Arsenal recovered from a horror week by returning to the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 win at Wolves.
Arsenal suffered potentially defining back-to-back defeats when they lost to Aston Villa in the league last Sunday before being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
But they returned to the top of the Premier League thanks to goals from Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard at Molineux to move a point above Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Pep Guardiola’s side were in the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday and when the Gunners face Chelsea on Tuesday, they could be four points ahead of Man City before the reigning champions face Brighton on Thursday.
That would be a big leap after what was diagnosed as a seemingly final defeat against Villa last week, with Liverpool, who also play twice before Man City are back in action, currently three points behind.
Mikel Arteta’s men were well rewarded for their victory on Saturday night, although Trossard’s opener was lucky and then had to wait for injury time to end the game.
Wolves are hampered by injuries, including most of their key attacking players, but they competed well and the result could have been a shocker had Joao Gomes’ first-half shot gone wide instead of hitting the post.
Gary O’Neil’s men are now six games without a win in all competitions but will still be eyeing a top-half finish with home games against Bournemouth and Luton.
Arsenal did not let their midweek defeat in Germany linger and were soon on top at Molineux.
Involved early on, Trossard caused trouble on the left and tamely headed his cross straight at Jose Sa from Bukayo Saka before the Belgian out-jumped Declan Rice who whistled a low shot just off target.
Trossard was then on the end of the supply line when Ben White found him, but his kick in the middle of the box went wide. For all Arsenal’s dominance, it was Wolves who came closest to opening the scoring on the half-hour mark.
Gomes beat Jakub Kiwior down the right, advanced into the box and thundered home a shot that was well deflected onto the post by David Raya.
Arsenal survived that scare and took the lead at half-time. Matt Doherty was weak in a challenge on Gabriel Jesus and the Brazilian returned it to Trossard, whose chipped effort headed off the post for his side’s first goal in two-and-a-half games.
Arsenal managed the game effectively in the second half.
Wolves were so lacking in attack that midfielder Mario Lemina came on as a striker and the visitors upped the ante in the last 15 minutes.
But, unsurprisingly, they were unable to produce anything clear when looking for a comparator. And Arsenal, who hadn’t conceded in an away Premier League game since January, killed off the game deep into injury time when Odegaard converted from an acute angle at the second attempt to seal the three points and top spot.
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