Arsenal vs Wolves LIVE: Latest Premier League team news and latest as Saka and Partey start for Gunners

Gradual progress, incremental improvement. Arsenal have been on a serious upward trajectory over the past few seasons, and now there’s only one place left to go. Of course, that final step is always the most difficult, yet it is also the end ambition, the goal, the whole point of a new direction, new investment and new reason for optimism.

Mikel Arteta – like most bosses who go up against Pep Guardiola-led teams – remains unproven in that most important context. If last year was about showcasing they could stay the course and be in a genuine title fight into the final week or two of the season, then 2024/25 must be about underlining the reasons why Arsenal can take the final step – and, of course, about actually taking it.

Two points off the title as they were last year feels close, and yet… it never feels that close to Manchester City, somehow. This is after all a team who have twice won the league recently by single-point margins, have hit record tallies along the way and have become experts in seeing out the season.

Wolves XI: Sa, Doherty, Mosquera, Toti, Ait-Nouri, Bellegarde, Lemina, J Gomes, R Gomes, Hwang, Strand Larsen

Subs: Bentley, S Bueno, Podence, Cunha, Dawson, Doyle, Sarabia, Chiquinho, Guedes

Arsenal have named their team for their Premier League opener:

Arsenal XI: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Havertz

Subs: Ramsdale, Calafiori, Timber, Jorginho, Nelson, Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus, Nketiah

Stay tuned, the teams will be announced in just five minutes’ time.

Who are Arsenal going to choose to lead them into the new season?

Mikel Arteta has challenged Arsenal to improve once again this season, but sensed the motivation in his players during a club gathering on the night Manchester City clinched the Premier League title.

Arsenal enjoyed a record-breaking 2023-24 campaign, winning more games than ever before in the division and yet missed out on silverware to Pep Guardiola’s side by two points.

The title race went to the final day and City won a fourth consecutive league crown but Arsenal staff, including co-chair Josh Kroenke, players and their families gathered on the same night at a venue in central London to reflect on the near-miss and a burning desire to go one better was already evident.

Mikel Arteta has challenged Arsenal to improve once again this season, but sensed the motivation in his players during a club gathering on the night Manchester City clinched the Premier League title.

The title race went to the final day and City won a fourth consecutive league crown but Arsenal staff, including co-chair Josh Kroenke, players and their families gathered on the same night at a venue in central London to reflect on the near-miss and a burning desire to go one better was already evident.

Arsenal vs Wolves will kick off at 3pm, therefore it will not be shown on TV, as there is a blackout for all matches at 3pm on a Saturday throughout the football pyramid.

For fans still wanting to follow the match, we will have all the action and updates, and for those wanting to listen to the action, it will be live on BBC Radio 5Live.

City’s recent dominance has played out amid the backdrop of 115 charges from the Premier League hanging over them.

It is a long-running case which should reach a conclusion before the end of the season but Arteta declined to comment.

“It is nothing to do with us,” Arteta insisted.

The Arsenal boss was more forthcoming about where he can improve ahead of Saturday’s visit of Wolves.

Bayer Leverkusen head coach Xabi Alonso described Arteta as a “competitive animal” after a recent pre-season friendly.

And Arteta laughed, adding: “Yeah, I love it. Everything I do, I try to win. I try to do it at my best.

“I am happier afterwards, I feel fulfilled. If I am not able to do it, obviously I try to learn from it and apply things that will get me closer to doing that. That is the way I am.”

Arteta claimed: “I don’t see that we are close to that full potential. We are still far.

“The only thing we can ask of ourselves is to be the best version of ourselves and maximise that potential. The rest is not in our hands.

“Can I do the best every day of my capabilities at the service of the team and can I be consistent in any context?

“That’s what we can do. We do that, then we are a great team, to achieve what? Let’s see, depending on what others do.

“I think it is going to be a really, really competitive league.”

Arsenal have pushed City all the way during the last two campaigns and missed out on the title by just two points last season.

The Gunners were able to register more wins than ever before in the Premier League, achieve the club’s second-best points total and break numerous other records.

It still failed to end a 20-year wait for another league crown but Arteta feels there is plenty of growth in a squad which has been boosted by the summer arrival of Riccardo Calafiori and the return to fitness of Jurrien Timber.