Express & Star

Arsenal Legend Ian Wright praises 'fantastic' Wolves

Arsenal legend Ian Wright praised ‘fantastic’ Wolves after Nuno Espirito Santo’s team claimed a point from the Emirates.

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Arsenal legend Ian Wright.

The TV pundit, who scored 185 goals for the Gunners, was at the Emirates to see Arsenal come back to earn a 1-1 draw thanks to Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s 86th minute goal, which cancelled out Ivan Cavaleiro’s early opener.

Wright believes Arsenal were ‘very lucky’ to draw the contest – but also reserved praise for Wolves skipper Conor Coady.

“We were fortunate to at the end to get away with that,” Wright said.

“We were very lucky.

“Wolves on the counter attack had a plan, they were fantastic and we were fortunate to get away with it.

“Conor Coady was brilliant. Even when we went to two up front in the second half he coped very well.

“Unai Emery realised it wasnn’t working with Alex Iwobi, we were getting hurt on the right hand side, Iwobi wasn’t getting back to help Kolasinac so he had to shore that up.

“I’m pleased he made that decision. We did get forward more (in the second half).”

Goalkeeper Bernd Leno’s heroics in the Arsenal net were praised by his boss Emery after the game.

Leno saved crucially from Helder Costa, Diogo Jota and Adama Traore as Wolves failed to find a second goal.

Wright said: “Leno saved us.

“We had fortunate luck with their poor finishing but were it not for Leno we would have lost.

“The tactical fouls they made were very good, they stopped our flow.

“(Mesut) Ozil came off, he couldn’t quote get into it because Wolves had the two banks of players so he couldn’t find the space he needed.

“We dodged a bullet and were fortunate to get away with a 1-1.

“It was disappointing but I’m quite pleased in the end.”

Meanwhile, Under-23 boss Rob Edwards said his team showed character to draw 1-1 with Swansea in the Premier League Cup on Saturday.

In-form striker Benny Ashley-Seal equalised to keep Wolves top of the Group E table with four points from two games.

Edwards said: “We definitely had the better chances to win the game, especially after going one-nil down early in the second half due to a mistake in our build up.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with how we conceded, but we created some really good chances.

Their goalkeeper made two point-blank saves from Oskar Burr and Austin Samuels and we got in numerous good positions but were just a little bit wasteful.

“We did well to show a lot of character and control at times to get back in it. But in the end, it is a good away point against a good team.”

Wolves U23s: Sondergard, Burr, Molberg, Csoka, John, Giles, Goncalves (Diallo), Watt, Heredia (Ennis), Alves, Samuels (Ashley-Seal). Unused subs: Beasley, Sauvage.