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EPL Premier League Weekend Ben Stansall/Getty Images They certainly didn’t make it easy for themselves but Arsenal have — just about — restored their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The first half against last-placed Wolves was a struggle for the league leaders, with Mikel Arteta’s side struggling to break down their visitors and failing to record a single shot on target in the opening 45 minutes of a match for the first time this season. Gabriel Martinelli wasted a decent headed opportunity at the back post but it was Wolves’ Hwang Hee-chan who had the best opportunity of the half, his effort on a counter-attack — after all 10 of Arsenal’s outfielders had been caught upfield — being saved by David Raya. Advertisement The second half began in a similarly frustrating manner, with Arteta soon turning to his bench to bring on Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino and Leandro Trossard, but it was Bukayo Saka who created the breakthrough with 20 minutes of the 90 to go, with a viciously inswinging corner that hit the post before rebounding off goalkeeper Sam Johnstone’s shoulder into the net. It looked like Arsenal had dropped two vital points when Wolves substitute Tolu Arokodare headed a shock equaliser past Raya in the 90th minute but a second own goal, this time from Yerson Mosquera in the fourth added minute, gave the league leaders what could prove a vital win come May. Art de Roché and Nnamdi Onyeagwara analyse the key moments from Saturday’s game. After dropping points in three straight away league games, losing their most recent one to Aston Villa last weekend, the task has become clearer to Arsenal. With second-placed Manchester City back in form, they simply cannot afford to slip up too often. When Wolves equalised in the 90th minute here, it seemed as though Arsenal were being stalked by the nightmares of Christmas’ past. In the 2023-24 season, back-to-back losses against West Ham and Fulham during the festive programme forced them to play catch-up from December onwards. They dropped points just twice more after New Year’s Day but the damage had been done and they finished two points adrift of champions City. The gap between first and second is five points after this victory, but City can cut it back to two away to Crystal Palace tomorrow (Sunday). Had Arsenal dropped points again tonight, and so late on, the momentum swing could have been brutal, not just from a points perspective but a psychological one too. The performance may not have been stellar against Wolves, but Arteta will hope that stopping the rot and earning three points will turn the momentum in his team’s favour ahead of next Saturday’s trip to Everton. Art de Roché For the umpteenth time this season, Declan Rice made a difference for Arsenal. The 26-year-old was not part of the squad for Wednesday’s Champions League win against Club Brugge in Belgium due to illness, and against Wolves started in a midfield trio without captain Martin Odegaard, who was on the bench. Advertisement A triple substitution just before the hour saw Rice dropping into a deeper midfield role. And after what was a drab first half, the England international took over in the second. His free-kick in the 66th minute, which was tipped over by Johnstone, injected life into a listless Arsenal performance and got the Emirates Stadium crowd re-energised. His curling effort two minutes later also forced a save from Johnstone. It was also Rice who played the pass that forced Wolves to concede the corner that led to the opening goal. A difference-maker in both boxes, Rice was important in helping get what turned out to be a very nervy three points. Also, a mention for Saka. He was a threat on Arsenal’s right throughout and both own goals came from his crosses. Nnamdi Onyeagwara Ben White being forced off after 30 minutes was Arsenal’s 20th injury-related substitution this calendar year. None of the 23 teams to compete in the Premier League in 2025 have needed to make more than that, with Bournemouth coming closest on 14. White went 109 days without a Premier League appearance, going back to the season’s opening weekend in August, before his impressive return against Brentford in the middle of last week. A fourth successive start in 11 days proved too much for him as he was forced off in what was the latest example of the “dangerous circle” of overload that Arteta spoke of earlier this week. “The fact that you are missing players, (means) you are loading other players more (as) a consequence. It’s a really dangerous circle, ” the Arsenal manager said. White was replaced personnel-wise by Myles Lewis-Skelly, but it was Jurrien Timber who moved across to fill in for him at right-back. The enforced change will not only frustrate Arteta because yet another defender is now unavailable. He also loses White’s quality movement off the ball, which makes Arsenal a much bigger threat in attack. Advertisement Art de Roché Arsenal’s much-maligned left side continues to look like an issue. For the second time this week, Gabriel Martinelli had an unquestionably poor first half. A flurry of incorrect decisions, overhit passes and heavy touches. He had four shots, all of them off target, and was replaced by Leandro Trossard in that triple-change after 57 minutes. On the rare occasion against Wolves where Martinelli and Piero Hincapie (who started at left-back before moving to central defence when Timber went to right-back following White’s injury) did link up, it was not productive. Lewis-Skelly came on to play left-back, but there was no significant improvement. Arsenal, as they usually do, began their attacks primarily through their right-hand side, even after White was substituted. Trossard is arguably the player in the side who has most developed a way to make Arsenal’s left functional. His six goals and five assists this season, the most in the squad, exemplify that. Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke have had stints out there too, but that side remains a concern for the league leaders. Nnamdi Onyeagwara The Arsenal manager was asked about the character his team showed to win the game after conceding a late equaliser. “That’s something very positive, but I don’t put it down sometimes to, ‘Yeah, resilience and go up now! ’ It’s what happened before, we should have stopped the source before and that’s on us. “You have to give credit to Wolves and what they’ve done, I watched the game when they played Stamford Bridge, when they played against Villa and how unlucky they were not to get [anything], so I knew that that wasn’t going to be an easy game at all. “But we made it even harder with what we did in the manner that we conceded the goal and that’s unacceptable. ”

Advertisement Arteta was also asked about his side not mustering a single shot on target in the first half. “Well, because we didn’t pick up the right colour of the shirt and when you have a free header one metre, normally we’ll put the ball not on target and go. And we put it out and time and time and time again. It is frustrating, yeah, but this is the game. But I expect to hit the right colour. You have to be wanting the back post to hit it every single time at this level. “And today we haven’t done it, so we started to make things more difficult for us. ” “What we have to do now is reset, give them two days that they can decompress a little bit, and then we have a long week that we can prepare. When we don’t train, there are things that slowly deteriorate and certain habits that start to deteriorate because you don’t train them and use that opportunity to do so. Give everybody a boost because we know that the Christmas period is a lot of times undefined and we want to be on top of it. ” Saturday, December 20: Everton (away), Premier League, 8pm UK, 3pm ET