Nervy Win For Arsenal Keeps Title Hopes Alive

A strike in the fourth minute of stoppage time by Nicklas Bendtner kept Arsenal's title hopes alive as they made hard work of getting three points against a 10-man Wolves side.

Arsenal's injury woes were apparent as they were forced to field an improvised side against Wolverhampton, who were unbeaten in the last four games. Arsene Wenger clearly had his mind on the second leg of the Champion's League quarter final at the Nou Camp as only four of the 11 players who started against Barcelona in midweek retained their place in the starting line up.

Theo Walcott started on the right with Eduardo in an unfamiliar lone striker role. Thomas Rosicky replaced Cesc Fabregas in the center with Denilson and Song for support. Emmanuel Eboue, the utility man, found himself on the left wing. 

In spite of lacking creativity in midfield, Arsenal managed to create a couple of good chances in the opening minutes. However Eduardo could not find the net on either occasion. After that brief spell, the attack just died down and much of the play revolved around feeding the ball to Walcott whose cross delivery is still very inconsistent, a fact that Fabio Capello will be well aware of when he makes the decision on whether or not Walcott travels to South Africa.

However the visitors had their chances too with Michael Mancienne firing narrowly over the bar early on. For most part though, Arsenal managed to dominate the attacking statistics with only the Wolves keeper Hahnemann keeping the tie alive as he pulled of a few good saves.

Wolves put some pressure towards the end of the half and managed to win a few corners, but for all their efforts, Alumunia was untested. Halftime saw the scores level at nil-nil and one could sense that Wenger would be giving a thorough dressing down to his profligate side. Mick McCarthy looked happy with the way things were going for his side though.

The second half began with scoring a goal being the only thing on the Arsenal players minds but Hahnemann seemed even more determined to keep a clean sheet.

Fifteen minutes into the half, Karl Henry was shown a straight red card for a studs up tackle on Thomas Rosicky. Some may argue that the sending off was a little too harsh and McCarthy was vociferous in his protests.

However the red card seemed to make little difference as the Gunners were repeatedly let down by their own impotence in front of the goal-line. Hahnemann had a superb game and denied the Gunners a goal as he pulled off some breathtaking saves.

Substitutions seemed necessary and Wenger replaced Eboue, Song, and Eduardo with Bendtner, Nasri, and Vela. But despite their presence, the Gunners looked to drop two valuable points which would have surely closed the doors on the title.

In the fourth minute of stoppage time however, Sagna's cross found Bendtner who did well to head in the goal that keeps the North London side still in the hunt for their first premier league title since 2003-04.