OPINION
Wolverhampton Wanderers secured a creditable 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Ivan Cavaleiro scored the game’s opening goal in the 13th minute but Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were pegged back by substitute Henrikh Mkhitaryan late on.
It was a decent return to form for Wolves, who had been going through a little bit of a slump of late, and Nuno will be pleased with his team’s efforts.
As usual there is plenty to be gleaned from the contest, and This is Futbol has identified three things that can be learned from the game.
Helder Costa electric
Wolves winger Helder Costa was tremendous against Arsenal on Sunday, constantly hassling the home defenders and making life incredibly difficult for Unai Emery’s side.
Costa has struggled to get to grips with the Premier League so far this season, but he appears to be finding his feet now. He showed what he was capable of at the Emirates with an electric performance.
Nuno’s team needed more cutting edge after weeks of profligacy and, while Costa didn’t get on the scoresheet himself, he showed that he could consistently cause havoc in the final third as he bamboozled the Arsenal defence on multiple occasions.
Axing Jota was right decision
It had been clear for some time that Wolves star Diogo Jota was failing to produce his best form this campaign before Nuno dropped him a few weeks ago, and we are now seeing the benefit of removing the forward from the line up.
Jota was clearly devoid of confidence and didn’t look like making anything happen for his team. Ivan Cavaleiro has come in for him of late and showed what he could do today by scoring the game’s opening goal.
It’s proved the correct decision to give Jota some time on the bench because he was flailing in this Wolves team. There’s a new lease of life in the Wolves attack and dropping Jota is part of the reason for that.
Defence dominant despite late equaliser
It must have been gutting for Wolves’ defenders to concede that late equaliser because they had been superb up until that point. Ryan Bennett and Conor Coady, in particular, were wonderful and deserved to secure a clean sheet.
Rui Patricio, as well, made some terrific saves and it’s unfortunate for him that Mkhitaryan grabbed that fortuitous strike late on. It was a superb defensive effort up until that moment so it must have been bitterly disappointing for Wolves to concede.
Despite that fact, though, Wolves’ defence did really well against an in form Arsenal attack and never looked like conceding until they did. Credit to them, despite Mkhitaryan’s goal.