Gary O’Neil is excited to take his Wolves players to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon and test them against an Arsenal side which he described as ‘the best team around at the moment’.
Wolves head to north London without top assist maker Pedro Neto, who continues his recovery from a hamstring injury, as well as Rayan Ait-Nouri, who limped off early in the loss to Fulham on Monday night. O’Neil will also be missing his midfield duo of Mario Lemina and Joao Gomes following the pair picking up their fifth yellow cards of the campaign earlier this week, and with these absences, the head coach believes tomorrow’s outing will be his side’s toughest test of the season so far.
On Ait-Nouri and Neto injuries
“Rayan rolled his ankle, so we’re hoping it’s not too serious. It’s one of them where you can carry on with once the pain and the early stuff settles down, but depending on how painful it is, it could drag on a little bit longer than we would hope.
“It’s dependant on Rayan and how quickly he can recover from it, how soon he feels he can perform at his maximum and that won’t be tomorrow. He’ll miss tomorrow and we’re hopeful he can play a big part next week because he’s been important to us so far.
“Pedro is back on the grass and doing some running with the fitness guys. It’s going well, progressing well, but won’t play again this Saturday but we’re hopeful to get him back in with the group fairly soon. There’s no real date set on it because it depends how well today went on the grass, how well he goes tomorrow and how well he goes on Sunday.
“There’s lots of things for him to check off, but we’re getting closer. I don’t know how many weeks it’s been since he last played, but you can tell Pedro’s getting excited with the work he’s doing and how he feels, but then it’s our job to make sure we protect him and get him back in a state where he’s ready to go again.”
On midfielders racking up the bookings
“I’m fine with where Mario is. Mario has a real good understanding of it, similar to Joao. Joao is a combative midfielder, makes a lot of tackles, a lot of regains.
“We need to find that fine balance because Mario has one of the highest ball regains in the Premier League this season and Joao will be up there as well, so you don’t want to take away from what they are. If they are going to be that, then you need to limit the cheap ones.”
On reflecting on VAR decisions
“I’m fine about it. I haven’t put much thought into it since the game really. It is where it is, and I know I said after the game that it had maybe finally turned me against VAR, and it hasn’t, but it’s just where it is currently that I have the issues with.
“I still think it will be beneficial and I still think it can help referees, because refereeing the game on field only is very difficult with the speed it moves at. Hopefully it can improve, hopefully we can get more right, and I standby my opinion on the decisions how I saw them the other night, and the answers I gave were correct.”
On being underdogs at the Emirates
“I always go into games confident. I go into games extremely confident, but also realistic in how we need to approach them. I know we have played Manchester City at home, we’ve played Tottenham, who had a few key players missing on that day, Manchester City had a couple missing and we were pretty much at full strength in them, so it’s a slight shift in that because we’re the ones who have suffered a few suspensions and injuries.
“We go there with slightly less numbers than we would usually have, but what an incredible opportunity for us to go to a tough place, and I’m really looking forward to taking the lads to a real tough place and see where we can go.”
Available for selection again on Saturday 💪 pic.twitter.com/dzzLWRZKmN
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 1, 2023
On Arsenal’s threat
“I think they’re excellent. Their position in their Champions League group, their position in the Premier League tells you exactly what they are. They’ve made some improvements and would have possibly gone on to win the league last year without the injury in the back line they suffered late on.
“The two centre-backs that they have are incredible physically which allows them to be unbelievably aggressive, especially at home in how they press and how they go after teams, knowing they have them two at the back and Declan Rice in front of them.
“They’re a tough team in trying to find ways to cause them problems, but of course we’re looking forward to it. We need to mix things up a bit because of suspensions and injuries, and it’s probably the ultimate test for us at the moment.
“With Manchester City, who we played recently, they have a few injury concerns, but Arsenal feel they’re in a really good moment, so they’re the ultimate test in the Premier League at the moment, especially going there with a weakened group as we will, and not having the numbers that we have in the other games, It will be a real test for us.”
On embracing the challenge
“Most of the lads embrace most Saturdays, whether you’re expected to win or whether you’re going to one of the best teams in Europe. Whatever it is, it’s still the Premier League, it’s still a fantastic occasion to play in that division every week, so from my perspective I look forward to all of them.
“I’m very aware of what the Emirates is like. I played there numerous times, I went there as well last season, and I’m really looking forward to taking this group there. Everyone knows what I think about this group, and how much I enjoy working with them and being around them, and whatever tomorrow brings, however successful we are, I’m really looking forward to seeing the group having to go into a real tough test and find out exactly what we can do in those situations.
“I know the lads are in a good place, they know what tomorrow will look and feel like and what we need to be, then the next step from understanding it is being able to deliver it, so we will find out how well we can deliver it from three o’clock tomorrow against a team who are the best around at the moment and see if we can get another memorable result.”
