Wolves v Arsenal preview: Gunners can enter World Cup break top
Julen Lopetegui must wait until after the World Cup to take charge of Wolves, but that will give him plenty of time to mull over a plan to combat their worrying slide in the PL.
Interim boss Steve Davis admitted that his men had “one eye on Saturday” before their 1-0 midweek League Cup win over Leeds, which was probably a fair assessment given that Wolves are enduring their worst start to a season since 2010/11.
Only victory over league leaders Arsenal will give Wolves any chance of entering the break outside of the bottom three. Yet such a feat seems like a long shot considering Wolves’ only two home league wins this season were 1-0 victories against the other two sides beginning the round in the drop zone.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal ensured that London was as red as former player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s face after his controversial “it’s nothing personal” video ahead of last Sunday’s game against Chelsea that the Gunners won 1-0.
As the only side to score in every PL game this season and with the joint-most clean sheets (six), Arsenal can ensure that they’re top of the tree for Christmas with one more win here!
That’s a feat the Gunners didn’t achieve in any of their prior three PL title-winning campaigns, so only the foolish would discount them as serious contenders at this stage.
A 3-1 EFL Cup loss to Brighton in midweek when they fielded a second-string side, shouldn’t have any bearing on this game, especially as Arsenal rank as the league’s best away side this season (W5, D1, L1).
But Arteta will do well to keep his side in check after picking up three red cards across the last two away head-to-heads (W1, L1), including one for their joint top PL scorer Gabriel Martinelli (21).
Players to watch: Two players who will hop on the next flight to Qatar could star in this one. Wolves and Portugal midfielder Rúben Neves (25) looks to equal his best-ever scoring PL season with one more goal.
Meanwhile, Martinelli made the cut for Brazil after scoring in five of Arsenal’s 11 league wins this season, including three match openers.
Hot streak: Arsenal haven’t failed to score against Wolves in any of the last 29 H2Hs (W20, D5, L4).
