Wolves Preview – Suburban Gooners

Mikel Arteta was his usual coy and non-committal when it came to providing an injury update at yesterday’s press conference. So we just had the continued ‘question of days’ regarding Saliba, Trossard and Timber, while Rice was the same with the manager admitting it was an illness he had picked up earlier in the week. I think I already mentioned this in one of my blogs last week, but these players are very tuned athletes so their immune systems will be at their best. So I would expect us to see Rice today.

I also think we might see Saliba too because even though the boss said “I don’t know, we have another training session” yesterday, he admitted he would be fine for Everton and so I think Saliba is fine for tonight. Whether or not they decide to go 100% on him remains to be seen because, with all due respect to Wolves, it’s on offense that we would be expected to spend most of our time. So even if they also want to rest Timber (which will annoy my FPL team but there you go) for tonight so he can do well for Everton next weekend, that remains to be seen. We have Norgaard who played admirably at centre-half in midweek and I think the guys at the Arsenal Vision Pod have made a very good case that Wolves and Club Brugge are probably on the same level in terms of opponent difficulty. So if Arteta is happy to play Norgaard in this match, he might well be happy to do the same thing again.

Personally, I think we might see a queue like this:

Raya

White – Saliba – Hincapie – MLS

Zubimendi

Odégarard – Rice

Saka – Gyokeres – Eze

Here’s what I think on the offensive side:

1. Odegaard is Arteta’s captain and when he is fit he plays
2. Saka was rested midweek and he’s another ‘first on the team sheet’ type guy.
3. Gyokeres needs more minutes and I think Arteta will want him there tonight to get at least 70.
4. Eze hasn’t even entered the field and I think against what will invariably be a low Wolves block we need to have players who can dance around the defenders.

On that last point, I suspect that not getting on the pitch for Eze in midweek might also have a little something to do with his performance at Villa. He was ignominiously hung up at half-time for falling asleep for Cash’s goal and he was a bit of a stinker in Birmingham. If you leave your fogging standards let it go, Arteta will let you know. He therefore saw no minutes in the Champions League. But a home game against a team that will set up with five defenders, held midfielders and someone like Martinelli just doesn’t really work. So I feel like Eze may have been asked to start from the left and drift around the field to be involved in the middle, as well as to shoot.

From a Wolves perspective, we got the good news that they will be missing Jean-Ricner Bellegarde due to a hamstring injury. He has been one of their best players this season and a key part of their midfield as an eight, so they will miss him, although Joao Gomes returns from suspension so he will definitely return to their midfield. As I mentioned yesterday on the blog, we know Wolves will try to go long, they will try to place crosses as a threat, but we have to control everything tonight. Territory, possession, shots, everything. This must be a match in which Arsenal must show their quality. But there can be no complacency. The longer the score stays 0-0, the longer we all get a little nervous in the crowd at a Black Country Boys smash and grab – we’ve seen that over the years; one shot, one goal, but if Arsenal score in the first half the hope will be that the floodgates will open.

Wolves don’t usually park the bus, but I think they will today. I can’t see them sticking to their approach of trying to win tackles higher up the pitch and, in some cases, in the opposition’s half; If they try to do that we can get past them, so I think Rob Edwards will be pragmatic, he’ll put his 11 men behind the ball and give us a bit of a ‘come on and try’. It seems predestined that this will be the case today. So we have to find the answers, because if you want to win championships, you have to find answers to all types of opponents and in all ways.

Many pundits are obviously backing The Arsenal, but I’m with Sky Sports’ Lewis Jones on this. I don’t think it will be a loss – not score-wise – because of the way Wolves might set up, but also because we always struggle to break down these types of teams. So I would definitely prefer a 2-0 score line. This is the kind of score line you’ve seen us deliver before; we did it against Brentford, against Burnley, against West Ham, against Olympiajos, against Port Vale and against Athletic Bilbao. We score the first goal, we score the second goal, and that’s it. And hey, I’d love it today because as bad as Wolves are, they’re still a Premier League team and they still have players on that pitch capable of causing an upset. Remember in 2020? They had a win themselves during COVID and in February 2022, Hwang gave them the lead 10 minutes, only for us to come back in the last 10 minutes with goals from Pepe and an OG from Jose Sa. Hwang is still at Wolves and he is still capable of magic, so we need to be aware of that, because if we are complacent, even Wolves can take advantage.

I’ll be there as usual and then tomorrow morning back here for a debrief, as well as with Amanda and James for the Same Old Arsenal podcast. Until then, I take my leave and wish you all a happiest Saturday, which of course can only happen if Arsenal win tonight.

See you tomorrow.