On a weekend when Manchester United and Chelsea will clash at Stamford Bridge and drop points – in a way or another – it’s up to Arsenal to take full advantage of this and secure all three points against struggling Wolves.

And, having lost twice at Manchester, won unconvincingly at Fulham and disappointed against West Ham, it’s time for the Gunners to put on show a confident performance away from the Emirates in what is the last game before the International break.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

The last win for Mick McCarthy’s side was in September. After that 2-1 win over Fulham at home, they failed to grab all three points in the Premiership and will therefore be hungry to get back on winning terms. I have to admit I’m yet to see them in action so I can’t go in detail on how good or bad they are. Feel free to help me in this via the comments section, of course.

Favourite line-up

For maybe the first time this season, picking the first eleven is an “easy” task. Samir Nasri confirmed he’s back and on fire with the goal against AZ, reason why I believe he’ll start on the left, with Arshavin moving on the right. Also, Arsene Wenger declared he will not rotate at the back, so I believe we’ll go out there with the following:

In the second half, Eduardo, Tomas Rosicky and Aaron Ramsey may all feature, just as they did last Wednesday. Finally, I’m told Alex Song needs to be booked to skip the away game at Sunderland and be available for Chelsea. It will therefore be interesting to see whether he’ll pick an intentional yellow.

Pre-match Interviews

Park the bus? It’s not in the intentions of Mick McCarthy and Wolves, who want to have no regrets at the end of the ninety minutes. They will attack, so hopefully it will be an open game.

He said:

I won’t be complaining on Saturday that ‘we didn’t have a go at them. I won’t be sat with a beer in my hand thinking ‘we just let them just roll us over and tickle our belly’.

I watched AZ Alkmaar at Arsenal [in the Champions League on Wednesday], who over the last few years have won their league, have been fabulous and have some great footballers.

Yet they got slapped completely when playing one up front, sitting back. They got played through, round, over, they just got mullered completely. We will try and play on the front foot.

Has the best team always turned up and won? No. I live in hope all of the time.

Arsene Wenger, on the other hand, believes November can be an important month for the Gunners, thanks to the return of Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott.

The Frenchman said:

I believe there is a period in November when you have a little more injuries than before.

But we have a special case because we have some players [coming back] who have nearly not played this season.

If you take players like Rosicky, like Walcott, like Nasri, it is a period where they can come into the team.

Nasri played against Alkmaar, it was basically his first game, Rosicky has played three games and Walcott has basically not played this year.

The Gunning Hawk Coverage

As always, tune in for team line-ups, streaming links, half time and full time reports, post-match thoughts, video highlights and what the press is writing. And of course, do contribute if you want to by making use of the comment box available at the bottom of the post as it’s always nice to hear your opinion. And as a final note, if you want to go one step further than just leaving a comment and want to have your articles published on our website, take a look here for more information.