Sloppy Arsenal implode in 2-2 draw at bottom side Wolves
Arsenal let a two-goal lead slip as Tom Edozie’s 94th-minute debut goal earned Wolves a 2-2 draw, leaving the Gunners five points clear atop the Premier League.
Teenager Tom Edozie scored a 94th-minute equaliser on debut as Arsenal let a two-goal lead slip at bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 2-2 draw yesterday (18 February), wasting a big chance to move clear in the Premier League title race.
Arsenal have 58 points from 27 matches, five ahead of second-placed Manchester City having played a game more. Wolves are on 10 points from 27 games, still one shy of Derby County's record low of 11.
Bukayo Saka celebrated his new five-year contract with a first goal in 16 games on a bitterly cold night in the West Midlands, before Piero Hincapie doubled the advantage 10 minutes into the second half.
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That should have been that, but Wolves stayed in the contest when Hugo Bueno netted with a superb curling strike, before Edozie fired a shot goalwards that came off Calafiori and the post and into the net.
"Extremely disappointed obviously with the result and with the way the game ended but we have to blame ourselves," Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told reporters.
"The performance in the second half we didn't show anything close to the standards required in this league to win.
"It was one moment after another moment after another moment. Even though we scored the second goal we never had dominance of the game, that's the reality."
Arsenal have won only three of their last eight games in the Premier League.
"Disappointed. Not much else to say," Saka told BBC. "There was a big difference in how we played in the first half and the second half. We dropped our standards and we got punished for it.
"Time to focus on ourselves, improve our standards and improve our performances and it is in our control."
The game was brought forward a month due to Arsenal's appearance in the League Cup final on 21 March, when they will face Pep Guardiola's City.
The visitors took only four minutes to grab the lead as Saka ended his longest run without a goal for the club. Declan Rice's brilliant, lofted pass into the six-yard box set up Saka to stoop to head into the net from close range.
They scored their second on 55 minutes when Hincapie ran onto Gabriel's pass and lifted the ball over Jose Sa.
Wolves fight back
Wolves found a way back into the contest when Bueno was allowed too much space on the edge of the box and curled a shot into the top corner for his first Premier League goal.
And 19-year-old Edozie rifled in a low shot after David Raya could not collect a cross and the ball squeezed in off Calafiori and the frame of the goal, a strike that was originally given as an own goal.
"The ball dropped to me, and I tried to keep it as low as possible and just (strike it) as hard as I can. They couldn't stop it, so it was my goal," Edozie said.
