Premier League title race: Arsenal reclaim top spot after win over Wolves
The Premier League title race has taken an attritional turn, and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will hope going top of the table can breathe new life into his team.
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The Gunners secured a 2-0 win at Wolves last Saturday night but, despite the comfortable score line, it had "last man standing" feel by the end given the circumstances around it.
Wolves were hampered by wretched injury list and Arsenal were running on empty this week after losing to Aston Villa and then succumbing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
This was one of those occasions where the result was paramount: Arsenal simply had to win, no matter how, to reverse the feeling that their season was slipping away in a matter of days.
Goals from Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard ensured the Gunners ended a game they controlled for long periods with the points they deserved but this was a laboured, tired display -- perhaps inevitably so. Credit to the Gunners for finding a way because the grind is real right now.
Pep Guardiola spent the aftermath of Manchester City's FA Cup win over Chelsea at Wembley criticising the "unacceptable" scheduling of their game on a Saturday after a gruelling Champions League exit last Wednesday.
Arsenal faced a similar turnaround — without extra-time but with the additional travel in returning from Germany — and Liverpool must cope with a Thursday-Sunday turnaround at Fulham in the next 24 hours.
"When you compete in European competition, every team has to compete in the same way," said Arteta. "You cannot have a team that hasn't played for seven days, or three days before and has more recovery time and then you have to play in the Premier League and the FA Cup. It is not right. If you look in any angle it's not right."—ESPN
