Ah, another thrilling football weekend in Europe’s top leagues is almost here. Depending on your team, of course, this means celebration, heartache, and even a little schadenfreude.
In the Premier League, Arsenal began the weekend with a somewhat uneventful victory, while Manchester United lost ground to a superior Newcastle United. In La Liga, Girona—the unexpected No. 2 in the league table—staged an exciting comeback victory, while Toni Kroos gave Real Madrid a fantastic turn-back-the-clock display. In Serie A, AC Milan won handily thanks to a goal from Christian Pulisic, while the Bundesliga was partially snowed in.The Saturday lead: Arsenal defeats Wolves despite still allowing nerves to get the better of them.
This week, “game states” have been a hot topic around Arsenal, and that discussion will go on even after Arsenal defeated Wolves 2-1 on Saturday at Emirates Stadium.
The inability of the Gunners to score early and turn a game around to their advantage, which would have otherwise created tension, has been attributed by manager c to the team’s lack of fluency in certain areas of their play this season. Arsenal looked to be making progress in improving their quick starts on Saturday as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Wolves after just 13 minutes, following their 6-0 thumping of Lens in the . To emphasize the point Arteta has been making, on Saturday, Arsenal scored in the first fifteen minutes of a Premier League game for the first time this season, and some of their play was outstanding. After six minutes, Bukayo Saka scored a goal by putting pressure on the Wolves defense, continuing his impressive form.
and Gabriel Jesus combined to create a fantastic team goal, which Martin Odegaard skillfully converted.
Even so, Wolves posed little of a threat, and Arsenal created someuncertainty in a game that was long overdue. In his own box, Zinchenko gave up the ball cheaply, and four minutes later, Matheus Cunha scored to set up an overly nervous finish. ReplaceArteta will be aware that more work needs to be done to transform Arsenal into the same merciless force that Manchester City has long been in games such as this, even though no damage was done. Nevertheless, with Luton coming up in midweek, the Gunners enjoyed a four-point lead at the top of the table on Saturday night. — James Olley
