Wolves v Arsenal: Premier League – live!

I don’t understand how that red card is remotely justifiable. There was no challenge. Of course David Luiz didn’t attempt to play the ball, he wasn’t attempting anything, except to catch up with the guy streaking away in front of him.

Ruben Neves crashes his penalty into the top right corner of the net, and having been second best for much of the match Wolves go into the break on level terms and a man up!

Podence plays a fine ball through to Willian Jose, who catches David Luiz with his heel as he runs through and goes over. The referee gives the penalty, and David Luiz is sent off for running!

45+1 mins: We go into stoppage time, and there’ll be two minutes of it in both games.

41 mins: GOAL FOR WEST BROM! A massive moment in the other early evening Premier League game, where Matt Phillips taps in the rebound after Aaron Ramsdale parries Mbaye Diagne’s shot from the rebound after Aaron Ramsdale parries Callum Robinson’s shot! West Brom have now had more shots on target than Sheffield United, but they all came within about two seconds in the build-up to the opener.

41 mins: Smith-Rowe’s low cross goes across goal but Saka doesn’t anticipate it, and it’s cleared.

39 mins: Neves mishits a shot so completely that it becomes a handy ball out to Neto on the right-hand corner of the penalty area, who goes on to win a corner.

37 mins: After a decent spell from the home team Arsenal break again, Xhaka plays Pepe through, and perhaps with his goal in mind he tries to get the ball past Coady a bit luckily, just pushing it into the defender and hoping for a handy bounce, but he doesn’t get one.

35 mins: Saka tackles Neto, sending the ball behind for a … you wot ref? … a throw-in. Wolves complain a bit but the referee insists.

The breakthrough! Pepe wins the ball off Semedo in the Wolves half, exchanges passes with Lacazette, gets the ball past Semedo a bit luckily, gets the ball past Neves a bit luckily, and then curls a fine shot across goal and in at the far post!

30 mins: Arsenal break, the ball is played into the area and Saka races Boly. The ball goes over the goalline, the Arsenal player just goes over, and after a nervy pause the referee gives a corner.

29 mins: Wolves counter down the left, but Neto’s low cross is poor, and goes behind Willian Jose and Adama Traore.

27 mins: Kilman gets booked for raking Saka’s heel, as Arsenal launch repeated forays down the right. Wolves are holding firm, though it’s a disconcertingly wobbly kind of firmness.

25 mins: Pepe hits the bar! Smith Rowe bursts into the area, gets to the byline, spins and lays it back to Pepe, who from un unpromising angle sends in a shot that’s tipped into the woodwork by Rui Patricio!

23 mins: Nelson Semedo stings Leno’s pass with a vicious low shot from 30 yards. It’s pouring with rain in Wolverhampton this evening and not a pleasant time to be a goalkeeper, and Leno shovels it out just wide of goal, where Holding completes the job.

22 mins: There’s not much to report from the other early evening game, except that West Brom have had barely 30% of possession and no shots on target so far.

18 mins: Surely there is no chance of this game ending goalless. The ball seems to be spending all its time in the two final thirds, and none of its time being shuffled aimlessly between defenders. Wolves do a bit of attacking now, but Podence on the right and Neto on the left both have low crosses blocked.

15 mins: Arsenal come close again, Partey again releasing Saka but his low cross zipping past Lacazette before the Frenchman can react.

13 mins: Moutinho trips Lacazette, and earns the night’s first booking.

12 mins: Bellerin is released down the right by Lacazette, cuts onto his left foot and then … plays a frankly bizarre crossfield ball past a crowded area to the opposite flank, where no Arsenal player gets anywhere near it.

11 mins: Now Wolves come close! A corner is played short, crossed by Moutinho and headed over the bar by Kilman at the near post!

9 mins: Goal! But no! A cross from the left is flicked on by Holding to Lacazette, whose first-time pull-back finds Saka who thumps a right-foot shot across goal and in. It’s a beautiful finish, but Lacazette was half a foot offside when the ball was flicked on!

7 mins: It’s been all Arsenal so far, with Saka involved in everything, either on the right or drifting into the middle.

4 mins: Save! Now Cedric goes on a nice run down the left, tricking his way past Nelson Semedo, before pulling the ball back to nobody very much. Saka gets to it first, though, and his first-time shot on the spin is saved by Rui Patricio, low to his left.

