Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at how Arsenal could line up for Saturday’s Premier League clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will be expected to make a handful of changes to his starting lineup for Saturday’s Premier League encounter with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.
The Gunners strode to a 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League on Wednesday night, but they lost teenage starlet Myles Lewis-Skelly to a new knee injury before kickoff.
Lewis-Skelly’s concern is not thought to be serious, but he has been sent for further tests and is now a major doubt for Saturday’s scrap, which William Saliba (hamstring), Gabriel Jesus (knee), Bukayo Saka (hamstring), Ben White (knee) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) will definitely miss.
However, Arteta’s left-back ranks were boosted by the return of Riccardo Calafiori in midweek, and even though he was an unused substitute in the Champions League, he should be OK to displace Oleksandr Zinchenko here.
Calafiori for Zinchenko may be the one alteration that Arteta makes to his backline, meaning another start for Jakub Kiwior at centre-back as Jurrien Timber occupies the right-back role, much to Gooners’ relief.
Arsenal fans have seen their side win just one of six games this season where Thomas Partey has started at right-back, but the Ghanaian should start in his favoured midfield role on Saturday, flanked by Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard.
As well as Calafiori, Ethan Nwaneri also made his comeback from a muscular problem on Wednesday night, where Raheem Sterling was given the nod on the right flank but was hooked with less than an hour gone.
Arteta is likely to err on the side of caution with Nwaneri given his age, though, so Leandro Trossard should be promoted back to the first XI in place of the ineffective Sterling.
Arsenal possible starting lineup:
Raya; Timber, Kiwior, Gabriel, Calafiori; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard
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