Two own goals help Arsenal edge past bottom club Wolves to extend their lead at the top

FIVE CLEAR: Arsenal's Gabriel Jesus elebrates with teammates AP Photo/Richard Pelham)

Arsenal 2 Wolves 1

Two own goals saved Arsenal’s Christmas and maybe even their season as Mikel Arteta’s Premier League title dream was turning into a nightmare.

Leading through a bizarre 70th-minute error from Wolves keeper Sam Johnstone, Arteta’s misfiring Gunners conceded an injury-time equaliser to a Tolu Arokodare header.

The Premier League’s basement side, winless all season, were celebrating as if they had won as it was announced there would be six minutes of added time.

Four minutes later and Bukayo Saka swung in a corner and it appeared as if substitute Gabriel Jesus had nodded home for his first goal in nearly a year.

The ball actually came off the unfortunate player defending against him, Yerson Mosquera.

"Sometimes you need it [luck]," said Arsenal captain on the night Bukayo Saka.

"Today, it went our way. We will take the points and move forward. We won't know until May, but we can be happy tonight that we left with three points.

"Coming to the Emirates we want to make the teams know that it is going to be tough here and it is not going to be an easy game.

"It was frustrating at times, I'll be honest. The message to the boys was to stay patient and trying things - in the end we got our reward.

"It is high [morale] and we have a break now up until next week."

Huge celebrations again and this time mixed with relief as this was the difference between Arsenal extending their lead at the top and all but being written off as title winners.

Last weekend’s last gasp defeat at Aston Villa was bad enough, but failing to win against Wolves would have raised all sorts of questions.

Arsenal: Raya 7, White 6 (Lewis-Skelly 31), Timber 7, Saliba 6, Hincapie 6, Zubimendi 5 (Merino 58) Rice 6, Eze 5 (Odegaard 58), Martinelli 6 (Trossard 58), Saka 6, Gyokeres 5 (Jesus 81).

Subs: Arrizabalaga, Norgaard, Madueke, Nwaneri.

Wolves: Johnstone 7, Doherty 6 (Tchatchoua 69), Agbadou 6, Toti 6, Mosquera 6, Wolfe 6, Krejci 6 (Lopez 80), Joao Gomes 6, Andre 6, Hwang 6 (Arias 80), Strand Larsen 5 (Arokodare 69).

Subs: Sa, Bueno, Chirewa, Hoever, Mane.

Referee: Robert Jones 6.

Attendance: 60,242.