1 min: Arsenal hit the post inside 35 seconds! Saka is played through by Partey’s lofted long ball over the defence and bursts through on the right of the area. Really he should be finishing that, but he hits the inside of the far post and it rebounds to safety!

The players are emerging from the tunnel (Wolves) / down the stairs from their first-floor makeshift dressing room. It’s three minutes to football o’clock!

Mikel Arteta says Aubameyang has only had one day’s training since returning from wherever-he-was so wasn’t ready to start, while Martin Odegaard “hasn’t been here long enough and needs a little bit more time”.

We know they are a team that gets good results against the top teams. We want to maintain our form in the Premier League. There’s a balance, we’re really efficient going forward and really solid defending our own goal and when that happens, you pick up a lot of points. You need some experience, but you need some youth, a different energy. To get that balance is not easy and now we’ve got it.

Nuno Espirito Santo says he’ll be playing with a back four, for avoidance of doubt. He’s asked about the clear-the-air meeting his squad had in the build-up to this game:

Now actions. Those were the moments to speak, now we needs to translate those words into actions. It’s the only way to improve. [The injury to Jimenez] will stay forever in our memories but that’s not the focus now. It is over, and we have a big challenge in front of us.

I rarely feel sorry for footballers, but this horribly-lit coach-exiting ambush photograph does seem a little cruel. Not cruel enough to stop me publishing it though.

Meanwhile at Bramall Lane:

Sheff Utd: Ramsdale, Baldock, Basham, Egan, Ampadu, Bogle, Lundstram, Norwood, Fleck, McGoldrick, Sharp. Subs: McBurnie, Lowe, Burke, Jagielka, Foderingham, Brewster, Bryan, Ndiaye, Brunt.
West Brom: Johnstone, O’Shea, Ajayi, Bartley, Townsend, Phillips, Livermore, Snodgrass, Matheus Pereira, Diagne, Robinson. Subs: Furlong, Gibbs, Robson-Kanu, Gallagher, Sawyers, Ivanovic, Peltier, Button, Ahearne-Grant.
Referee: Paul Tierney.

Two changes for Wolves, for whom Traore and Neves are back, while Saka replaces Martinelli for Arsenal after passing a late fitness test. The teams in full:

Wolverhampton: Rui Patricio, Nelson Semedo, Coady, Boly, Kilman, Daniel Podence, Neves, Joao Moutinho, Traore, Willian Jose, Pedro Neto. Subs: Hoever, Silva, Gibbs-White, Vitinha, Ruddy, Dendoncker, Richards, Otasowie.
Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Cedric, Thomas, Xhaka, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Pepe, Lacazette. Subs: Gabriel, Ceballos, Willian, Runarsson, Aubameyang, Chambers, Elneny, Martinelli, Odegaard.
Referee: Craig Pawson.

When these teams met at the Emirates at the end of November Wolves emerged with all three points but for them it was to prove a night of triumph and of trauma. They were seventh in the league, which is as close to home as Wolves get – in seven of the last 23 seasons, a shade over 30%, they have finished seventh in one division or another, including three of the last six. But casting a pall over this was the injury to Raul Jimenez sustained in the early stages of that match, when he fractured his skull in a clash of heads with David Luiz, a cruel blow in every sense. Wolves have taken six of a possible 33 points since that night, the worst record in the division (joint with West Brom), and their desperation to reignite their attack has seen them sign Willian Jose from Spain’s Royal Society, who is still very much in his settling-in period, 10 days after his arrival.

In the build-up to this match, Nuno Espirito Santo called a crisis meeting at which the squad talked through their current issues. “The dialogue was positive and sharing our feelings is positive, but then we have to transform that into action, and that is what we want to do tomorrow, transforming the feelings, the words into actions,” he said. “We have not had much time on the training ground, due to the short turnaround between games, but we addressed the problems, and we are trying to find the solutions to raise our standards and be able to perform again.”

Arsenal meanwhile were 14th after the Wolves defeat, and in their next four games would lose to Spurs, Burnley and Everton and draw at home to Southampton. But they have not lost since, and despite those poor results in a league table of results earned since that Wolves game they are fifth, over the last 10 matches they sit third, over the last eight they are second. Win tonight and they go sixth.

Meanwhile Sheffield United are playing West Bromwich Albion in a match of massive significance at the foot of the table, and we’ll be keeping a pretty close eye on that as well. Welcome!