They’re safe from relegation. It would take a miracle for them to qualify for Europe. A least a half-dozen players are injured, including vital ones like Neto, Dawson, Cunha, and Semedo; Hwang may only be partially available. We haven’t lost to Wolves in our last five outings. Even their angst-ridden reactions to our celebrating seems to have died down, tamping down what had started to feel like a proper, old-school rivalry. Despite my talking things down, we have to expect Wolves to be up for it.

We have no choice, not if we expect to stay within striking distance of Man City. Those two points might as well be a yawning chasm. A win would temporarily restore us to first place courtesy of City’s appearance in the FA Cup final against Chelsea, but, again, that would be temporary.

Although Wolves have won just once from their last six, that kind of form, combined with their injury list, is the kind of thing that can conjure up memories of 8-2 scorelines and Carl Jenkinson taking three left turns to avoid touching the ball with his left foot. Of course, Wolves are not late-stage Ferguson Man U, and we are not late-stage Wengerian Arsenal. Still, PTSD is very real and very hard to shake, all the more so when we’ve suffered three dispiriting results in a row of our own. We’ve looked leggy and jaded of late, especially against Villa in what we had to know was going to be a stern test. Having failed that, we can hardly afford to drop points from any of our remaining matches.

Even a depleted Wolves side can be stubborn enough to frustrate us when we’re at our best, which we haven’t been since—well, since what was meant to be an inspiring or at least encouraging draw at the Etihad. In defense of the players, almost all of them have logged heavy minutes because we’ve played every three or four days since that draw. Aside from the Luton match, Arteta has relied on a very short list of trusted players (something we’ll have to examine once we’re no longer playing matches every three or four days).

I would love (okay, be comfortable with) a squad similar to the one that faced Luton. Resting key players like Saka and Rice might be a risk, but it’s also one that we may have little choice but to consider. The other option is to go full strength for a half and hope to race out to an early lead, maybe even putting the match to bed and rotating then. How I would love to see Gary O’Neill treat this one as a chance to give some academy players a chance to prove themselves.

As we’ve learned, no one’s going to be handing us any favours. We’ll have to fight and claw and scratch for any chance at silverware.

With that in mind, I see a stubborn us scraping our way to an 0-2 result. Share your thoughts below the fold.