Arsenal vs Wolves Preview: The Gunners' championship assault begins

Mikel Arteta has been unable to best mentor Pep Guardiola to Premier League glory so far, so Arsenal will be hoping for a positive league opener versus Wolves

 
11:30am on Thursday 15th August 2024
By
Martin Macdonald

Arsenal's assault on Premier League glory starts this Saturday as they host Wolves at the Emirates.

Last season, Mikel Arteta's men came up short in the title race, again, up against Manchester City.

Wolves finished 14th in 2023/24 and Gary O'Neil will be hoping for an improvement a year later, even if they have lost key player Pedro Neto to Chelsea.

Match Preview

Arsenal recent form

Arsenal played four matches in pre season and won three versus Man Utd, Leverkusen and Lyon.

They lost 2-1 against Liverpool.

Arsenal injury news

Arteta has some issues at full-back as both Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu are both out injured, though new signing Riccardo Calafiori will likely make his competitive debut at left-back.

There are concerns over the fitness of Jurrien Timber so if he does feature it will be from the bench.

Wolves recent form

Wolves have had a mixed pre-season, winning two and losing two. They defeated West Ham and RB Leipzig but lost against Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano.

Wolves injury news

Daniel Podence, Leon Chiwone, Enso Gonzalez and Sasa Kalajdzic are all definitely out, while Matheus Cunha, Mario Lemina and Jorgen Strand Larsen are struggling for fitness.

Nelson Semedo is suspended following his dismissal on the final day of last season.

Arsenal vs Wolves - who is the referee and VAR?

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistants: Darren Cann, Nick Greenhalgh

Fourth official: Gavin Ward

VAR: Paul Tierney

Assistant VAR: Natalie Aspinall.

Arsenal - Player to Watch?

Arsenal fans are still clamouring for the acquisition of a new star striker, but until that happens, Martin Odegaard remains the main man for the Gunners. May Premier League fans believe he'll be a contender for Player of the Season should he continue on his upward career trajectory.

Wolves - Player to Watch?

O'Neil will be hoping that Cunha can shake off his hamstring niggle to feature here as Wolves desperately need his quality in the final third.

Arsenal vs Wolves - Prediction

Arsenal will be raring to go in this Premier League opener and, unfortunately for Wolves, the Gunners will want to put a marker down before Man City play on Sunday.

Arsenal 3-0 Wolves

In this fixture last season, Bukayo Saka opened the scoring after just six minutes, so he is a reasonable shout to do so again here.

For all of the analysis of the match as it happens live, check out our Preview and Live Update page for the game.

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