Joe Fitzpatrick 
Hennessy VSOP is a cracking festive tipple whereas Wayne Hennessey, it turns out, isn't a half-bad goalkeeper. It's a shame that I'll never be able to look at either in quite the same way again.
First of all, I have to say that young Wayne Hennessey deserves a lot of credit for a Man-of-the-Match display in which he managed to ensure that only one of Arsenal's shots on target managed to hit the back of his net, the pick of the bunch for me being his stunning one-handed save from a scorching van Persie free kick.
Manchester United, by comparison, managed just eight shots on target against Wigan on Boxing Day, but the superior quality of those strikes meant that five of them, including a cheeky Berbatov penalty, managed to make Ali Al-Habsi's net bulge like Santa's Christmas sack. The fact that Arsenal managed eleven shots on target against an ultra defensive Wolves side, but only managed to convert a single solitary effort, should tell us that, as well as Hennessey performed at the Grove, Arsenal must have left their shooting boots hanging over the fire instead of their Christmas stockings.
It appears that, if the genius that is Robin van Persie doesn't manage to get his name on the score-sheet, then this Arsenal side will always struggle for goals in tight matches, and that could well turn out to be too much of a burden for even the most lethal of all hit-men to shoulder.
When Gervinho put van Persie through with a clever reverse pass on 15 minutes, we all thought it was a foregone conclusion that the Dutchman would make Hennessey's net bulge but, as the ball so happened to fall into the path of his fully extended (but unfortunately much weaker) right foot, the chance went begging. If Arsenal had managed to get that -important second goal in just 15 minutes it would have forced Wolves to come out and, heaven forbid, actually attack us, and we could have had a rout on our hands but it turns out that RvP is human after all. The fact that van Persie looked disappointed with his early miss from a difficult chance on his weaker foot speaks volumes about his exceedingly high expectations of himself, and he should take some solace in the fact that even the great Lionel Messi doesn't score in every single game.
The minor blip on RvP's almost-perfect goal-scoring record came amid a blur of Arsenal passing and movement that had already seen the Gunners go 1-0 up through a wonderful Gervinho goal. Benayoun split the Wolverhampton defence with a delightfully weighted through-ball before Gervinho sold the keeper one way, moved the ball a few yards in the opposite direction and coolly slotted home between two scrambling Wolves defenders.
It's difficult to criticise the Arsenal front three too much here as Gervinho got a goal and almost had an assist, Benayoun did in fact get an assist and Robin van Persie is quite simply the best player that we have in our squad, even if this wasn't to be the fairytale day on which he shattered Alan Shearer's long-standing goal-scoring record inside a calendar year.
I concede that Gervinho had some heavy touches, and his final ball was found wanting on more than one occasion, but I can forgive him all that because he works very hard for the team, tracks back and seems to have an almost uncanny ability to beat a man at times, let's hope that if we get Henry back on loan he will be kind enough to give the Ivorian a few tips on how to bury the chances he invariably conjures up for himself.
Benayoun needs a few more games under his skinny little belt before we can fully assess his credentials as a regular member of our starting eleven, but the Israeli was full of running and notched up an assist to go with his two goals already this season despite limited game-time.
The fact that Arsenal currently have no conventional full-backs to call upon surely didn't help matters much in this game, as, once Stephen Fletcher's close-range header flummoxed and wrong-footed Wojciech Szczesny, Mick McCarthy's merry men were under orders to shut up the proverbial shop and get all 11 men behind the ball. (To be completely fair to young Szczesny, I would have to comment that Fletcher was played onside by a haphazard Arsenal defensive line.)
Would our regular full-backs, who are more used to working in wide areas, overlapping and providing width to the Arsenal attack, have helped unlock the resolute Wolverhampton defence and been more useful as auxiliary wingers? I believe so, but, nevertheless, Thomas Vermaelen tried manfully and impressed me while playing out of position.
Johann Djourou, on the other hand, hasn't even got the hang of playing centre-half properly yet, so playing him as a right-back seems ridiculous to me. We can only assume that Wenger rates Coquelin and Frimpong as worse options as emergency full-backs but I fail to see how they could have done any worse than the gormless-looking idiot that offers nothing going forward and constantly makes Swiss cheese out of our otherwise-improving defensive unit. On more than one occasion, Djourou's panic-stricken passes played our switching wide-men, Benayoun and Gervinho, into trouble and poor Johann looked more like a fish out of water than a ten-foot marlin flapping around on the deck of some huge Red and White fishing vessel. Until Sagna, Jenkinson, Gibbs and Santos return, Arsène is going to have to take a punt on either Coquelin or Frimpong as emergency right-back because this is not the first time that the hapless Djourou has put in a woeful display in that position.
Arsène's other notable inclusion was that of Thomas Rosicky, who played some lovely passes at times, but, sadly, looks as though he has lost all of his pace and lacks confidence in front of goal. I love Thomas Rosicky, but playing him alongside Mikel Arteta meant that we had two technically-strong playmakers in the central areas but who both lack pace and are not quite able to provide the late runs into the box that quite often can settle this type of contest.
I'm not for one minute suggesting that Ramsey didn't need a rest, because he quite obviously was in dire need of some, after averaging the joint-furthest distance covered per game this season (7.2 miles) of any Premiership player. What I am suggesting is that Oxlade-Chamberlain could have provided the extra attacking threat in a central area that could have opened up the Wanderers’ dogged defence, that is if we are now working under the assumption that the lacklustre displays of Arshavin and Chamakh can only be cured by the short sharp shock and embarrassment of falling behind a very talented teenager in the Arsenal pecking order.
We could try and pluck an excuse out of the ether for this poor result, but that would be both silly and pointless because, in the end these are the types of games you positively HAVE TO win at home if you are going to make the top four come the month of May. We can't even blame the Ref for this one, despite the penalty-appeal from which he cruelly averted his gaze because, if you cannot break down ten-man Wolverhampton Wanderers at home unaided, you have serious problems. It's just such a shame that we don't have some money in the bank for some new signings in January or a billionaire shareholder (or two) to help push us on to the top-four finish that we'll require to retain the services of Robin van Persie. Oh... Sorry... What's that? We do???
A few more frustrating results like this and Kroenke might be able to hear the chants of "Spend some f***ing money" from the Grove all the way across the Atlantic come January, and I'm sure that the Gooner and OnlineGooner can provide the data that proves just which players that the fans would like to see in an Arsenal shirt come Deadline Day: Baines, Gourcouff, Pato, Demba Ba, Soldado, Van der Weil, Hazard, Götze, M'vila, Podolski and Vertonghen. Anyone else I missed, fellow Gooners? Happy New Year, and let's hope we can fare better against QPR with the possibility of Walcott and Ramsey returning and the unlikely prospect that Djourou will play at right-back again!
