The Late (Late, Late, Late) Show at the Emirates

Arsenal have determined not to give up on the title chase, not to make it pretty and to leave everything until late in the day. The Wolves cames to Emirates did everything they could to cede a goal, even played a man down for the last half hour and still the Arsenal did not create the 1-0 winner until less than 30 seconds remained in stoppage time. 

A couple of things were clear from the start. As line-ups were announced it was clearly a weakened side as Clichy, Diaby, Nasri, Bendtner did not feature, aside from the other more serious absences. And Arsenal set a record for the slowest left-back in the history of top flight play, Mikael Silvestre. Wenger could afford the luxury of putting the old Frenchman outside as Wolves rarely looked able to trouble him.

In the early going, it didn't seem to matter as everything from Arsenal came down the right-side with Theo Walcott, fresh off his game-changing goal against Barca, looking like he's re-discovered football. But, it was to be short-lived as Walcott soon showed that while he had all pace in the world to get to the end-line he really had no idea what to do when he got there. Still, Arsenal created chance after chance in the early going but they just couldn't find the key to unlock the goal (one place to start would've been to quit shooting at the keeper).

(BTW, Arsenal had no corner kicks during Thursday's Champions League match. When was the last time Arsenal finished a game with no corners?)

The half finished 0-0, with Arsenal creating plenty of pressure, but showing a real lack of composure shooting at goal. Towards the latter stages, the Gunners clearly showed that (without Cesc...and Arshavin...and Nasri) they were running out of ideas. Let's see if Arsene gives them a few in his halftime talk.

Second half starts and a couple of things are abundantly clear. First, Eduardo is very ineffectual; just a shadow of hi pre-injury self. no conviction attacking the goal, a couple of bad whiffs and no speed. Arsenal are getting multiple crosses in (they're raining right in now) and don't have any goal scorers to poke it in. Several times I saw the ball come whipping in and Arsenal players standing watching Hanneman catch the ball. Just throw yourself at the ball a little; that's all I aks!

Never thought I'd find myself saying it, but by the 6oth minute I was screaming for Big Nick to get subbed on.

I'm sorry to say but Theo Walcott is just rubbish. His speed definitely changed the Barca game and he did score the first goal in the comeback (although take a look at the replay, it wasn't a good finish; more Valdes' mistake than Theo's prowess.) but the kid has got no finish. Consistently, he's picking the wrong pass or just wildly whipping the ball in, hoping that someone will be there. You can afford to play him against a team the caliber of Wolves, but against the likes of Chelsea or ManUre, he'll be deadly to the Arsenal.

At the 65th minute, the ref gives an apparent assist to Arsenal, reaching for his yellow card and mistakenly pulls out a red card on Carl Henry (there's no way that tackle was anything but a yellow). I had to wonder if the effect of going down a player might galvanize Wolves. Arsenal did bring down a lot more pressure after the card, but give Wolverhampton credit, the lads never gave up and created a few nervy moments for the Arsenal supporters.

The Gunners could not do the job in a full 90 and when the ref gave 5 minutes of stoppage time, I had to wonder if that would be enough. In the 93rd minute, Walcott gets the best chance of the game, when Rosicki find him alone against Hanneman in the area and the winger badly scuffs the chance to win the game. Dropped points, thy name is Walcott (and Almunia). I know he's young, but it's clear the experiment is over. We can't afford to keep putting him on the pitch. Let him go try to develop as a player somewhere lower down the table. Arsene could probably get a decent amount for him and use that to help buy a real keeper.

Finally, my hero, Bendtner Scores in the 94th plus-minute. Rosicki finds Sagna out wide of the box and the French defender lifts a nice ball in the area, leaving it to the Big Dane to outmuscle his defender and direct the ball past the keeper and just past the good side of the near post. Beautiful goal!

I could grouse about the game all day long, but the bottom line is that championship-calibre teams win the tough games. They pull out the 3 points on the off days. The hope stays alive for another week.