{"id":2310,"date":"2021-02-01T19:28:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T19:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2310"},"modified":"2021-02-02T21:31:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T21:31:42","slug":"chewing-not-wolfing-should-do-the-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2310","title":{"rendered":"Chewing not wolfing should do the trick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday dinner-time at Molineux an injury plagued but steadily\nascendant Arsenal, fresh from Saturday\u2019s all-even duel with one of the table\u2019s\ntop clubs, will try to make it a shiny eight consecutive unbeaten\nmatches.  Wolves come into the match on a decidedly poor run but we\nneed look no further than this week\u2019s other results in a topsy-turvy Premier\nLeague season to confirm that the Gunners must sustain the best of their recent\ngood form to emerge with the coveted points.  Having drawn with Manchester United while\nplaying without possibly their three best players (Aubameyang, Saka and\nTierney) and with continued availability concerns surrounding them as well as\nGabriel Martinelli, Mikel Arteta\u2019s selection dilemma is again to find the right\nbalance between keeping players fresh for the long haul and ensuring that the\nteam has the right blend of ingredients to carry the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal can draw upon the positive energy they showed in their clean sheet against United and in the 3-1 league win at Southampton a week ago Tuesday, their most recent away outing, when a terrific trio of goals by Pepe, Saka and Lacazette made up for an early Saints tally conceded due to a poorly marked corner kick.  In both matches Cedric and Pepe stepped up to provide bench strength when Arsenal really needed it while Luiz, Holding, Xhaka and Lacazette among others put in workhorse performances to extend Arsenal\u2019s good string of results. As the January transfer window closes today there is a chance of one or two last minute personnel changes but loan signing Martin \u00d8degaard got a few minutes Saturday to show Mikel Arteta he may be able to play a useful role in attacking midfield in the season\u2019s last half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellerin  Holding \nLuiz  Cedric<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey  Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith Rowe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willian  Lacazette \nPepe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can see little reason to change defensive personnel when on a\nrun of good defensive performances so Luiz and Cedric should keep their places,\nwhile Gabriel and KT3 can work on regaining fuller fitness.  Pepe\ndeserves to retain his place based on current form, and shouldn\u2019t be shunted to\ncool off on the bench as he shows signs of improvement.  Willian\nplayed a useful 45 minutes against United, and I think Arteta may start him to\ngive Martinelli, Saka and Aubameyang a bit more recovery time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal play next at Aston Villa in the lunchtime slot on\nSaturday, and hopefully will have a few rested and ready players coming back\ninto the team then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolves have dropped 19 of the last 24 Premier League points on\noffer, and have underperformed over the season\u2019s opening half for the first\ntime since winning promotion in 2017-18.  Nuno Esp\u00edrito Santo\u2019s side\nhas not made up for the losses of fullback Doherty who was signed by Spurs in\nthe off-season, and striker Jota who was shipped to Liverpool for a handsome\nprofit. \nNuno\u2019s men have scored 21 but conceded 30 goals in 21 matches, a\nperformance good enough to justify their spot in lower mid-table but not sharp\nenough in attack or defence to promise a great deal better.  They continue to miss Raul Jimenez, their star striker, since his\nlate September injury against Arsenal when Neto and Podence\u2019s first half\nstrikes secured a 2-1 away win.  Between Willian Jose and 18 year old\nFabio Silva, who has started 6 league games, Esp\u00edrito Santo needs his front\nline to provide more goals in the Mexican\u2019s absence.  Neto leads the\nclub with four goals, followed by Podence with three, the same number as\nJimenez. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolves enter their third straight league fixture against London opposition having failed to score against Chelsea and Crystal Palace.  Against Chelsea last Tuesday, Wolves lined up with Semedo at left back, A\u00eft-Nouri at right back until he left with injury as Hoever came in at left back and Semedo switched to the right.  Centre-backs Coady and Boly completed their defence.  A\u00eft-Nouri did not travel to Palace so his availability is in doubt; Hoever could deputise for him again or centre back Saiss could fill in as he did three other times this season.  Traore, Neto, Dendoncker, Kilman, Podence and Neves filled out a team playing without a true striker until new signing Willian Jose came on with 20 minutes left. Neto was their most prominent threat in a side that seemed content to sit back and play for the draw they succeeded in getting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Palace on Saturday, Willian Jose got his starting debut but in\na game of few chances Palace\u2019s Eze was alloted space by Wolves\u2019 defence just\noutside the box and he scored the decider a quarter-hour into the second half.  Wolves\nresponded by bringing on Traore for Hoever on the right, loanee Vitinha for\nPodence on the left, and Silva came on for Moutinho.  With ten minutes to go Willian Jose nearly\nconverted Neto\u2019s corner but time ran out leaving Wolves winless in eight league\nmatches.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holics pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

0-2 to The Arsenal, short and sweet.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May we savour three scrumptious points to our utmost satisfaction. Frustrating the hungry Wolves could double our fun and could put us at a preferred spot in the table, but don’t forget to tell the chef to hold the heavy dishes until the lads have done their business because wolf could be on the menu if there is any luck in it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday dinner-time at Molineux an injury plagued but steadily ascendant Arsenal, fresh from Saturday\u2019s all-even duel with one of the table\u2019s top clubs, will try to make it a shiny eight consecutive unbeaten matches.  Wolves come into the match on a decidedly poor run but we need look no further than this week\u2019s other results in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"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\/2310"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2320,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions\/2320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}