Arsenal Fall Into A Bad Trend, Dipelonco Wolverhampton At The Emirates
JAKARTA - Arsenal suffered three matches in a row without a win in the Premier League after being defeated by Wolverhampton guests by a score of 1-2 in the 10th match at Emirates Stadium, London, Sunday local time (Monday WIB).
The result was a historic score for the team made by Nuno Espirito Santo, because Wolverhampton has never won an away win against Arsenal in a league match since 1979.
On the other hand, for Arsenal, the defeat this time makes Mikel Arteta's team look like a club that has forgotten how to win on their own soil and can only perform well in Europe's second caste competition, the Europa League.
The match was marked by a tense atmosphere five minutes after kick-off when an incident between aging defender David Luiz and striker Raul Jimenez whose heads bumped against each other in a corner kick.
Nearly 10 minutes, the medics of each team took care of the two players, until finally Jimenez had to be stretched out of the field to be replaced by the young talent Fabio Silva.
After the horrific incident had passed, Wolverhampton opened the scoring in the 27th minute when Pedro Neto was in the right position to grab a throw-up from Leander Dendoncker who had previously hit the crossbar.
Three minutes later Arsenal equalized with a Gabriel Magalhaes header which met Willian's cross in a corner.
Goalkeeper Bernd Leno made a costly blunder when he failed to secure Neto's long-range shot and the round skin was able to cheat Daniel Podence into the no-man's net to put Wolverhampton back in front in the 42nd minute.
Wolverhampton's second half opted for a pragmatic move by allowing Arsenal to dominate almost 62 percent of the ball but stifled all the attacks coming from the Gunners to keep the score 2-1 until the whistle sounded the game over.
The victory led Wolverhampton up to sixth in the standings with a collection of 17 points, while Arsenal (13) continued to drop to 14th, according to Antara's official Premier League website.
The two teams return to action on Sunday, 6 December when Arsenal are involved in the classic London Derby at Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton visit reigning champions Liverpool.
However, three days earlier Arsenal would first appear in the Europa League to host Austrian representatives, Rapid Wien, at the Emirates.