Review: Hennessey frustrates profligate Arsenal as Wolves hold on for draw

Arsenal failed to capitalise on the chance to gain ground on their rivals as they were held to a 1-1 draw against struggling Wolves at the Emirates Stadium. With Chelsea and Liverpool dropping points at home on Boxing Day, getting a win against Wolves would have seen the Gunners move level with Tottenham, but some outstanding goalkeeping by Wayne Hennessey and iffy decision making led to a stalemate, and a first point for Wolves against Arsenal in the Premier League era.

Wolves make their point

When the team sheets were read out, it all looked quite positive for Arsenal. Wenger had opted for selective rotation, as Ramsey and Walcott (who Wenger later revealed had taken ill before the game) were replaced by Rosicky and Benayoun respectively after the latter duo’s good showing after coming on against Villa; and Johan Djourou made a quick recovery from a groin strain. Kevin Doyle was on the bench for Wolves, and Evans-Blake didn’t even make the bench. Steven Fletcher played up top for the away side, who were looking to take advantage of Arsenal’s makeshift full-backs by running at them with nifty wingers like Jarvis.

The game started, and Wolves were pushing forward when they had the chance instead of parking the bus. Jarvis got a couple of chances to go one-on-one against Djourou which resulted in a few troublesome crosses. After clearing one such cross though, Arsenal broke with sniper-like precision and cobra-like venom. Rosicky charged down the right hand side with the ball, swivelled and played it to Benayoun. The Israeli steadied himself and picked out a sumptuous through-ball for Gervinho, who showed a calm and composure that belied his time at the club so far, rounded the keeper and scored. With the deadlock broken, one feared the worst for Wolves.

Floodgates open? Naah.

But this is when Arsenal switched off. Instead of going for the jugular and killing the game off with a second goal, the home team eased off, slowed the tempo of the game and started doing cavalier flicks in the middle of the park i.e. Song. This came back to bite them when Wolves equalised with their first (and only) shot on target in the game. A corner was half cleared; Stephen Hunt turned on the edge of the box and hit a shot that was going well wide. The enterprising Fletcher got a head on the stray ball however, and it trickled into the far corner leaving Szczesny flailing. Parity was restored, perhaps undeservedly so, but the underdogs need some luck to pull off an upset. Half time was reached, and Arsenal had work to do.

Wenger made no changes at the break, and Arsenal started the second half with no hint of the nonchalance that they displayed in the first. While the attitude was right this time, Wolves custodian Wayne Hennessey proved more than up to the challenge as he made a string of wonderful saves to keep his side in the game. A superb Rosicky cross found Mertesacker, whose strong header was swatted away by the keeper. Moments later, van Persie wiggled away and shot from a tight angle, which Hennessey saved with his legs as well.

Speaking of van Persie, he epitomised his team and had a frustrating game by his very high standards. Although displaying excellent hold-up play and touches on the ball, the most important touch deserted him on two occasions; when first Aaron Ramsey and then Rosicky played brilliant lofted passes to him. It might be argued that the record of scoring the most goals in a calendar year was on his mind, but a more understandable reason might be fatigue after having played nearly every Premier League game this season so far.

Coming back to the game, Arsenal continued to press and Hennessey continued to frustrate. A van Persie free-kick was pushed aside, countless Gervinho crosses were gathered. Arsenal brought on Arshavin, Ramsey and Chamakh for the final throw of the dice. The little Russian seemed more driven to make a difference than he has been in recent games, and he played a one-two with van Persie before lashing a shot with amazingly low back-lift just over the bar.

About fifteen minutes from time, the game took an ugly turn as Milijas was controversially sent off by universally hated referee Stuart Atwell. Wolves players were rightly aggrieved as the midfielder received his marching orders for a late tackle on Arteta. Wolves dropped all pretence of looking for a win at this point and flooded the box with players, and Arsenal upped the tempo even further. An Arshavin cross was touched on by Gervinho to an advancing Thomas Vermaelen, but Hennessey pulled off his best save yet to keep the teeth-gnashing Gunners at bay.

You shall not pass!

The six minutes of stoppage time passed by pretty much without incident, barring a yellow card for hero Hennessey in lieu of time wasting and a few optimistic van Persie headers. As the final whistle blew, the irritation was writ large on Wenger’s face, and jubilation on McCarthy’s. Wolves had ridden their luck and been blessed with their keeper having the game of his life to come away with a well-earned point. For Arsenal, it’s two points disappointingly dropped, and Tottenham have now opened up a sizable gap on them after their victory against Norwich. They’ll look to make up in their last fixture of the year, at home to QPR. And they’ll be wishing that Paddy Kenny doesn’t do a Hennessey.