Wolves Fans' Verdict v Arsenal: Away form shocker!

Rob Cartwright

So another season is over. Not really an enjoyable one, with a few odd games to shout about and Lopetegui’s home form achieving our status after a terrible start to the campaign.

Thankfully, we went to Arsenal with nothing to play for. We literally staggered to the finish line, hardly laying a finger on them.

This being our customary final league game against the team who finished second. Now it was pure fluke that my tickets were situated right next to the Arsenal fans behind the goal!

It’s fair to say, there’s never been so much fun while witnessing a 5-0 loss!

As for the game, the team selection confused me. You’re playing one of the best teams so why was Bueno picked over Toti and Dawson has to start. Both ridiculous decisions in my opinion. Why didn’t Neves start?

I think Lopetegui’s message to Jeff Shi here was to look what next season may look like. However, he also gave Adama the full game who produced a man of the match performance; although this was not difficult! Jimenez played full game too.

Finally, Kilman is not Captain material. He needs to concentrate on his own, below par, performance rather than think about what others should be doing.

Arsenal knew this too. From the start everything went down our left side. Saka completely out played Bueno and sent him dizzy with his twists and turns. Changes were needed here, after 15 minutes. We were already 2-0 down with both goals put on a plate for Xhaka. We all could see it, but Lopetegui stuck with it until half-time. The game was over by then.

The defence were shoddy; no a shambles. Where was Dawson?

Sa was poor too. I’m putting him at fault for three of the goals, but he hardly had any protection.

In midfield, Lemina was in a one man show. Nunes and Gomes were hiding. They contributed nothing. Shame on them.

Hwang and Jimenez were trying hard without much of the ball and no real support. I’m amazed to see possession 51:49 as it certainly didn’t feel that way inside the ground.

We were slightly better second half. The substitutions did make a difference, but much too late to impact on the game. We didn’t ever look like scoring.

Story of our season in that respect.

So we sign off with a very poor display. Thanks to Wolves for giving us something else to worry about all summer. Brighton a one-off? I don’t think so.

The squad is out of balance and needs a proper refresh. I’m afraid some of these (expensive) signings have done little or nothing to justify the fee and not improved the team at all. Cundle and Hodge would offer more and they were already at the club!

If we could keep one player, it wouldn’t bother me if any or all of the others were to go.

Frightening isn’t it.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your summer Wolves fans.

John Lalley

This was surely the most predictable outcome of this season’s denouement; Arsenal comfortably trouncing Wolves without any semblance of a chance that their superiority would be remotely troubled.

It was vaguely a contest until The Gunners hit the front with barely 10 minutes on the clock. From that moment, they won as they pleased; they’ve routed better sides than us this campaign and signed off by making mincemeat of feeble opposition in what for them resembled a light training routine.

Wolves might not quite have been basking under the palm trees, but the aeroplane modes on the mobiles were busily in impatient operation, desperate to be any place rather than haplessly going through the motions at The Emirates.

Wolves defended abysmally, offered as little going forward as they had at Brighton and Manchester United and frankly displayed nothing by way of consolation in what was an absolute mis-match.

After the recent embarrassment at Brighton, we might have expected some urgency and determination to avoid another artless fiasco. Sure, this was a dead rubber and our principal target had been achieved with time to spare, but there was an acceptance of the inevitable from Wolves that stuck in the craw.

Resistance was at a minimum; superior opponents simply rode roughshod over us and we didn’t seem much inclined to at least give it a shot at stemming the tide. As it was, we were torn apart on the left flank with gaping chasms being exploited frequently and with decisive consequences.

Once the ball found its way into the danger areas our central defensive unit fractured becoming disorganised and disjointed with positional awareness going haywire leaving Arsenal to help themselves.

Finally, Jose Sa gave his increasing band of sceptics a last morsel to criticise over the close-season with an absolute howler to harrowingly set the seal on a pitiful performance.

There is no disgrace in being out-classed and Arsenal as they have shown for much of the season can attack with awesome style and efficiency. Their third goal was an absolute delight showing the kind of flair and innovation Wolves can’t even dream about; precise combinations, appreciation of angles and spaces and a beautiful finish all delivered at speed with devastating accuracy.

In the London sunshine, we were truly chasing shadows and facing an object lesson in delivering the kind of quality that we have to aspire to. We won’t match their level of ingenuity but we have to give it a try; our passive redundance won’t take us any further.

Arsenal are streets ahead of us in terms of resources and that’s fair enough, but a bit more defiance in the face of adversity surely isn’t asking too much.

Mario Lemina pulled off one outstanding challenge to prevent further humiliation which at least offered token resistance, but it was an isolated show of defiance. We have been so poor on the road all season; this flimsy indolence sadly came as no surprise. Wretched, absolutely dismal; professional pride simply not in evidence and that’s hard to accept.

Clive Smith

Well, there was nothing enjoyable about that. Another woeful away performance to be frank. We were so second best it was embarrassing – and Arsenal were not even in top gear most of the time. Even the atmosphere was more anti-Arsenal than pro-Wolves.

Saka has run riot against us before so deciding to put him one on one with Bueno seemed a poor decision from the start – and so it proved. Dropping Bentley and Dawson were just two more puzzling team selections we have had in the last few games. I am sure Lopetegui has his reasons but they are not ones I could easily explain away.

The feel good factor we had from securing safety has quickly evaporated. Were we to guess our starting XI for our first match in August, I wonder how many would be right! Ironically, one player almost certain to go, Traore, was MOTM with Lemina not far behind. Very little else seemed to be working until Boubacar came on for twenty minutes and he played well.

Only a couple of away days this season have offered much joy – something that has to be improved next season. Shots on target and goals obviously are already on that list. With financial concerns also surfacing in the last fortnight we are beginning to resemble Leicester and we know where they have just ended up.

Not a very positive verdict to finish on, sorry, despite finishing 13th which is way better than we expected at Christmas.

Adam Virgo

Another joke of an away performance, zero shots on target in two consecutive away games isn’t good enough regardless if we were playing Man Utd and now Arsenal. The game had no bearing on the season and the players couldn’t even give the fans at least something to shout about.

We’re far too easy to play against away from home so it’s no coincidence that we’ve been battered 6-0 and 5-0 by Brighton and Arsenal respectively.

Conceding two goals to Granit Xhaka is like when you let your friend score past you on Fifa to give them a chance because you feel sorry for them, honestly embarrassing.

After 3-0 I can’t even remember what happened, I was too drunk to even care at that point and in the second half I paid more attention to what was happening in the relegation battle, was more exciting than watch us do a whole lot of nothing.

I’m so glad the season is over, I need a break after watching so many terrible away performances. Of course I’ll be back watching it all again in a few months time but hopefully it’ll be much better to watch.