginning of the end for Wolves was when Nuno left and took the pipeline of Portuguese talent (Jorge Mendes) with him,” writes Joe Pearson. “I mean, back then it seemed like half the team had a little Portugal flag next to their names. Now there’s, what, three? Obviously, I don’t know if Mendes’ contacts will get the Hammers out of danger this year, but it couldn’t hurt. I just don’t see a way out for Wolves.”
34 min: Hincapie swings a cross in from the right. Saliba flicks a header off Andre and out for another corner on the left. Rice hits it long. The ball drops to Martinelli, level with the right-hand post, a couple of yards out. Any connection and it’s a goal, you’d think … but Martinelli somehow manages to send his header looping across the face of goal and over the bar. How on earth did he miss? Wolves still with the only attempt on target.
32 min: Lewis-Skelly’s first act is to pop a pass down the inside-left channel for Martinelli, who has the chance to feed Rice on the overlap, but overhits the pass. Rice does well to reach the ball and win a corner … but nothing comes from the set piece.
31 min: … and off goes White. He’s replaced by Lewis-Skelly. Mikel Arteta spent the break in play gathering his men together and issuing some tactical advice.
29 min: Gyokeres wins a duel with Mosquera down the left, but only by flapping an arm into the defender’s neck. The whistle goes … then White goes down with an injury. On comes the trainer.
27 min: Arsenal are on the attack. Everyone going forward. But then one simple clearance sends Hwang away! He’s ahead of everyone, but he’s got miles to travel. He reaches the Arsenal box, with six red shirts chasing him, a silent-movie style pursuit. He’s got just enough time to get a shot away before he’s caught, but doesn’t catch his low drive properly and it’s easy for Raya. But that’s the first shot on target, and after all the Arsenal possession and territory, it’s by Wolves.
25 min: White tries to release Saka down the right but seriously overcooks the pass. Goal kick. In the dugout, Mikel Arteta opens a water bottle in the manner of a man strangling an otter. Frustration betrayed.
23 min: Wolves have also done a good job of quietening the home crowd.
21 min: Wolves will be happy with their performance so far. Arsenal haven’t really threatened them. Plenty of time for the league leaders to find another gear.
19 min: Saka slides White into space on the overlap. White wins a corner off Toti, who dives in slightly carelessly, and is lucky not to catch his man. But it wouldn’t have been a penalty even if he had clumsily connected, because White is flagged offside.
18 min: Timber slides into the back of Hwang. Wolves take a methodical approach to taking the free kick, and the crowd are beginning to get slightly irritated. When the ball’s eventually delivered into the mixer, Eze clears it.
17 min: Gomes comes back on. Then Saka makes ground down the right and crosses for Rice, who flaps a weak header straight into the arms of Johnstone. This game hasn’t quite got going yet.
16 min: … though he takes his time to go to the sideline, from where he’ll need to wait for 30 seconds before coming back on. The Arsenal fans once again wise to the time-management grift.
15 min: Gomes is fine to continue.
14 min: White curls in from the right. Eze raises a boot in the hope of bringing the ball under control, but studs Gomes on the head instead. It’s accidental, though a wee bit reckless; Eze’s boot was lifted head height. You’ve seen players booked for less. On comes the physio.
12 min: Johnstone takes his sweet time over a goal kick. The home fans pick up on his antics, or signal lack of them, depending on which way you look at it, and give him the what-for via the medium of collective whistling. One for the referee to keep an eye on.
10 min: Rice’s delivery is much better this time, curled low towards the near post. But Saliba can’t connect, and Wolves are able to clear their lines just in time.
9 min: Saka probes down the right again. He’s basically cuddled from behind by Moller Wolfe, and eventually the referee blows for the obvious free kick. Rice to take.
7 min: The corner’s half cleared. But Arsenal come again, Saka jinking down the right and floating towards Timber at the far stick. Timber wins the header easily, but pings his header way over the bar.
6 min: Doherty concedes another free kick for another challenge on Martinelli … though this one looked like a hard-but-fair challenge, the referee buying some mild Martinelli theatrics. The free kick’s worked left to right, and Hincapie breaks down the channel, winning the first corner of the game.
4 min: Wolves respond with a confident period of possession, Hwang taking a look down the left, Doherty doing something similar out on the right. Small acorns.
2 min: Doherty skittles Martinelli out on the left. An early free kick for Arsenal. Rice’s delivery is uncharacteristically poor, failing to beat the first man … and that first man is Doherty, who makes good his mistake by clearing.
Arsenal get the ball rolling. They haven’t lost at home yet this season, winning ten from 11. Godspeed, Wolves.
