Match Information:

 

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Arsenal 

English Premier League - 3:00 pm KO

Saturday 25th January 2025

 

Stadium: Molineux Stadium

 

Referee: Michael Oliver.

Assistants: Stuart Burt, James Mainwaring. Fourth Official: Tony Harrington.

VAR: Darren England. Assistant VAR: Adrian Holmes.

 

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Written by Cameron Gorman 

 

Wolves’ opponents for this Saturday's Premier League action is second-placed Arsenal, who despite early season aspirations for a long-awaited Premier League title are equal on points with Nottingham Forest and six points behind table toppers Liverpool who have a game in hand. 

 

Arsenal come into this game off the back of a 3-1 win, midweek against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb. These two sides started off the Premier League season against each other with the Gunners running out 2-0 winners.

 

Arsenal are twelve (league) games unbeaten, with only Liverpool having a longer streak. Their last five  fixtures boast three wins and two draws, including a win against North-London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, and most recently, a 2-2 draw at home to their former manager Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, a game in which they let a two goal lead slip through their fingers. 

 

However, this won’t dismay Mikel Arteta’s side, whose high-scoring side will see Wolves as opposition there for the taking, having won eight of their last ten Premier League away games against Wolves.

 

Things don’t seem to get much better for Wolves, since doing the double over Arsenal in the 2020-21 season, Wolves have lost their last seven encounters with the Gunners, and historically it is both Wolves’ longest run without a clean sheet against specific opposition as well as Arsenal’s longest scoring streak against a specific team, dating back all the way to 1979.

 

The defensive stats don’t get much better, as the Gunners' eleven goals from crosses this season is a league-high, while Wolves’ ten goals conceded from crossing is too. Nobody has conceded more goals from defenders than Wolves this season (13) while Arsenal have a league-highest scored through defenders (7).

 

The biggest threats to Vitor Pereira’s squad will undoubtedly be Gabriel  Martinelli, who is excelling in his new right-wing position after the injury to Bukayo Saka, as well as Leandro Trossard, who has been involved in more goals against Wolves than any other opponent in the Premier League, having two goals and six assists against Wolves in previous meetings. 

 

The only glimmers of hope for Wolves will be the injury to star boy, Bukayo Saka, who usually grabs goal contributions against the Old Gold, after scoring his first in the Premier League against them on the 4th July 2020.

 

Question marks over the fitness of William Saliba also bode well,  however Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta confirmed that the French defender will be back next week. As for their trip to Molineux, he said "this week, let’s see how it goes.” When Saliba has not been involved in the starting line-up, Arsenal have conceded 1.7 goals per game compared to 0.8 on average when he does (since start of 22-23 season).

 

The Gunners have kept just two clean sheets in thirteen games during this time, Wolves have the most goals scored in the bottom five, yet have conceded the most.

 

While us Wolves fans will be expecting star player Matheus Cunha to start on Saturday, some may be fearful he will only be putting himself in the shop window due to Arsenal closely monitoring the forward’s situation all month as they look for reinforcements, something which Wolves fans can seemingly only dream of.

 

Mario Lemina will be absent from the squad as he looks to force a move away, while Sasa Kalajdzic, Boubacar Traore, Yerson Mosquera and Enso Gonzalez are all currently injured.

 

For Arsenal, they are without Bukayo Saka, as well as Gabriel Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu.  Ethan Nwanieri and Riccardo Calafiori are set to return, whilst defender Ben White is also back in training. Miles Lewis-Skelly and William Saliba could still potentially be involved. 

 

Arsenal will smell blood considering Wolves' terrible record this season for defending set pieces, and combined with our defensive troubles I would expect them to win somewhat comfortably after we have lost our opening three matches of 2025, conceding three goals in each game.