Bukayo Saka struck the first after Gabriel Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu were involved in the build up, before Martin Odegaard doubled our lead after more one-touch wizardry from Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah both hit the post and Wolves ensured a tense finale when they pulled one back through Matheus Cunha, but we held on to complete an excellent week.
Coming into the game on a real high after last weekend’s late win over Brentford, and the dismantling of Lens in midweek, we started as you might expect – with a spring in our step.
The game was just six minutes old when we took the lead. Saka started and finished the move, with some wonderful work on the right flank. Faced up by two defenders, he fed a pass through to Jesus, who in turn laid it off for Tomiyasu outside the box. Meanwhile Saka had continued his run into the danger area, received Tomiyasu’s first time pass, beat his man before sliding home right-footed.
On Wednesday our early goal opened the floodgates against Lens, and we threatened to do the same here when we added a second seven minutes later.
It was another excellent move to carve out the second goal, this time on the left flank. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus and played a quick one-two to get behind the Wolves defence, and the Ukrainian pulled his pass back to where Odegaard crisply found the net with a first-time shot low into the corner.
It was a rampant start by Mikel Arteta’s team, and Leandro Trossard was next to go close. He just about got a toe to Odegaard’s clipped throughball, but he shot was smothered by Jose Sa in the Wolves goal.
It was Sa’s last involvement, as he had to go off injured, to be replaced by Dan Bentley midway through the half.
From our position of strength, we continued playing with plenty of aggressive and attacking purpose.
Trossard had a shot blocked in the box and Rice saw an effort deflected wide as we racked up the shot count.
Gabriel Martinelli was denied a wonderful goal by the upright, after Saka found him at the end of a counter-attack. Just moments earlier he had ran back the length of the pitch to stop a promising Wolves attack.
During the seven minutes injury-time at the end of the first half, Gabriel Jesus shot tamely at Bentley when free in the box, and Trossard scuffed a shot wide after yet more geometric artistry in the build up.
The last act of the opening 45 minutes though was David Raya – a virtual spectator so far – standing firm to deny Hwang Hee-Chan when he suddenly picked up possession on the edge of the box.
At the start of the second-half we had a penalty appeal turned down, when Max Kilman appeared to have hold of Jesus, preventing him from getting on the end of a Tomiyasu whipped cross. Despite a VAR review though, the referee’s decision not to award the spot kick stood.
The pace of the game had dropped though, and Wolves sensed a way back in. Matheus Cunha drew a smart save from Raya at the near post, and we responded with another long spell of possession. But the build-up play was patient rather than explosive.
Rice dragged a shot wide and Saka saw a dipping effort from 20 yards fly over before Trossard had a real chance for the third. A wonderful flick by Odegaard set him through on goal, but Bentley was out well to deny the Belgian, and then save from Saka’s follow up shot.
Without that third goal, Wolves were always alive, and they capitalised on some sloppy defensive play to pull one back.
Zinchenko and Rice failed to clear the ball inside the box, and Cunha thrashed home superbly, with five minutes of the 90 left.
Eddie Nketiah so nearly restored the two-goal cushion instantly. Again Odegaard was the creator, this time Nketiah slid the ball past the keeper, but his shot hit the inside of the post and bounced away to safety.
Wolves piled more pressure on in injury-time, but we stood firm to record three more Premier League points.
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