The teams are out! Arsenal are in their famous red shirts with white sleeves, but Wolves spurn their equally iconic old gold for second-choice turquoise. Seems a shame from a purist’s point of view, as well as red/yellow being one of the better combinations for colourblind fans, and red/green(ish) not so much. But here we are. We’ll be off in a minute!
The pre-match postbag is teeming with one email, and here it is, courtesy of Charles Antaki. “Jesus on the bench, Gyökeres preferred to start. A great deal of chin-stroking, eyebrow-raising and forehead-furrowing amongst the Arsenal chatterati as they ponder the equation: Jesus, five minutes, three shots on goal; Gyökeres, like, loads of minutes, and you know the rest. Thoroughly unfair of course, but c’est la vie, and it’s Gyökeres’s good fortune that Arsenal are winning even with him playing.”
Rob Edwards, who hasn’t benefitted from a new-manager bounce, losing his first four games in charge of Wolves, beams with positivity despite it all as he talks to TNT Sports. “They are beatable … we’ve got to go in with a real plan … we’ve got to be better from a defensive point of view … being tight without the ball … aggressive at the right moments … more resilient … lots of things that are in our control that we need to be to get anything from this game … try to be brave … take the game to them … run hard … if we make a mistake, run and react … basics … being in the right position … [Arsenal] are probably the best at doing the things maybe people don’t see … always in the right position at the right moment … that’s what we’ve got to do better … I knew it was going to be difficult … but I’m up for it … I wanted this challenge … to go up against these teams … test myself again … we need to show belief in the players … work really hard … we’ve had a good reaction on the training ground after [the Manchester United defeat] and we need to go and show that tonight.”
Fulham have just won 3-2 at Burnley. Fold in earlier victories for Liverpool (2-0 over Brighton & Hove Albion) and Chelsea (2-0 over Everton) and this is how the Premier League now looks, heading into this final fixture of the day. Arsenal will be looking to extend their lead at the top to five points, cranking up the pressure on Manchester City and Aston Villa, who tomorrow visit Crystal Palace and West Ham United respectively. Should Wolves manage a Christmas miracle this evening, they’d close the gap on fellow strugglers Burnley to five points.
Mikel Arteta, with the laid-back vibe of a man atop both Premier League and Champions League tables, speaks to TNT Sports. “We have some players back which is great news … all of them bring different qualities … different connections … they have been doing well … we are still missing some very important players … but to have options … manage the load … we all know the importance of each other … it is genuine … it is not easy to do it … it is harder to maintain it … when you lose one game in 19, it can happen … the immediate reaction shows they cared … if I had seen something different, I would have been worried … we have to put in performance after performance.”
Arsenal make three changes to the team that lost 2-1 at Aston Villa last weekend. William Saliba, Viktor Gyökeres and Gabriel Martinelli are in. Martin Ødegaard and Mikel Merino drop to the bench, while Riccardo Calafiori is suspended. Saliba is back after missing five matches through injury.
Wolves make three changes to their starting XI after being skelped 4-1 at home by Manchester United on Monday evening. Matt Doherty, João Gomes and Hwang Hee-chan come in for Ki-Jana Hoever and Jhon Arias, who drop to the bench, and Jean‐Ricner Bellegarde, who misses out altogether with a hamstring injury.
The teams
Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Hincapie, Timber, Eze, Zubimendi, Rice, Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus, Norgaard, Trossard, Madueke, Nwaneri, Merino, Lewis-Skelly.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Johnstone, Mosquera, Agbadou, Toti Gomes, Doherty, Joao Gomes, Andre Trindade, Krejci, Wolfe, Larsen, Hwang.
Subs: Tchatchoua, Mane, Lopez, Hoever, Chirewa, Arokodare, Arias, Santiago Bueno, Jose Sa.
Referee: Robert Jones
VAR: John Brooks
Preamble
Good evening! And I mean, c’mon …
… yet while this will be the 42nd time the Premier League leaders have played the side propping up the entire table – winning 30 out of 41, with seven draws – who are responsible for two of the four historical shocks? Why, Wolverhampton Wanderers, that’s who! Click below to reminisce, my old MBM pals. So while Mikel Arteta will surely be anticipating another three points, Rob Edwards must know that long shots sometimes find the target, and you never know. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!
(The other two bottom-beats-top victories in the Premier League era are Oldham’s 1-0 win over Manchester United in March 1993, and Tottenham Hotspur – yeah, this one sounds a bit weird – defeating Liverpool in November 2008. We don’t have a link to the former pre-internet match, but here’s one to the latter, which features an in-no-way-doctored photo of Harry Redknapp flooring it in a Ford Cortina.)
