Martin Keown has claimed Arsenal’s ‘whole title bid was on this game’ after the Gunners clinched a dramatic victory over Wolves.
Premier League leaders Arsenal looked set to drop valuable points in the title race when bottom-placed Wolves scored a 90th-minute equaliser through Tolu Arokodare at the Emirates Stadium.
Arokodare’s late header cancelled out Arsenal’s opener – an own goal from Wolves goalkeeper Sam Johnstone – but the hosts came again and sealed the win thanks to another own goal, this time from Yerson Mosquera.
The dramatic victory deprived title rivals Manchester City the chance to move level on points with Arsenal when they face Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Arsenal are chasing a first league title since 2004 and Keown stressed the importance of the late win, claiming ‘the whole world and his dog wanted Arsenal to slip up here tonight’.
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‘You don’t want to be playing like that too often if you want to be champions,’ the Gunners legend said on TNT Sports.
‘I think the whole title was on this game because the commotion around, and the noise around.
‘There is a lot of feeling – if you support Arsenal, there is a lot of feeling against the club. Lucky Arsenal is back… It has been an unlucky Arsenal for me [recently].
‘The world and his man wanted Arsenal to slip up here tonight.
‘Credit to Wolves and their manager – they were transformational tonight in their performance.’
Former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves added: ‘That was massive for Arsenal. To find a way to win when they hardly created any moments.
‘Wolves were exceptional, they couldn’t have played any better. Arsenal weren’t at their best but they’ll be absolutely delighted.’
Speaking after Arsenal’s victory over Wolves, Mikel Arteta told BBC Sport: ‘It was a rollercoaster. The longer the game went on, they had hope and we had to accelerate our game and take more risks.
‘In the first half we created a lot of situations without any clear big chances. After scoring the goal we had a period of two minutes where we were deep and very passive and we conceded that goal and it was a very poor goal.
‘But we found a way and that’s a very positive thing, if not we’d be very frustrated and rightly so.
‘There are things to improve obviously and the match should have been bigger especially with what we produced in the game even though there are a lot of things to improve. But that’s it – win the game and go on.’
While Arsenal were able to restore their five-point lead ahead of Man City’s game in hand, a 14th defeat of the season leaves Wolves stranded at the bottom of the table on two points.
Rob Edwards, who took over at Wolves last month, said: ‘It’s not great at the moment, is it?
‘The lads gave everything tonight but the bottom line is we have lost another game of football.
‘The plan did work, the lads carried it out really well. We were very disciplined – we cannot open up here as it would be asking for trouble.
‘Lads worked hard on it, and they believed in it [gameplan]. We showed the courage to get back in it after being 1-0 down.
‘We have lost far too many games, but I think we are going about it in the right way to try to turn things around.
‘I feel for the supporters and a big thank you to them for coming down. I feel for them as it will be hard for them at the moment.’
Arsenal return to Premier League action next weekend with a trip to Everton, while Wolves play host to Brentford.
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