{"id":12429,"date":"2025-12-12T17:28:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T17:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12429"},"modified":"2025-12-14T16:13:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:13:06","slug":"top-against-bottom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12429","title":{"rendered":"Top against Bottom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;text-align:center;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2195868942\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:67.34007% 0 0 0;width:100%;text-align:center;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2195868942?et=TRxDDaQpQZZbmFdOjVm-LQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=pwN_SDGmtcmMaFY5pwdNusE3qoCxZSN194bv-MNxTRo=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"400\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;text-align:center;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#000000;font-size:12px;width:100%;max-width:505px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:center;\">Arteta decides on the 9-pint minimum<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This ought to be as close to a foregone conclusion as you can get in this league but with City breathing down our necks, we really can\u2019t afford to take anything for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, Wolves are truly terrible. I am a little surprised that they\u2019ve been as bad as they\u2019ve been. I think most expected them to be somewhere near the bottom but with just two points accrued in 15 games, they remain on course to become the worst side in the Premier League era. They need nine points from their remaining 23 games to equal Derby County\u2019s record low of 11 points in 2007\/08. In the past we\u2019ve seen some sides threaten to take Derby\u2019s unwanted crown only to muster up enough mediocrity to scrape beyond the extremely low bar set by the Rams, but I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ve seen anything quite as bad as this Wolves side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our opponents began the season with Vitor Perreira at the helm after he was able to steer Wolves away from relegation after a poor start last season. However, after this year\u2019s horrific start, his position was deemed untenable and he was replaced by Rob Edwards. It was a curious decision at least on Edwards\u2019 part given his Middlesborough side were, and still are, looking very good for automatic promotion whilst he was walking into a dressing room which bar a sporting miracle are already consigned to relegation. I\u2019m sure the money was a factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ownership issues has no doubt played a major part in Wolves\u2019 sharp decline following a period of success. They probably did overspend to get back to the Premier League in the first place, given they managed to convince Ruben Neves, who had already captained Porto in the Champions League, to play second tier football amongst other big purchases. Initially it seemed to have paid off. Wolves finished seventh in their first season back in the top tier, playing some exceptional football with a strong team including the likes of Neves, Raul Jiminez and the late Diogo Jota. This qualified them for the Europa League, a huge achievement for a newly promoted side. They made it through numerous qualifying rounds all the way to the last eight before narrowly losing to eventual winners Sevilla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also repeated a top-seven finish that season but were denied a European spot by ourselves after we finished eighth, outside the European spots, but our FA Cup triumph meant we took Wolves\u2019 place in the Europa League. This was of course before the introduction of the Conference League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But since those lofty days, Wolves have steadily declined, continuously selling star players to meet PSR requirements. This past summer they lost Cunha and Ait-Nouri to the two Manchester clubs and that appears to have been the straw which broke the camel\u2019s back as far as their Premier League status is concerned. Many Wolves fans are asking their owners why this money from sales has not been going into building the squad and building on those early seasons competing in the top third of the table. As a means of protest against their owners, many Wolves fans boycotted the first 15 minutes of their home game against Man United, and it made for a hugely toxic atmosphere inside Molinuex which no doubt contributed to their mostly spineless 4-1 defeat. Their fans will undoubtedly be dreading their visit to N5 on Saturday night. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they have good reason to. Even putting their general crapness aside for a moment, they have lost all of their last eight meetings with Arsenal, our longest current winning run against a Premier League side. They also have the league\u2019s most porous defence against the second most potent attack. Even with our injury issues we should be getting a few goals here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of team news, Arteta was typically giving nothing away in his press conference earlier. He was very coy regarding the fitness of Saliba, Rice, Timber and Trossard. Given we have a rare clear midweek following this game, maybe he will risk one or two of them. I wouldn\u2019t bank on it though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think we will see a similar side to the one that lined up in Brugge. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see N\u00f8rgaard line up at centre back again alongside Piero Hincapi\u00e9. Calafiori is suspended so MLS will get his first league start of the season. As for the midfield Rice is battling with a runny nose so it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess as to his involvement on Saturday. I wouldn\u2019t be against giving him another rest and giving Merino a go alongside Zubimendi and \u00d8degaard. In attack Saka will come in for Madueke despite the latter\u2019s excellent brace in Belgium. I would stick with Martinelli on the left after his own exceptional strike in Brugge whilst Gy\u00f6keres will get another go mostly due to Jesus\u2019 lack of fitness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a rare Saturday night KO so if you will be in attendance, you must be in the pub no later than 11am otherwise Arteta\u2019s henchmen will not permit you to enter the stadium. A minimum of nine pints must be consumed prior to arrival to the ground, and all fans will be breathalysed upon entry including children over the age of 36 months. You have been warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the disparity of quality between ourselves and our hapless opponents, I am going for a nice and relaxing 4-0 thumping. COYG!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Arteta decides on the 9-pint minimum This ought to be as close to a foregone conclusion as you can get in this league but with City breathing down our necks, we really can\u2019t afford to take anything for granted. That said, Wolves are truly terrible. I am a little surprised that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12429"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12438,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429\/revisions\/12438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}