A Lost Opportunity

Arsenal 1 - 1 Wolves

We didn't get the win we desired and which our performance would have maybe justified but a combination of wastefulness and absolutely brilliant goalkeeping (well done Hennessey) meant that we only earned a point during a round of games when 3 really would have been welcome.  Sp*rs and Man Utd won so they are the only real victors here...while we couldn't capitalise on the points dropped by Man City and more importantly, Chelsea and Liverpool, the previous day.

Our goal was an absolute peach - firstly it was early on (8 minutes), secondly it featured a beautiful through ball from Yossi Benayoun (rewarded with a start following his late winner at Villa Park), and thirdly Gervinho was the scorer when he finally managed to round a keeper and slot home (having had numerous chances to do so this season and failed!)

We then shot ourselves in the foot by not ramming home our domination of possession with another goal or two which would have killed the game off as a contest inside the first half an hour.  Our wastefulness and lack of sharpness on front of goal meant that it was only a matter of time before Wolves equalised with a goal that can only be described as one in a million - a corner headed clear by us was met with a volley that heavily deflected, going well wide, where it then met the head of Fletcher would guided a (good) header into the bottom corner, the one place where Szezesny couldn't reach! Some may say unlucky but us Gooners know that this regularly happens to us...for a reason...because we don't kill off teams in the way Man Utd do!

The onlsalught never came until Wolves had a man sent off (harsh) and we peppered their goal in the last 20 mins (Mertesacker header, Vermaelen, RVP free kick) but Hennessey was a match for everything we threw at them.  Arsene's substitutions (Ramsey, Arshavin, Chamakh) highlighted the ineffective nature of our supporting cast in terms of the latter two and was a bit surprising as The Ox was unused and would surely have added a bit more urgency and directness.  Arsene says 2012 will be his year so guess we'll have to wait a few more days!

The festive period has so far been a mixed bag - a loss to City, a win at Villa, a draw today....even more so now a couple of back to back wins against London opposition (QPR, Fulham) are needed to get some momentum going again.  Then time for Arsene to open the cheque book...and if he wonders whether he shouldn't then he need look no further than our inability to get the second goal today.  The fight for 4th is well and truly on.