Wolves gave their survival hopes a massive boost after holding Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium despite playing the last quarter of an hour with 10-men.
Mick McCarthy’s side produced arguably their best away performance of the season with Steven Fletchers first half strike ensuring they would take a well deserved point back to the Midlands. It was made all the more special by the fact they had to come from behind to earn a share of the spoils after Gervinho had brilliantly opened the scoring for Arsenal after only eight minutes. Gunners boss Arsene Wenger will be disappointed his side failed to add to their early lead and will see this as two points dropped as opposed to one earned in their fight for a top-four finish. The visitors, on the other hand, will be buoyed by both the result and performance as they had to deal with a sea of Arsenal pressure in the second half but stood firm to move two points clear of the drop zone.
With Robin Van Persie chasing the record for the most goals in a calendar year the home support would have been expecting their side to hit the net at a frequent rate. It certainly seemed that would be the case as Gervinho put the Gunners a goal to the good after eight minutes latching onto Yossi Benayoun’s defence splitting pass before rounding Wayne Hennessey and keeping his composure to cooly slot the ball home. Van Persie then had the chance to move himself closer to Alan Shearers goal scoring record but could only roll his shot wide after being picked out by Gervinho’s clever reverse pass. Arsenal were simply dominating possession with Wolves forced to sit back and soak up the pressure. However they shocked the Emirates crowd into near silence in the 38th minute with Fletcher equalising against the run of play diverting Steven Hunt’s shot in after being played on side by some sloppy defending from the home side.
Chances were once again few and far between for the away side after the break with Nenad Milijas blasting his opportunity over the bar after being teed up by the bright Matt Jarvis. Arsenal soon went back on the offensive but just couldn’t find a way past Hennessey who did brilliantly to claw Van Persies sublime free kick away from the top corner. The Gunners attacked in waves only to be thwarted by a Wolves defence that just refused to lie down even after Milijas was sent off for a poor tackle on Mikel Arteta with 14 minutes remaining. Van Persie then blazed an effort wide before seeing his free kick draw another fine save from Hennessey. The Welsh keeper then denied Thomas Vermaelen with a point blank save at the death to ensure his side went home with a point and a major boost to their confidence that will kick their bid for survival kicked into gear.
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