Haye not the only one facing Goliath

Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd believes David Haye is not the only one who will have to topple a giant to take home the win when heavyweights Arsenal come to Molineux.

Tomorrow night English boxer David Haye will be facing the 23 stone, 7 foot-plus Russian giant Nikolai Valuev for the WBA Heavyweight championship. Billed as David versus Goliath, it's going to be an amazing feat if Haye manages to topple 'the Beast from the East.

Wolves go into their own gladiatorial battle earlier that evening facing a similar challenge of biblical proportions against arguably the best footballing side in the Premier League when they take on Arsenal.

Back in 2003, I travelled down to Highbury with my two brothers to see Wolves face Arsenal in the League Cup. We never expected to win, but we got a glimmer of hope when the teams were announced.

As is often the case in the League Cup, their manager Arsene Wenger decided to field a bunch of relatively unknown foreign youngsters. We thought that they would surely struggle against the experience and strength of the likes of Alex Rae, Paul Ince and Jody Craddock.

We even had the mighty Silas on the bench should we need someone to come on and turn the game in our favour!

In the end, we lost 5-1 that night with the likes of Gael Clichy, Sylvain Wiltord, Parick Vieira, David Bentley and especially Jeremie Aliadiere giving Wolves a master class of keeping possession with incisive passing and attacking football.

We left the ground at 4-0, so I missed Rae grabbing our consolation and sadly also missed a kid called Cesc Fabregas becoming Arsenal's youngest ever goal scorer at a mere 16 years old.

Cesc would probably walk into any team in the world, with the exception of the Spain national side where Vicente del Bosque insists on always playing what he perceives as the right player in the right position. With 19 wins out of 20, I suppose his judgment must be respected.

Along with Liverpool's Steven Gerrard, I would put Fabregas up there as the best midfielder currently playing in the top-flight but I'm looking forward to seeing him have a stinker on Saturday!

Anyway, despite my boss Graham being an ardent Arsenal fan, I'm not going to lament and drool over his team sycophantically for the entire blog.

But Saturday is surely a big reason why I and so many other Wolves fans endured all those dark seasons of Championship dross under the likes of Glenn Hoddle and Mark McGhee.

Back in the 1990's we would travel midweek to hovels like Grimsby, gallantly supporting the side through thick and thin whilst simultaneously praying for the return of the glory days.

Now the glory days are surely returning and we should be relishing the visit of one England 's elite clubs coming back to Molineux.

So, who will our manager Mick McCarthy pick to do battle on Saturday? Has his patience finally run out with left-back George Elokobi after yet another mistake strewn performance against Stoke?

Nani tore him to pieces on the wing for Manchester United in the League Cup earlier in the season and I would hate to see the pace of Andrei Arshavin destroy what little there is surely left of his fragile confidence.

My choice would be for Richard Stearman to take his place on Saturday as he did so effectively coming on after an hour against Stoke.

I wouldn't change the rest of the back four, certainly not Jody Craddock. I got a bit of stick this week from a few friends when I suggested in my Fans Analysis column after the Stoke game that Jody could be a future candidate for the Wolves Hall of Fame.

Well, pah! Jody came back into the back four last season and helped steer the good ship Wolves over the line and his presence is certainly having a positive effect on performances and results this time around. All hail the new king!

In midfield, the Arsenal game could be perfectly set up for Nenad Milijas to finally start and influence a game for Wolves. The Serbian helped turn the game against Stoke and should be given a chance to carry on where he left off against the Gunners.

Up front I don't think there will be any tough decisions for Mick, with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake being recalled alongside the excellent Kevin Doyle. You have to feel for Chris Iwelumo after all that time on the sidelines and then to be now hit with such a lousy injury.

The manager has already said that Chris wouldn't have started against Arsenal but he could have had an impact from the bench.

Instead we will probably see big striker Stefan Maierhofer take his place on the bench and at the moment his cameos suggest that he may be a bit Kevin Kyle-esque. Harsh? My instincts and certainly my eyes tell me that he could turn out to be a bit of a dud.

Wolves have probably been guilty of giving some teams too much respect this season and have suffered the consequences.

We can't afford to do that against a team who have picked up 16 points from their last 18 in the Premier League and like we did against Villa, the team need to get into the faces of Arsenal to try and stifle their natural passing game.

Although we have picked up three credible draws in our last three matches that some fans gave us Bob Hope in, I don't think we can give Arsenal a goal or two start and then expect to peg them back like West Ham recently did.

Any points gained for the newly promoted teams against the elite sides of the top-flight are seen as a bit of a Brucie-bonus, such is the gulf between the top and bottom of the league.

But like Haye's task against Valuev in Germany on Saturday, sometimes the underdog can overcome and just like that wonderful day in 2004 when Wolves beat Manchester United, it could happen again.

I would implore anybody who is in a quandary as to whether to sit at home in the warmth and watch the game on TV or to come to Molineux and brace the November chill, to come and support the team in the flesh. It should be a fascinating game and Wolves will need plenty of vocal support to overcome the Gunners.

I'm looking forward to seeing us go up against one of the footballing giants and regardless of the result, I'm sure the team will do us proud.

Enjoy your weekend.

Up the Wolves!