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Arsenal come to Molineux on Saturday at 5:30 for Wolves debut on the newest broadcaster of Premier League football ESPN. And this will be Wolves first game of the season against one of the big guns in the division. In one sense a scary proposition, in another sense an occasion to bring home why we so wanted to get back to playing football at this level. It should be a game to savour but is it one where Wolves can get a result?

Well Arsenal have scored 18 goals in 5 home games in the last few weeks and are being talked about as potential champions. Wenger has been lauding the goal scoring capabilities of his team. And their expectation will be that they will get three more points towards their cause on Saturday. But in their last two away matches they have only managed draws against West Ham and AZ Alkmaar and those teams are no higher rated than the three teams Wolves have secured draws against in the last three games.  Clearly Wolves will need to work hard to stop Arsenal settling into their passing game but if we can find a performance to match those against Everton and Villa then an away win is no good thing.

Wolves defence was much maligned in the early part of the season but the form of Henessey in goal and Zubar, Craddock and particularly Berra in defence has given us a much more solid look. They will doubtless retain their places and once more the only question mark remains over the left back position. Elokobi was withdrawn in the second half at Stoke and replaced by Stearman and either he or the fit again Mancienne might be given a chance to start.

The protection that Henry and Castillo give to the defence from the centre of midfield is also a factor in us looking a more difficult team to break down. But while the inclusion of those two plus the hard working Edwards makes us a hard team to play against, it becomes a midfield light on creativity. Kightly is still finding his feet at this level and his fitness, but it wasn’t until Milijas was introduced at Stoke last week that Wolves started making chances. Many Wolves fans are now calling for Milijas (photo above) to start but the gamble is whether that makes Wolves more open a team to play against than we are by having three hard workers in the midfield.

Up front Doyle has been excellent so far and is an automatic choice. Iwelumo was a surprise choice to partner him at Stoke but a recurrence of his metatarsal injury means Big Chris is out of the equation again for a while. This will open the door for Ebanks Blake to return to the fold. McCarthy has in fact revealed that SEB would have returned even if Iwelumo was fit. The 4-4-2 approach is encouraging, in that we are looking to take the game to Arsenal and not just sitting back and waiting for them to take us apart.

This is clearly a game when we hope for a result rather than expect one. Fact is Wolves will be in the bottom 3 going in to the game, Blackburn play Portsmouth earlier so whatever the result there Wolves will drop a place. A result is therefore needed to keep the heads above water, especially with Chelsea away as the next game. But Wolves have not looked like a relegaton team in recent weeks so we can give it a real go on Saturday. Can’t wait.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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