Hey hey people, how are we all feeling? Good? I know I am! And we all know why. Because there is nothing better than a last minute winner in stoppage time. Wowsers, what a rush that was on the whistle, eh? I let out such a guttural yell that my throat went in to spasm. It felt big, massive even, with points on the line against a good Wolves team who given their position in the table you can legitimately call a potential rival.

Honestly, last minute winners are the amber nectar from the gods. It gives your opponent no time to respond, the narrative and acceptance in your own mind is instantly flicked in to jubilation and when they show the league table afterwards you are often found fist pumping the air for a double-bubble bit of celebration as a result. The Management asked why I shouted so loudly when that goal went in compared to so many Arsenal goals scored this season, but explaining the context to her, she got it. A win that gets us closer to fourth spot. A win that keeps the pressure on United with our two games in hand. A win that puts a little more daylight between us and the Scum, as well as Wolves. A win that feels hard earned. A win that comes in the face of some perceived injustice (I’ll come to that). It all stacks up that creates a fervour when you see that last second goal go in. And boy did we all enjoy it as Arsenal fans.

As I mentioned though, I had accepted the draw in my head, to be honest. It wouldn’t have been the worst result in the world; Wolves are on a fantastic run of form, they have been winning games away and they turned over the Scum just two weekends ago. They are a defensive resolute side and whilst they don’t score many goals, when you give them opportunities they will take them. And we gave them one heck of a gift in that first half. Gabriel’s back pass was way too short and it’s the first time in a while I’ve looked at our Brazilian centre half and thought “mate, that was idiotic”. Within 10 minutes you’re one goal down against a team who has mastered the low block and whose strength lies in its defensive solidity. I’ll be honest with you, I thought this would be a very long night after they scored, because they haven’t lost from a winning position in about four years I think. That is the strength of their approach when they are in front.

And as the game played out it felt that way too. We created more chances, we had more of the ball, but Wolves still had opportunities themselves and if you look at the whole game, we weren’t exactly amazing. We huffed, we puffed, we didn’t really trouble Sa that much. I think we’d only had a couple of shots on his goal in the first half. Saka and Martinelli found it difficult and Lacazette was not really doing anything of note. And although we continued to press and try to impose our approach on a resolute Wolves team, even in the second half, I personally could not see where the goal was coming from.

Step forward Mikel Arteta. If there’s one thing you want from your manager, it is to see when something isn’t working and to take remedial steps to rectify, or at least try something different. On came Pepe and on came Nketiah and immediately we had a different dynamic. For the second game in a row the Ivorian looked impressive from the bench and five minutes after his arrival we also saw Nketiah come on in a very aggressive and attacking move from Arteta to bring off Cedric and bring on Eddie. And both players made the impact. Nketiah’s assist for Pepe’s goal was a tick for the persistence charts, but Pepe’s touch and spin before flicking the ball in past Sa was sublime. That is what you get with him; a natural finisher who in the right form and frame of mind, as well as confidence, can be deadly in the box. We are going to need more of that in the coming months if we’re to even get close to top four and last night he delivered to bring us back level.

But praise needs to also be reserved for Lacazette too who, despite once again not really playing that well, was at the centre of the dramatic late win and you could see just how much it meant to him as the ball hit the back of the net. A delicious bit of last minute justice that had us all in raptures. And it was justice too, because the reason there was so much injury time was because of Wolves time wasting. Throughout the second half players went down, feigned injury, played the sh*thoursey card and unlike in the game at Molineux where Gabriel was booked for time wasting, it was only on 89 minutes that the first Wolves player was booked from Atkinson. What a surprise, eh? No such brandishing of cards like in our game away to them. Of course not. But everyone is refereed the same, right?

There was also some perceived injustice right at the beginning of the game where some argue we could have had a penalty, but I’m not so sure, as it looked a little soft. It’s one of those where if it’s given against you then you are pretty angry about it, but then again if it was against us it probably WOULD be given against us. That’s how it goes with officials and The Arsenal these days. Standard unconscious bias. It is what it is.

And we are where we are, which is now fifth in the league, three points clear of West Ham with two games in hand. We are one point away from United with two games in hand and now six points more than the Scum, having played the same amount of matches. We don’t play this weekend so it will be a watching brief for us all, but hopefully we get some luck from one of the games this weekend. I don’t hold out much hope because the Scum play Leeds away (in terrible form), United play Watford at home (who they should comfortably overcome), whereas Watford and West Ham duke it out Sunday afternoon. Someone will drop points in that match and you’d probably hope it’s West Ham, but we’ll see.

For today though, it is a smile on every Gooners face as we head our way into the weekend. Good stuff.