GW 12: Arsenal vs. Wolves
Arsenal against Wolves is another interesting game that takes place on Sunday but with Wolves dropping in form recently Arsenal will feel they need to capture all 3 points especially since they’re at home. Arsenal have never lost a Premier League game against Wolves winning 7 and drawing 1. They’re also unbeaten in their last 21 games against promoted sides winning 19 of those games in the process. All of these stats point towards Arsenal getting a comfortable victory in this one but although Wolves have struggled recently they are still a very strong side sitting in 11th place 8 points behind Arsenal at the moment. Wolves need to get back on track after losing 3 games in a row now for the first time this season.
Arsenal are looking to be in fine form recently and with a solid home draw against Liverpool last weekend they have extended their unbeaten run to 15 games in all competitions and 9 in the Premier League with their last defeat dating all the way back to August the 18th when they lost 3-2 to Chelsea. Although they’ve done well to stay unbeaten for such a long time period they have now drawn 3 games in row against Sporting Lisbon, Liverpool and Crystal Palace. In this period thy have only scored 3 goals which might be showing that luck is finally catching up to them and that they are not over performing against expected goals this season. Saying that they have scored 9 goals more than expected goals would suggest, in the Premier League alone this season. This is more than any other side.
Again, Lacazette will be the main man for Arsenal for this one. In their last match against Liverpool he scored the equalizer, took the most shots on the field with 4 and had the third most key passes behind Milner and Salah. These stats show that he is Arsenal’s most dangerous player and across this season he has had 3.16 shots per 90 minutes. One of his most valuable qualities is that he’s both a goalscorer and a creator as he often drops deep to control the play and so other players like Aubameyang can get forward. Aubameyang will definitely be another key player for Arsenal and is currently tied at the top of the scoring chart with 7 goals. Although he’s scored more for the Gunners than Lacazette this season he has less shots and less key passes per 90 minutes. This shows that he is not as involved in the play as Lacazette and is mostly there to deliver the end product. Nevertheless, both players will be crucial against a side who have still only conceded 12 goals in the first 11 games.
Wolves, who started the season so well, have suddenly hit a bump in the road and they haven’t won in their last 3 matches. In this period they have conceded 6 and only scored 2 losing to Tottenham, Watford and Brighton. Although these sides are all playing quite well at the moment you would expect from earlier form that they would get at least a couple of points out of these fixtures. Defensively Wolves have been quite a good side this season but often they’ve lacked a little in attack and at the moment they have only scored 11 goals. Against an Arsenal side who have a very good attack you would definitely think they would have to score a couple themselves to stay in the match.
One of the key players for Wolves defensively this season is Willy Boly. He’s played every match for Wolves this season and he has some incredible defensive numbers with 22 tackles and 26 interceptions already this season. Of course the fact that Wolves are not a possession based side does help his numbers but he is still playing incredibly well and is at the base of their defence. Neves should end up being the most important player for Wolves in this match because he is the crucial link between defence and attack for Wolves. He’s made an incredible 42 tackles and interceptions as well as making 62 passes a match. He also has contributed on the attacking side of things with 2 goals and 1 assist this season. Both of these players will be expected to be the ones that break up Arsenal’s attack plays.
Now to the injury watch where neither team is struggling that much. Arsenal are still suffering from a number of long term injuries to Koscielny, Elneny, Mavropanos, Monreal and Lichtsteiner and Welbeck has recently been added to the list after injuring his ankle in their Europa League clash against Sporting Lisbon. Although this seems like lot of players most of them would not be usual starters meaning Emery shouldn’t have to change his team-sheet too much. Wolves have very few injury problems and the only major one is that Diogo Jota might not be available for this match. He didn’t play last week against Tottenham through injury scare but the reports are that he should be able to play in this one.
With both sides dropping in form recently this game isn’t as exciting as it would have been a few weeks ago but the sign are still there that this could be an intriguing matchup. It will be interesting to see how Arsenal’s strong attack come up against the solid defence of Wolves and which side will prevail in that aspect. Overall Emery’s side look very good at the moment and i personally don’t think that Wolves have enough in terms of form to end their unbeaten run. In my opinion the score will be 2-1 Arsenal.
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