It’s cold… and there are Wolves after us

By: Brenton | December 26th, 2011

Luckily we’re no Abe Simpson.

Mick McCarthy’s Wolverhampton Wolves (or Wanderers, properly) visit the Emirates for the first of our trio of games over a six-day span. Wolves sit just above the relegation zone, one point ahead of Wigan. They have a pretty dreadful record on the road, having managed just one away win and six away goals in eight games.

Arsenal, meanwhile, have been doing fairly well of late, and return home after a sneaky road win at Villa. Our only home loss was to Liverpool in August, and we’ve allowed just five goals at the Emirates.

Recent form – Wolves
League position: 17th
Record: 4W-3D-10L; 19 goals for, 32 goals against
Last five: L-W-L-L-D; 5 goals for, 12 against
Last meeting: 2-0 home win for Arsenal in February, Robin van Persie with the really nice brace, with Jack and Cesc pulling strings in the middle.

That second goal, starting at 0:48, is a beautiful display of counter-attacking. (Apologies for the bizarre aspect-ratio.)

Line-ups

The Wolves are without influential midfielder Jamie O’Hara and sometime captain Joey Craddock. Doesn’t really matter, as whoever they field they’ll play a pretty dour and defensive 4-5-1, with Steven Fletcher up front looking to poach a goal. He’s done well so far this season, scoring six in twelve games.

Arsenal have no more defenders and will field a backline of Thierry Henry, Gilles Grimandi, Pat Rice’s shorts and a cardboard Squillaci.

Wenger has said he may rest van Persie, but if he’s going to do that, probably that should happen against QPR on the 31st before our game at Fulham on January 2nd. We may see Benayoun start in the midfield; I certainly believe he deserves it, and Ramsey clearly needs a break.

Wenger will probably stick with Ramsey, but a boy can dream, right?

Kick-off is 3pm UK time, 10am Eastern, 7am Pacific. With a win we will climb above Chelsea into 4th. Come on you Gunners!

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Category: Arsenal News, Premiership, Wolves

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Deejay1952

Jarvis and fletcher? which music hall do they perform at?
DJ

They performed at the emirates yesterday and my prediction of a draw was insane wasn't it?
DJ

Wolves are not dour and will play 4-4-2 not 4-5-1. They will come to attack and it will be an open game. And if van Persie is rested who else is going to score for Arsenal? and who is going to stop Jarvis and Fletcher? Could be a draw
Gunnerson

I would start cardboard Squiz over human Squiz. Maybe a wooden Squiz with its arms extended in hope Steven Fletcher gets clotheslined a couple times.
brenton

What about a pylon?
Darren_V

lacks the height.
Casimir

might be more the Squiz anyway.
iosanguinaregiallerosso

Don't mind the dp or the username I am a Arsenal fan, have been for over 14 years. I discovered the Roma offside before this one. I'm hoping RvP gets the record.

Watching that video and seeing the second made me think about a few things.
1. Theo needs to just take on players when he is situations like that and try and finish because after all he said he wants to be a striker and so far his goal tally isn't to impressive.
2. Song is just amazing ! Any other midfielder would of just ran with that ball and probably killed off the counter but not him.
Orion

So I was on Twitter, and saw "Love the headline from @ArsenalOffside" by the Arseblogger. Much like Laurent Koscielny, this site is getting the credit it deserves, be they long overdue. Well done, AO.