Wolverhampton: Wolverhampton Wanderers brought a halt to Arsenal’s impressive run beating the 9-man Gunners 2-1 in the Premier League at Molineux on Tuesday (February 3). Joao Moutinho’s scored a stunning long-range effort shortly after the break which ended Wolves’ eight-game winless streak.
The defeat also meant Arsenal surrendered their unbeaten seven-game run before their night of self-destruction. The Londoners opened the scoring with Nicolas Pepe’s superb 32nd-minute goal as they completely outplayed Wolves in the first half but everything changed in an instant.
Just seconds before the interval Arsenal defender David Luiz was sent off for inadvertently bringing down Willian Jose and Ruben Neves converted the penalty. Four minutes into the second half Moutinho’s piledriver flew over Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno and the visitors’ night went from bad to worse as the German was later red-carded when he rashly handled the ball outside his area.
The defeat left Mikel Arteta’s side in 10th spot with 31 points from 22 games, five points ahead of Wolves in 13th.
“Well it was a big decision. If they got it right and can justify that they got it right I hold my hand up and apologise,” Arteta told reporters accounting Luiz’s red card. “I’ve just seen the replay 10 times in five different angles and I cannot see any contact.
“I would like to see if VAR has different angles. All I am saying is that I’m sitting here and I cannot see any contact and that’s really, really frustrating because it’s a big moment. Of course it changed the game. You play with 10 men for 45 minutes without your central defender against this opposition of course it changes the game.”
