{"id":10708,"date":"2025-01-24T15:27:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T15:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10708"},"modified":"2025-01-25T20:37:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T20:37:49","slug":"gunners-at-the-wolves-door-lets-kick-it-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10708","title":{"rendered":"Gunners At the Wolves Door \u2013 Let\u2019s Kick It In"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Eurosport image: Ode after scoring against Wolves in 2022<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This Saturday sees The Arsenal leave their own red streets of North London for the first time since early January and travel to Wolverhampton seeking three precious away points in our pursuit of the Premier League title. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you think things are going?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our last 5 games at home have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride in all honesty. A bit of everything in there and something for everyone to take away from it all. For the more pessimistic, we are out of both cups, the squad has been desperately depleted by the injury gods, we have struggled with our finishing, failed to close the gap on the leaders, and added no immediate reinforcements in the transfer window.  But me no buts, the season teeters precariously on the precipice of doom. But<\/strong> then we have the optimists. Maybe it is better to be out the cups as now we are getting a mini-break in early February, players like Saliba, Lewis-Skelly and White are close to returns, the players who are fit have given it their all, the NLD was gloriously won, we are still close enough to the leaders, we are already in the CL Top 8 (I know, I know, not mathematically but optimists don\u2019t care about maths). Sing me no sad songs, there is all to play for in the competitions that matter and it could be a great, great season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the previous paragraph is true for me, the good and bad, however it won\u2019t surprise many of you to find I remain optimistic. Sure, we really do need a striker and Mikel said as much quite directly in his latest presser \u201cwe lack goals, we lack people, we lack options in the front line, it is clear\u201d, however he also made the obvious point it doesn\u2019t just depend on our will. Can we win anything without adding anyone in this transfer window? I\u2019d prefer to pass on that question but that would be gutless, so to put my own objective tuppence on the line I would say yes to the CL and no to the PL. My usual answer would be an unthinking \u201cabsolutely yes, let\u2019s go for it\u201d, but the PL is really where we need the squad depth to grind out win after win over the final 10 games or so of a long, hard season. Not impossible with our currently limited resources but very tough. The cup on the other hand, well, many will remember the injury-ravaged defence that got us to the final in 2006. We have been noticeably more knowing in our approach to the CL this season than last, some lessons seem to have been learned that I hope will hold us in good stead for the harder tests to come in the later stages. This Arsenal team need fear no one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before any dreams of Champions League glory however we must return to the sadly mundane, otherwise known as Wolverhampton Wanderers. Who will play? The selection cards were once again close to the managerial chest today as Mikel delivered the good news that MLS (nothing serious on the scan) and Saliba were closer than previously expected and would be available for next week\u2019s games against Girona and Cheaty. What about tomorrow you ask? Mikel said he needs to chat with the medical staff before he can answer that question (in reality of course, not Presser World, we know he would never actually answer that question even after chatting to the medical staff) and so, as usual, we will find out an hour and a bit before kick-off. My own expected XI is below\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber Kiwior Gabriel Calafiori<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey \u00d8degaard Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nwaneri Kai Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an obvious talking point \u2013 what balance on the right of defence? Does the Zagreb game mean Mikel has changed his mind about playing Kiwior as a right-sided CB? I don\u2019t know but my feeling would be yes. Have we given up on TP5 as RB? No idea, but I hope so. And then the attack. To be frank it wouldn\u2019t surprise or bother me to see Leo on the left as he didn\u2019t start midweek and Sterling on the right with Martinelli rested and Nwaneri eased back but it may depend somewhat on whether MA intends to leave anyone out completely for the Girona game. I should add that I am not quite of a mind to give up on Sterling. Just seems a bit hasty to me given how little he has played though I accept many have already seen enough and obviously he is struggling for touch and confidence at times. However, importantly, I don\u2019t see or sense that he has given up – neither does MA ,I assume, as he today dismissed the idea of returning either Sterling or Neto to allow us to loan in anyone else. Anyway, time for the opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolverhampton Wanderers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who don\u2019t know it Wolverhampton is a place in the West Midlands, it was invented in the 19th<\/sup> century and named after a local wolf pack who roamed the streets devouring the local peasantry and passing, well, wanderers ( Ed: You absolutely cannot just make stuff up, this is a respectable publication not a government!) . Oh, well, in that case, Wolverhampton was first mentioned more than a thousand years ago, named for some local landowner, and has had a long and deeply uninspiring history ever since. I shall leave it to Queen Victoria to summarise, \u201cit is a large and dirty town, but friendly\u201d. The football club on the other hand has had its moments in the sun, racking up three league titles in the 1950\u2019s (which is amazingly more than some so-called big clubs in their whole miserable existence) and several successes in various cups through the 60s and 70s. The rain set in shortly after that however and relegation to the old 4th<\/sup> division followed \u2013 on the bright side it did allow Wolves to become the first club to win all four division titles, if that is actually a bright side.  The last six or seven seasons had seen them initially established as a mid-table side that can be hard to handle on their day, but in a fairly familiar tale they\u2019ve regularly sold their better players on for a profit and are now struggling in 17th<\/sup> place.  At this moment they seem to be in a tussle with Ipswich, Leicester and hopefully Everton for the two spots to go down with Southampton. Their manager, Vitor Pereira, was appointed in December and had a couple of new manager bounces before the ball was punctured over their last three PL games with three defeats, nine goals conceded and one scored.  The one question we really want to know of course is not who they will play \u2013 the usual shower I suppose minus Lemina who\u2019s sulking – but is this Cunha fellow any good and can we get him? They are of course playing hardball given our situation and their own need to stay up and so the chances do not seem great. As to whether he\u2019s any good I will leave it to you to watch and make up your own minds. I am not that keen to be honest, excellent on his day but he seems quite choosy about when that day might be. We have beaten them the last seven times we\u2019ve played them in the PL, home and away, even when Michael Oliver absurdly sent off Gabi Martinelli for two yellow cards in 10 seconds two or three years back. By the way, the referee for the game will be \u2026 Michael Oliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would I like the game to go?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We rolled Wolves over efficiently enough back in August; it was 2-0 that day and exactly the same score would be perfectly ok with me this time round. 3-0 would be even more preferable. Wolves\u2019 confidence is fairly low at this moment and it is good time to be playing them. An early goal from \u00d8de would be just the ticket in the circumstances and another just before half-time to wrap it up. A third goal about 10 minutes into the second half and a cruise control finish to the game. That is how I would like the game to go. I can\u2019t really see any good reason why it shouldn\u2019t, so fingers crossed for three precious away points and a safe trip for all our Goonerholic friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come On You Gunners!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Saturday sees The Arsenal leave their own red streets of North London for the first time since early January and travel to Wolverhampton seeking three precious away points in our pursuit of the Premier League title.  How do you think things are going? Our last 5 games at home have been a bit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10712,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10708\/revisions\/10712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}