The Soccer Blog: Arsenal - Wolves Preview

Friday, 11 February 2011

Arsenal - Wolves Preview

Arsenal – Wolves Preview - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« International Round-Up; Arsenal Place 5th in Deloitte Money League | Home | Arsenal – Wolves PreviewBy: Martin | February 11th, 2011
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Wolverhampton Wanderers

Position: 19th, 7-3-15 (24 points, -17 goal differential)

Away Form: 1-1-10 (-15 goal differential)

Recent Form: WLLLW

Last Meeting: Wolves 0 – Arsenal 2 (November 10, 2010)

Arsenal back from internationals and back in league action tomorrow against Wolves.

Wolves are a weird team this year. Even though they’re languishing in the relegation zone, they’ve taken some pretty big scalps, with wins over Liverpool, Manchester City, and last weekend handing Manchester United their first loss of the season. 19 out of their 24 points so far this season have come against teams in the top-half of the table. So they are giant killers who can give big teams some trouble, but haven’t been able to get the job done against the other relegation candidates this season. Weirdly, Arsenal have been the exact opposite — only 13 of our 50 points have come against top-half teams. So they’re a bad team who is great against good teams; we’re a good team who is great against bad teams. I feel like it should mean something, but I’ll be damned if I can figure it out.

Wolves gave us a good match earlier in the season, and we should be wary of them. They are tied with Wolves for the worst attack in the league, with just 26 goals in 25 matches, and only 9 in 12 away from home. Famous last words and all that, but honestly, we probably won’t face a more anemic offense than this all season, so let’s try to take advantage of this and exorcise the demons of last week’s terrible second-half collapse.

There’s no real mystery about Wolves. They’re a decent side who’ve made a habit of elevating their game against better sides, but they are more a team of solid pros than stars, and they don’t really have any true dangermen (no one on the team has scored more than 4 goals this season).

In news for us, the injury news is pretty good. Wenger said today that none of our internationals suffered injuries, so we can breathe a sigh of relief there. Johan Djourou and Alex Song both have tests today, but Wenger says he is positive over both — said that he expects Djourou to be available, and says that there is a 90% chance that Song will be fit as well. Denilson also returns, although I leave it to you to determine whether that’s a positive or not. He also said that Nasri is one week from a return — when specifically asked if that meant one week from a return to training, Wenger said that Nasri is already back in training, and is one week from a competitive return. So he’ll miss this one, and he’ll miss the first leg of the Barca match, but he may be available after that, which is good news — I was afraid we wouldn’t see him again until March. Here’s my best guess at a lineup:

Wojo

Sagna-Koscielny-Squillaci-Clichy

Wilshere-Song

Theo-Cesc-Arshavin

van Persie

Bench: Almunia, Djourou, Eboue, Denilson, Rosicky, Chamakh, Bendtner

I think Wojo will definitely get the start. Right-back could be a bit interesting, because Sagna played for France in midweek, and Wenger will definitely want him available next week against Barcelona, so I think there’s some chance that Eboue gets a start today — although I think it’s probably a bit more likely that Sagna starts and gets subbed off should we get out to a comfortable lead (then again, after last week, I have no idea what constitutes a “comfortable lead” anymore). I suppose there’s a chance Gibbs could start on the left, but I think it will be Clichy. Koscielny will start because he’s rested and he always starts, the only question is who partners him. I know it will certainly be tempting to start Djourou, just because he’s been so good this season, but if there’s any question at all about his fitness, I say that Wenger will start Squillaci to make sure Djourou is fully 100% rested and fit to play against Barcelona.

In midfield, Jack only played 45 minutes against Denmark, so I’m sure he’ll start. If Song passes his fitness test, I believe he will likely start (although I could see Wenger holding him out if there’s any doubt about his fitness, too, because he will be one of our most important, if not the most important, players against Barcelona); if not, with Diaby suspended it will be Denilson who gets the start. Cesc starts in the advanced role. Up front, I don’t really see anything changing. van Persie up top, Arshavin on the left, and Theo on the right.

One thing that will potentially be interesting is to see what is going on with Cesc and van Persie’s illnesses, which kept them out of the midweek international matches. I hope and suspect that they were more or less fabricated, but if they were serious, there may be some lingering effects from those. I doubt it, though.

This is a must-win, as are they all. We sit 4 points behind Manchester United, and just 1 point ahead of Manchester City. Those two teams play in the early match on Saturday, so hopefully Manchester United will drop points there and that will present a great opportunity for us to close in. But if they don’t, we can’t really afford to fall even further behind, so 3 points are crucial. We should have enough to team to do it.

I will be at a continuing legal education seminar (exciting!) all day today and I don’t think they have wireless, so I’ll be out of the loop if it comes to any injury or other news. Talk amongst yourselves in the comments. TV information — televised live in the US on ESPN2, and live in Canada on TSN2 – RDS. Not televised in the UK.

Come on Arsenal.

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Category: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Premiership, Preview

Tags: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Premiership, Preview
Tweet « International Round-Up; Arsenal Place 5th in Deloitte Money League | Home | Chris SherriffChris Surrey Gonner.
I would love to think that we really had a chance of beating Barca, but they are not only the best team on the planet at present, but also they are on fire. I think that the Wolves game in a way is more important to us than the CL game, if we managed a win at home does anyone really believe we can win at Camp Nou! After last weeks fiasco, we really need to present a strong team at home tomorrow, and we need Arsene to be sensible and not make ridiculous changes as he did last week, Eboue for Walcot!! was the most crazy substitution I have ever seen, at 4-2 up, Eboue cannot and will never be a decent midfielder and that change cost us the game. Unfortunatly Arsene has his favorites that are played at the expense of the team, Bentdner Denilson, Eboue, Diaby, these second string players must be getting paid so much money to believe they are good enough, we all know they are not, one of them actually believes he could play for Barca!! I wonder if Arsene will risk any of those players against Barca, I very much doubt it, CL is Arsens favorite competition.Bopssmall change.. sagna is not available for barca due to suspension so he will start methinks..MartinOh yeah. Had forgotten about that. Then yeah, Sagna will definitely start.blog comments powered by Disqus