Luiz And Leno Sent Off By The Referee, Arsenal Defeated 1-2 In The Hands Of Wolves
JAKARTA - Arsenal lost 1-2 to Wolverhampton in Week 22 of the Premier League at Molineux Stadium, Wednesday morning WIB. In this match, the Gunners played with nine players
Arsenal, who had taken the lead thanks to Nicolas Pepe's goal, suffered a big loss when David Luiz was given a red card just before halftime, giving Wolverhampton the opportunity to equalize through a Ruben Neves penalty and turn to win thanks to Joao Moutinho's goal.
Arsenal found it increasingly difficult to get back up when their goalkeeper Bernd Leno also received a red card in the 72nd minute, stopping Mikel Arteta's seven-game unbeaten run.
Wolverhampton, who returned to winning ways after eight games, moved up to 13th in the standings with 26 points, while Arsenal, who have 31 points, stuck to 10th, quoted Antara from the official Premier League website.
Arsenal got off to a great start and almost opened the scoring in the first minute, but Bukayo Saka's shot hit the post and three minutes later another Saka chance was cleared by goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
In the eighth minute, Saka finally broke into the host's goal, but the goal was disallowed because Alexandre Lacazette was already offside when the attack occurred.
Signs of good luck against Arsenal were even more evident when Pepe's shot finished Emile Smith Rowe's pass but was cleared by Patricio and hit the crossbar in the 25th minute.
The Gunners overcame the situation as they opened the scoring seven minutes later by a brilliant Pepe shot past Nelson Semedo and Neves before firing into the far post area.
Catastrophe for Arsenal came in the third minute of first-half injury time when Luiz tackled Willian Jose from behind as the Wolverhampton loanee prepared to go head-to-head with Leno who was immediately greeted by a red card from referee Craig Pawosn and the hosts were awarded a penalty.
Neves coldly beat Leno when he took his penalty to put Wolverhampton level at halftime.
The momentum of 11 against 10 was taken advantage of by Wolverhampton when in the 49th minute Moutinho fired a long-range shot that Leno could not reach to bring the hosts back ahead of Arsenal.
Arsenal, who had been overwhelmed to get up, were made even more difficult when in the 72nd minute Leno came out of the penalty box and caught the ball to block Wolverhampton's chance who was immediately rewarded with a red card.
Despite playing with nine players, Arsenal struggled to get back up but their last chance to reply through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Saka was unable to get past the Wolverhampton defense.
Arsenal will play early for the next match this Saturday when they travel to Aston Villa headquarters, while Wolverhampton return to their home turf a day later by hosting Leicester City.