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Arsenal sit top of the Premier League despite a mixed run of results recently, with Alan Shearer giving his verdict on the title race
Alan Shearer has sent Arsenal a positive reminder after their defeat to Aston Villa as the Premier League title race heats up. Just two points separate the Gunners and Manchester City after the victory for Unai Emery's side, which was a first loss for the league leaders since August.
Seeing how Mikel Arteta's team responded to their last setback, Shearer has full belief that no major issues will emerge, especially given their weekend opponents.
He told Betfair: "Arsenal are not bottling the league, they've lost a game. They did alright and have one or two defensive issues, but you have to give Aston Villa credit. Arsenal won't win every game, it's impossible to do that. They lost at Liverpool early on this season and didn't panic - I think it'll be the same here.
"If you wanted any game to be able to have a chance of bouncing back, it'd be Wolves at home. There won't be many people backing anything other than an Arsenal win."
Arteta does have a lot more injuries to contend with this time around however, with Jurrien Timber forced to play at centre-back against Villa as William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Cristhian Mosquera are all unavailable.
The Dutchmen joined that trio as absentees for the Champions League clash against Club Brugge earlier this week with Shearer commenting on their injury predicament and how it is perhaps not that much of a worry.
He said: "It's always going to be tough losing big players defensively. Mosquera is out injured, Timber didn't play and Calafiori didn't play [from the start] so it was a brilliant result for Arsenal under the circumstances on Wednesday night.
"I guess they may have a couple more additions in those positions for Saturday which they'll need but we talk about this every year. A team will be tested at some stage of the season with results or injuries and maybe now is Arsenal's time.
"If they win on Saturday, they'll be back to normality as it was before last weekend."
Arsenal have endured some mixed results over the past few weeks having picked up just two points from a possible nine, with draws against Sunderland and Chelsea coming before the defeat at Villa Park. The form table was brought up to Arteta on Friday morning with his response a clear one.
He said: "Hopefully tomorrow we change, we win tomorrow and then it's a different one. And then in the last one we are the best, or in the last two or the last three. So we try to win every game and that's the only thing we can do in terms of being as consistent as possible."
The Arsenal boss will be hoping to have all of Saliba, Trossard, Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber available, but he refused to confirm their respective availabilities in his pre-Wolves press conference.
The latter duo will most likely return to the fold on Saturday while Trossard and Saliba, given the action they have missed, may have to wait until next weekend's clash at Everton.
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