Arsenal vs Wolves Prediction: Gunners to start off strong

Premier League football makes its long-awaited return to North London and the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon (15:00), when Arsenal begin the new campaign against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Gunners will be seeking to go one better this term and knock Manchester City off their throne, while Gary O'Neil will be eyeing up a top-half finish this season. Read on for my Arsenal vs Wolves prediction, as well as the latest team news and match odds.

Football Odds

Team News

Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu will both miss out here, but Mikel Arteta will be hopeful that Jurrien Timber is raring to go, after tearing his ACL on the opening weekend of last season.

New signing Riccardo Calafiori is expected to be handed his Premier League debut, while Saturday's clash will also mark David Raya's first competitive game since his permanent move from Brentford.

As for Wolves, Nelson Semedo will serve the first of a three-game suspension after his red card in the final game of last season, while Daniel Podence (calf) and Leon Chiwone (ankle) are sidelined alongside Enso Gonzalez who suffered an ACL injury while on Olympic duty with Paraguay.

Arsenal vs Wolves Odds

As expected, Arsenal are heavy favourites for the opening game of the season at 2/11 - giving them a theoretical chance of 84.6% of picking up three points. The draw can be backed at 13/2, while there's plenty of value in backing the away win at 16/1.

Over 2.5 goals is currently priced at 1/2, and both teams to score is available at 5/4.

Arsenal to win to nil @ 4/5

Arsenal have finished second to Manchester City in the past two Premier League campaigns and the Gunners will only have eyes for top spot once again this term.

Arteta will know that every point counts if they are to usurp the blue side of Manchester and I can't see any other outcome other than for Arsenal to make a winning start at the Emirates on Saturday.

A visit from Wolves looks to be an ideal start for the Gunners, who have won each of the last six meetings against O'Neil's men. In addition, Arsenal will be looking to pick up where they left off from the end of last season, winning 16 of their final 18 league matches.

The Gunners won both meetings against Wolves last year, so I'm predicting a comfortable win for Arteta's side this weekend.

Kai Havertz to score first @ 9/2

My second pick is for Kai Havertz to open the scoring, rather than anytime.

The German bagged 13 goals for Arsenal last season, including four in the final five league matches in 2023/24, and he also helped himself to a couple of strikes at Euro 2024.

He's had another season to settle into Arteta's system, and he was an integral part to Arsenal's title challenge last year, even though his goalscoring exploits didn't start until late November.

I think he'll get off the mark much quicker this term, starting on Saturday afternoon.

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