Arsenal need two own goals to scrape win against rock-bottom Wolves

Arsenal consolidated top spot in the Premier League but needed a huge slice of luck in the shape of two own goals to secure a nervy 2-1 win at home against rock-bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

Mikel Arteta's side took the lead with 20 minutes to go when a Bukayo Saka corner bounced off the underside of the crossbar and off the back of unfortunate Wolves keeper Sam Johnstone into the net.

The hosts were not at their ruthless best and thought they had blown their chance when Wolves equalised through Tolu Arokodare with normal time almost up, the substitute scoring with an excellent glancing header.

Yet Arsenal's blushes were spared when Yerson Mosquera headed the ball into his own net under pressure from Gabriel Jesus in the 94th minute to rescue victory for the league leaders.

It was a quick reboot for the North London side after seeing an 18-game unbeaten run broken last weekend at Aston Villa and leaves them on 36 points, five ahead of Manchester City and six ahead of Villa, who both play on Sunday.

Wolves, meanwhile, remain winless after 16 Premier League games this season and their two-point haul is a joint-record low after 16 games in top-flight history, level with Sheffield United in 2020/21.

It was Wolves who had the best chance of the first half when Hwang Hee-chan sprinted into an empty Arsenal half left unmanned except for goalkeeper David Raya, who saved the forward's effort.

After that the chances began to flow for the hosts.

Gabriel Martinelli could, and probably should, have scored when he headed a deep Declan Rice corner back across the goal rather than in, and then volleyed a Wolves clearance from another corner narrowly wide shortly after.

The second half was more one-way traffic. Rice had a free kick tipped over the bar and then saw another edge-of-the-box effort brilliantly saved by Johnstone to prevent it going into the bottom corner.

Arsenal also suffered their latest defensive injury blow as Ben White had to be replaced after half an hour, taking the shine off Saturday's return of centre back William Saliba.