Gritty Gunners bounce back

WHEN Arsene Wenger demanded his Arsenal side kick-start their faltering title challenge at Molineux, their fastest goal in Premier League history and a hard-fought away victory was surely what he had in mind.

They weren’t particularly pretty as they ground out the three points, but the Frenchman will have cared little for style when his side headed with the only prize that really matters, in the shape of three points.

An intimidating home atmosphere was expected, but failed to materialise in the opening stages — largely due to the fact that the game had been widely advertised as an 8pm kick-off, when it in fact began 15 minutes earlier. There were vast empty swathes of seats across the ground

While the fans were caught out, Arsenal most certainly weren’t, as they took the lead after just 37 seconds.

There appeared little on as Alex Song picked the ball up but he fired over a devilish cross that deceived Richard Stearman, allowing Marouane Chamakh to place his header past Marcus Hahnemann,

Wolves began to grow in stature as the half went on, and Kevin Doyle athletically flicked a header onto the roof of Lukasz Fabianski’s net as the game approached the half-hour mark, just to let Arsenal know that the match was far from done and dusted. Both sides started the second half with real intent. First, Fabregas failed to make the most of a wonderful opportunity when Tomas Rosicky sent him clean through, before Kevin Doyle saw his drive tipped over the bar by Fabianski. And from the resulting corner Stearman had a wonderful chance to atone for his earlier error as Stephen Hunt’s corner was flicked into his path, but Rosicky hacked the ball off the line.

Then it was Arsenal’s turn again as Arshavin demonstrated his goal threat when he cut inside and slammed a low drive against the far post from just outside the box.

Djourou’s effort was then cleared off the line by Karl Henry but shortly after Fabianski had superbly denied Nenad Milijas, Chamakh broke clear to seal the points.

WOLVES: Hahnemann 7; Foley 6, Stearman 5, Berra 6, Ward 7 (Fletcher 86); Edwards 5 (Hunt 8), Mancienne 6 (Ebanks-BLake 74), Henry 7, Milijas 6, Jarvis 6; Doyle 7

ARSENAL: Fabianski 9; Sagna 7, Squillaci 8, Djourou 7, Clichy 7; Wilshere 7 (Denilson 67), Song 8, Fabregas 6; Rosicky 6, Chamakh 8 (Bendtner 90), Arshavin 6.

Referee: Mark Halsey