Bolton Wanderers visit the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal this Saturday on the back of a four-game losing streak in the Premier League. They are 19th in the league table with just three points. They lost their last home game 1-2 against newly promoted Norwich, a result that must surely have disappointed Owen Coyle and the Bolton fans. And if Arsenal were in any kind of form, the statisticians would have suggested that this game could have had only one winner, the home team.
But as the former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli famously said: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
What the stats don't willingly tell us is that of the Trotters' four losses, three have been against Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. What they also don't say is that Bolton ran Man City close, losing by two goals to three. And what they cheekily ignore is the fact that Owen Coyle has a more than useful career track record against Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal are in a most vulnerable position at the moment, shorn of confidence, stability, goals and points. A perfect situation for the manager of a lesser-fancied team to say to his players, "Alright chaps, their confidence is shot, let's have a right old crack at them. Let's see what they're made of." And it won't surprise me an iota if that's exactly what Coyle tells his players.
Bolton built a reputation of being a physical, route-one team in the days when Sam Allardyce was manager. Owen Coyle has brought some of Arsenal's qualities into his team, and they now possess a number of dangerous weapons that can hurt Arsenal technically and tactically without requiring to batter them into submission. Here is a look at five top Trotters who could inflict some real damage on Arsenal.
Brad Davis Logan Morrison Mike Stanton Josh Bailey Mark Eaton Trent Hunter
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