Arsenal travel to the midlands to take on cellar-dwelling Wolves. This is the rescheduled MD 31 fixture moved because the Gunners are in the Carabao Cup Final. Manchester City’s contest that weekend with Crystal Palace has yet to be rescheduled because both clubs are still in Europe, which complicates things. Arsenal’s main title-rivals face a potentially even more congested schedule at a later date.
Today’s match gives the Gunners an opportunity to put a bit of table pressure on the chasing pack.
Yes, they will all have a match in hand, but points on the board and a larger gap can be intimidating. That assumes that Arsenal take care of business, which is an absolute must against a poor Wolves side who are bound for the Championship next season. After notching their first win of the season in January over West Ham, they’ve lost three and drawn three, running their overall record to 1-6-19.
Wolves frustrated Arsenal at the Emirates in December. The Gunners struggled to break down a deep block and needed two own goals, including one in the 94th minute to overturn conceding a 90th minute equalizer, to win 2-1. You’d expect much of the same from Wolves today — set up deep, keep the match low-event, and look for a smash-and-grab late.
Mikel Arteta had positive injury updates on his squad midweek. Both Riccardo Calafiori and Ben White are fine and should be available for selection. Calafiori was withdrawn from the FA Cup starting lineup at the weekend after feeling something in warmups and Ben White came off late after going down needing treatment late in the match. It seems as though in the Italian’s case, it was precautionary, and for White, it was fatigue. Neither Kai Havertz nor Martin Ødegaard are fit for today’s match, but they might be available to face Tottenham this weekend. Mikel Merino is likely out for the season.
Wolves will be without Hwang Hee-Chan and Toti Gomes.
Lineups will be posted when available.
WHO: Arsenal at Wolverhampton
WHAT: Premier League MD27 (technically 31)
WHERE: Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton
WHEN: Wednesday, February 18th 12:00 pm PT | 3:00 pm ET | 8:00pm GMT
HOW TO WATCH: Broadcast on NBC. Streaming on Peacock.
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