LONDON -- If you're going to step out from the tunnel at the exact moment that Kendrick Lamar emphatically pronounces "they not like us" you'd best be certain that you're not about to make a Drake level fool of yourself. There might be nothing more embarrassing in all professional sport than attempting to cultivate an aura you are incapable of living up to.
Fortunately for Arsenal, they never particularly looked like clowning themselves as they dealt with their first Premier League assignment in effective fashion, goals from Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka either side of the interval earning them a 2-0 win over Wolves. Paradoxically, what was perhaps most impressive about Mikel Arteta's side was how broadly unimpressive they looked on their return to competitive action. Only the best in the game can as easily and precisely dismantle a rival in true Kendrick style.
Because, when Arsenal were good, they were really good. Their opener could be traced right the way back to a gloriously creative free kick from deep and wide on the left back, four target men drifting back from offside positions in the box to ensure that Wolves were expecting Oleksandr Zinchenko to hit the ball into the mixer. Instead he slipped a ball down the line to Gabriel Martinelli; from that moment on the defense were scrambling to restore their shape. Though the initial threat was half repelled, Wolves were not ready when the ball was cycled to the opposite flank, Saka delivering a teasing ball to the near post that Havertz reached ahead of Jose Sa.
That goal was the culmination of what was, by far, Arsenal's best period of the match, a dominant run of seven shots in a little over 10 minutes where a side little changed from last season really clicked into gear. Oleksandr Zinchenko may offer drawbacks defensively, but his fizzing passes through the lines got the hosts the quick ball they needed.
It helped no end that he was firing those passes to Havertz, a 2010s German midfielder in the body of an old-fashioned English target man. A goal or assist every 91.5 Premier League minutes in 2024 would be more than good enough, if that was all Arsenal's center forward offered. It was barely even the half of it. He made everything more sticky for the Gunners, but was just as willing to chase balls in behind, going close twice off his right foot. He, Saka and Martin Odegaard were the wolf hunters, Havertz a particular terror for defenders. None were more infuriated than Mosquera, who was fortunate to avoid a red card for what looked to be a grab at the German's throat in the second half.
The run up to their opener was Arsenal at their best, but it was a relatively fleeting sight. For a time in the second half, the Emirates grumbled at loose passes in the defensive third, an inability to string together attacking moves when they got into the Wolves half. "We had certain problems," acknowledged the Arsenal manager, "especially in the second half with certain giveaways. It's part of the game as well, and things that we can do better to be more consistent, and have more security, more purpose and dominate the game better.
"We will get better."
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The need to get better is worth contextualizing. Arsenal weren't the force they can be between Havertz's opener and Saka's precise second. In that time they gave up just five shots to Wolves, two of which required smart saves from David Raya, all of which would have been impressive goals indeed if they had been converted. With Hwang Hee-Chan pressing ferociously, Rayan Ait-Nouri powering across the pitch and Matheus Cunha bringing verve off the bench, Wolves were still reduced to a few pot shots on the Arsenal goal.
"We were close, we came and not too many people thought we would be," said Gary O'Neil. "I would have thought most people would have had this down as a comfortable win for Arsenal. On the scoreboard it looked like that, but anyone who saw this would have seen two teams having a right good go at it."
What Arsenal had that their opposition did not, as O'Neil acknowledged, was that killer edge. Arteta's men only needed Wolves to make one mistake and they were home and dry. A quickly taken free kick and Havertz was advancing up the field, rolling the ball to Saka just where he wanted it. Everyone in the ground knew that he was going to cut onto his left and shoot. That didn't mean Ait-Nouri could do anything to stop him. "Good players are like that," said Arteta. "You know with Messi he's going to cut in and do that but you can't stop him."
And so Arsenal found themselves in cruise control for the final 15 minutes, a broadly ordinary performance ending with them outshooting Wolves 18 to nine, outpossessing them despite below average pass completion and ensuring that the game was played where they wanted it to be. The room for growth is there but the baseline, even on and off day, is some way clear of the league. "Hopefully [we have] very far [to go]," said Arteta. "It's the first game so hopefully we can become a better team and evolve every single week."
If Arsenal are not like the rest of the league now, imagine what they might be when they are more like themselves.
