A frantic finish at the Emirates Stadium saw Arsenal defeat bottom side Wolves 2-1 in the Premier League, but they unexpectedly made hard work of securing all three points.
Arsenal made hard work of beating bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday night but eventually found a way to secure all three points.
It was a night where Wolves scored all three goals but ultimately lost. They thought they’d snatched an unlikely point when Tolu Arokodare scored his first ever Premier League goal in the 90th minute, but Yerson Mosquera’s unfortunate own goal in the fourth minute of added time gave the Gunners the win.
Most people would have expected Arsenal to take the game to Wolves from the off, but the Gunners struggled to break down the visiting side’s low block.
If anything, Wolves had the best chances in the opening 45 minutes, with Hwang Hee-Chan breaking clear from the halfway line before seeing his shot saved by David Raya and a slip by Piero Hincapié presenting Jørgen Strand Larsen was a shot on the cusp of half-time, before it was well blocked by the Arsenal defence.
Although they attempted six shots overall, Arsenal didn’t post a single shot on target in the first half – the first time that they have failed to do so this season in a Premier League match.
But the Gunners are top of the Premier League for a reason, and they eventually found a way to breach the Wolves’ backline. Unsurprisingly, it came via a corner.
Bukayo Saka’s wicked inswinging corner in the 70th minute flew over goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, bounced off the inside of the post and hit the back of Johnstone before hitting the back of the net. It was a devastating blow for a Wolves side that had battled heroically to keep Arsenal out.
Arsenal 2-1 Wolves Stats 2025-26
The Gunners also received a boost when Gabriel Jesus made his return to Premier League action for the first time in 11 months, coming on for Viktor Gyökeres with 10 minutes remaining. Another welcome return for Mikel Arteta ahead of a busy festive period for this side.
With the game barely into the 90th minute, Arokodare’s header from an excellent Mateus Mané cross silenced the home crowd, with Wolves thinking they’d collected just their third point of the Premier League season.
Just three minutes and nine seconds later they threw it all away after Mosquera got the final touch on the ball before it flew past a despairing Johnstone. It was a cruel ending for the away side, who arguably deserved a point.
Despite their most spirited display of the league season so far, Wolves’ misery continues. Of course, it was a mammoth task for them in facing the league leaders, with just four of the previous 41 such encounters ending with a victory for the bottom club. But this was their 10 consecutive defeat in all competitions and their ninth in a row in the Premier League – there have only been three instances of longer runs in the history of the competition.
It also meant that their winless streak to start to season advances to 16 matches, with only Sheffield United’s 17-game run at the start of 2020-21 longer in the Premier League era.
Failure to win their next match, against Brentford a week from today, will see Wolves equal the Blades’ worst league start to a season, but if they play like this, it’s far from a formality.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Arsenal vs Wolverhampton Wanderers stats from their Premier League meeting at the Emirates Stadium on 13 December 2025.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Arsenal 2-1 Wolves Post-Match Facts
Excluding penalties, Arsenal have scored more set piece goals than any other side in the Premier League this season (11), with a league-high nine of those coming from corners (9).
Wolves have conceded more own goals than any other side in the Premier League this season (4), while their two today were the first Arsenal have benefitted from this term.
This was the seventh time in Premier League history a team scored twice in a Premier League match with both goals being own goals, and first since Leicester against Liverpool in December 2022.
Tolu Arokodare became the first Nigerian player to score a Premier League goal for Wolves, with his equaliser Wolves’ first shot in the second half.
Premier League Stats Opta
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