Heading into Saturday’s Premier League fixture at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers, all the talk regarding Arsenal football club centers around team captain Granit Xhaka. The team skipper will be benched tomorrow, according to manager Unai Emery, who is trying to put out a fire of controversy, and attempting to remove the Xhaka distraction as a factor into tomorrow’s league contest.
“The next step is tomorrow’s match,” Emery said when asked about Xhaka’s future wearing the captain’s armband. “The focus is tomorrow’s match. It’s not in my mind that he will play tomorrow.”
Xhaka’s long term future with the club is also under question. While he misses the game tomorrow, our attention could turn from his soap opera to another dramatic narrative within the Arsenal midfield- Mesut Ozil. The team’s most handsomely paid player could be selected and slotted above the midfield duo of Lucas Torreira and Mateo Guendouzi tomorrow.
If so, it would mean the first Premier League action the frozen out German has seen since mid-September, where he featured once and played 71 minutes. That appearance constitutes the extent of his playing time, in league play, this entire season.
Arsenal FC Starting XI Prediction vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Lacazette
Aubameyang Ozil Pepe
Torreira Guendouzi
Tierney David Luiz Sokratis Chambers
Leno
Wolverhampton Wanderers at Arsenal FC FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday Nov 2, 4 BST, Emirates Stadium
Team news for both sides: go to this link
Google Result Probability: Arsenal FC 53%, Draw 25%, Wolverhampton Wanderers 22%
Form Guide: Wolverhampton Wanderers- DDWWD Arsenal- DLWDW
Prediction: Arsenal 3, Wolves 1
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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