Recent criticism of Arsenal has felt unfair – but Wolves draw suggests the pressure is getting to them | OneFootball

Chants of “second again ole, ole” have become a common feature among fans of opposition clubs facing Arsenal over the past year.

But those taunts will no doubt rise to new levels after the Gunners’ recent collapse against Wolves.

With a comfortable 2-0 lead against the Premier League’s bottom club, who had picked up just nine points going into the meeting at Molineux, Arsenal inconceivably let their struggling opponents back into the game and were forced to settle for a point when Tom Edozie, making his Premier League debut, struck late with a helping hand from Riccardo Calafiori and the woodwork.

Many will point the finger of blame at the mix up between goalkeeper David Raya and defender Gabriel. Either could have quite easily cleared the ball had they not got in each other’s way and avoided conceding late. But, in truth, Mikel Arteta’s men got exactly what they deserved. Their management of the game after Hugo Bueno had scored to make it 2-1 was hardly befitting of Premier League champions.

Given how good Arsenal have been for the majority of the campaign, it was difficult to grasp just how they so easily gave the ball away time and time again under little pressure from their opposition. Whether it was tiredness or the pressure getting to them, only those inside the dressing room will know for definite, but this was the sort of collapse anxious Arsenal fans have been fearing, given their recent history.

“I don’t think about all of that,” Bukayo Saka responded after the game when he was asked if the pressure was getting to Arsenal. “I just I think we need to just get back to our level.

“Do the basics right. We’ve got more than enough quality in this team to win games, especially the games where we’ve been dropping points recently.”

Recent analysis of Arsenal’s dropped points has felt massively over the top and at times unfair. There has felt an eagerness to push the narrative that Arteta’s side are lacking the mental qualities needed to win titles when in reality there had been little evidence of that this season.

Arsenal were never going to win every game from January until the end of the campaign. Their recent draw with Brentford, one of the form teams in the league and a side which would pose any team in the world problems at the Gtech Stadium, was disappointing but hardly catastrophic.

They would, of course, have expected to beat Nottingham Forest, but Arsenal’s recent record at the City Ground pointed to the strong possibility of dropped points. The home draw with Liverpool off the back of an intense Christmas schedule, where tiredness was quite clearly a factor, could also be somewhat understood.

Their singular defeat of 2026 so far came at home to a resurgent Manchester United embracing the freedom that Michael Carrick had afforded them, and was also not entirely shocking, albeit Arsenal’s inability to pick up a point when they had got themselves level did suggest there were some warning signs.

But their draw with Wolves on Wednesday was by far and away the most devastating result of the lot and pointed to deeper issues within the squad. There were no real mitigating factors behind the performance, and no conceivable way that this should have ended with anything other than a comfortable Arsenal win.

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Arsenal’s previous record in the second half of seasons

It will, of course, draw comparisons to the experiences of the past three seasons, which have shaped the narrative around the Gunners seemingly lacking what it takes to win the Premier League crown.

While it was quite clear that Liverpool were going to win the title last season, Arsenal’s second half of the campaign ensured it was an easy road to the crown for the Reds, failing to win ten of their final 19 games. While it must be viewed in the context of an injury crisis and their Champions League hopes being prioritised, it was nonetheless a very poor end to their domestic campaign.

In 2023/24, however, Arsenal enjoyed strong form from January on, winning 16 of 18 games following a tough run over Christmas. Their dropped points came in a goalless draw at title rivals Manchester City and a home defeat to Aston Villa, but it was arguably their three defeats in five during December that were the most costly. They finished that season with 89 points, a total many title winners have failed to hit.

It is the 2022/23 campaign, Arsenal’s first where they were truly in title contention under Arteta, which perhaps bares the most pain for Arsenal supporters, with their team leading the way for much of the season before collapsing in 2023, failing to win ten of their 22 games and only winning three of their last nine games of the season.

Next up for Arsenal is a north London derby with Tottenham under the new management of Igor Tudor. “You have to stand up,” Arteta said following the defeat to Wolves. “When you have a moment of difficulty, we have to show how much we want it and how good we are. We have to stand up.”

Anything other than victory will only add to the pressure and the perception of Arsenal under Arteta, whether fair or not.

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