After the bore draw and horror injury for Danny Welbeck, Arsenal face Wolverhampton Wanderers at home. Will it be an easy game for them?
Wolves are a welcome addition to the Premier League, and despite not featuring much in the top division of late, they are a football club of some note.
They’ve won the league three times (more times than Spurs incidentally), won several FA Cups, and even featured in a European final at one point.
They’re not akin to the Man United, Liverpool, or Arsenal levels of club size, but they’re definitely not small. It would be interesting, given their new backing, to see if they can stay in the top division over the long haul, and they have the set-up and infrastructure to do this.
As for this game, Wolves have done well to be a top ten side currently. They have lost to Watford of late (another top ten teams), however, they won’t be pushovers here.
Arsenal have better players overall, no doubt. But Wolves’ approach would be similar to Crystal Palace, in that they will look to physically dominate Arsenal and get in their faces.
This worked somewhat for Palace since despite them playing well they only equalised via a last-minute penalty.
However, if Arsenal can ride out the physicality and pressing Wolves may bring, they can get a result.
The Sporting game was odd since the Welbz injury did have an impact. However, Arsenal attacking play in the final third was muted. But they should have Ozil back, and Bellerin can bring some good width and crossing. Lacazette should return and we know that he and Auba link up well.
Moreover, Torreira should return, as would Xhaka, and their defence is starting to gel somewhat. Sokratis should start again, though in this game I’d go with him and Holding, over Mustafi. Mustafi is an enigma, to say the least, and has done well this season, but Holding needs more game time and has a higher ceiling.
Manchester City and United will be playing and one of them will drop points. This is opportune to capitalise on, and the gunners need the points ahead of the Scum and United games. Do you think the game will be a walk over for Arsenal?