Arsenal: Are Gunners in danger of repeating history?

In 2008, Arsène Wenger’s side were top with 63 points, well ahead of Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in second place.

Similar to this season, their 27th game involved a trip to the West Midlands to face a team struggling with relegation – in this case, Alex McLeish’s Birmingham City.

After a terrible injury to Arsenal striker Eduardo and a goal from Birmingham’s James McFadden at 10, 18-year-old Theo Walcott scored his first Premier League goals to leave the leaders 2-1 before injury time.

But a foul by Gael Clichy meant the Gunners conceded a penalty and allowed McFadden to equalize in the 95th minute – just a minute later than Tom Edozie scored for Wolves on Wednesday.

After drawing a game they had dominated, Arsenal defender William Gallas sat on the pitch in what Match of the Day commentator Jonathan Pearce described as “a state of disbelief”.

18 years later we have Arsenal’s disappointing 2-2 draw against Wolves on Wednesday.

Once again, they led 2-1 going into added time.

It wasn’t a penalty this time, but in the 94th minute Gunners defender Riccardo Calafiori converted debutant Edozie’s shot into his own goal.

While Gabriel Jesus shoving Yerson Mosquera on Wednesday was nowhere near as dramatic, it shows that many Arsenal players were equally stunned and frustrated after the final whistle of that game.

That 2-2 draw on February 23, 2008 meant their lead at the top was reduced to just three points when Manchester United won 5-1 at Newcastle, while Wednesday night’s result gives Manchester City the chance to reduce the gap to just two points if they win their game in hand.

This current Arsenal team will hope the similarities end there. The Gunners won just one of their next seven Premier League games 18 years ago.

Such a poor run of results saw them fall to third place, nine points behind new leaders Manchester United.

Despite winning their last four matches, Arsenal finished the season in third place with 83 points, four behind champions Manchester United and two behind runners-up Chelsea.