FA Premier League
ARSENAL 2 (Havertz 25, Saka 74)
WOLVES 0

ARSENAL will be one of the few teams who navigated their opening 90 minutes of the new season without using a new signing, and Mikel Arteta will be happy tonight (Saturday) that his well-used recipe of last season’s second place campaign produced familiar results against a shadows-chasing Wolves team.

It looks like we are in for another season in which the big debate will be why Arteta never seems keen on signing a line-leading centre forward capable of adding 25 goals to his project, but the Spaniard is a bull when it comes to sticking to his guns.

And so it was that his unending belief in Kai Havertz was rewarded when the German striker – playing football with a smile on his face – broke through the visitors’ attempt to frustrate the Gunners.

He popped up to head home in Bukayo Saka’s deceptive cross which had caught the otherwise impressive Wolves keeper Jose Sa in no man’s land. The 2024-25 playbook looks mighty similar to last term’s one.

That’s not to say that this was a perfect start. Rust still needs to be shaken off. Martin Odegaard’s laser are yet to reach their pinpoint brilliance, Gabriel Martinelli too often got held up at the penalty box line and Declan Rice had to be withdrawn with what looked like a particularly painful case of cramp.

But the game’s end result was rarely in doubt, aside from a ten minute spell in the second half when Wolves rallied only to find Gabriel, William Saliba and keeper David Raya in alert mood.

Any lasting effort was punctured when Saka scored a typically Saka goal, turning outside and in before curling a shot around a crowd of players and past Sa, who probably saw it whizzing towards him far too late to make a diving difference.

There was a feel that if Arsenal had needed more goals, they would have been able to claim them but the unit was happy too with the clean sheet on the board.

Mikel Artsa, the Arsenal manager, said afterwards that he felt his team could have scored two or three in the first half but lost their way at points in the second.

Saka had settled it with an “unbelievable action”, he said, and he purred over the attitude that he felt he had seen from his returning players, including those that had gone all the way to the Euros final in the summer.

He said: “We’ve started well – there’s always uncertainty about if they are going to do it, but I see the willingness. Whether we are going to do it or not, we are going to show that every day.”

He added that the team had come back saying they were glad to be back at Arsenal and that they were ready to try for the league title again, after two second places in a row against Manchester City – the champions currently facing scores of financial charges.

Arteta said: “This season is a new story which we have to write from ythe beginning, hopefully it will be a beautiful one.”

ARSENAL: Raya, White, Zinchenko (Timber 69), Gabriel, Saliba, Partey, Rice (Gabriel Jesus 85), Odegaaard, Martinelli, Saka (Trossard 80), Havertz
SUBS NOT USED: Calafiori, Jorginho, Nelson, Nketiah, Nwaneri, Ramsdale

WOLVES: Sa, Doherty, Totui, Mosquera, Alt-Nouri (Dawson 84), Lemina, J Gomes (Sarabia 84), R Gomes (Podence 75), Bellegarde (Cunha 57), Hwang, Larsen (Chiquinho 84)
SUBS NOT USED: Bentley, Bueno, Doyle, Guedes