Wolves have had an inconsistent start to the season and come into the festive fixtures not having won back-to-back Premier League games all campaign.
Despite that, their Christmas Eve win over Chelsea put them 11th in the table with six wins and four draws from their 18 games.
They have been particularly impressive at Molineux where, after losing their first two matches, they are unbeaten in the following seven.
Away from home, they have picked up wins at Everton (1-0) and new manager Gary O’Neil’s previous club Bournemouth (2-1) and a draw at Luton (1-1), but since that victory at the Vitality at the end of October, they have lost their last four games on the road.
Their Carabao Cup campaign ended at the second hurdle, with a 3-2 defeat at Championship high-flyers Ipswich after a 5-0 win at Blackpool, and they kick off their FA Cup bid back at the Gtech next Friday night.
This is Wolves’ longest-ever spell in the Premier League after winning promotion in 2018, beating their three-season stay from 2009 to 2012.
Their only other stint in the division was during the 2003/04 campaign.
They have finished seventh twice, 13th twice, and 10th once each in this current spell.
Wolves used to be regular members of the old Division One, however, and from 1932 until 1984 (not counting the war years when the league did not take place), they only spent four seasons outside the top flight.
They won the league three times in six seasons in the 1950s.
WHO’S IN CHARGE
Gary O’Neil was appointed just days before the start of the season, after the departure of Julen Lopetegui.
He was sacked by Bournemouth in the summer despite securing their Premier League status, and only seven months after being made their permanent manager.
O’Neil’s first coaching job was as assistant manager for Liverpool’s under-23s in August 2020, before joining the Cherries the following February, where he worked as part of Jonathan Woodgate’s backroom staff.
As a player, he made more than 500 appearances as a midfielder for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, West Ham, QPR, Norwich, Bristol City and Bolton. He also won nine England under-21 caps.
WE’VE MET BEFORE
We claimed our first-ever Premier League away win when we visited Molineux in September 2021 and earned a 2-0 victory.
In a lunchtime kick-off – shown live on BT Sport – two goals in seven first-half minutes sealed the points to take us up to ninth in the table. Ivan Toney gave us the lead from the penalty spot in the 28th minute, before setting up Bryan Mbeumo to score his first Premier League goal.
Shandon Baptiste was sent off for receiving two quick yellow cards midway through the second half but we held on to claim all three points.
That was our first win over Wolves in five games.
They got their revenge 2-1 at the Gtech in January in the most bizarre game of the season.
The match finished at nearly 5.30pm after a stoppage following a clash of heads between Rico Henry and Mathias Jensen and then the sides were taken off for 15 minutes after a drone hovered over the stadium, with both incidents leading to 19 minutes being added on to the first half.
Then the second half started late because of a problem with the referee’s headset.
Not surprisingly, there had been no goals before the break, but Joao Moutinho fired Wolves ahead straight after it, Ivan Toney levelled in the 71st minute, but Ruben Neves won it seven minutes later before Adama Traore had a third ruled out in stoppage time.
We only took one point from our two games with Wolves last season.
Two goals in three minutes early in the second half left the score 1-1 in our last home game before the World Cup.
Ben Mee superbly volleyed us ahead, but Ruben Neves quickly equalised with a low shot. Wolves striker Diego Costa was sent off for a clash with Mee late on.
Diego Costa also played his part in April’s return game as his first Premier League goal for six years, midway through the first half, set us on the way to a 2-0 defeat.
Substitute Hwang Hee-chan doubled the lead in the 69th minute.
Wolves have been regular opponents in recent years. We played them in five seasons in the last decade – four in the Championship and one in League One – but only won three of the 10 matches, losing five and drawing two.
When we met in League One in 2013/14 – the season we got promoted together – we failed to score, as a goalless draw in the Midlands was followed by a 3-0 Wolves victory at Griffin Park.
That campaign was the first time the sides had played each other since 1992/93 – our last season in the league’s second tier.
Our biggest win came in 2014/15 when we earned a thumping 4-0 victory at Griffin Park in late November. Alan Judge opened the scoring in the 29th minute, before three goals in the last 17 minutes from Stuart Dallas, Andre Gray and Jota wrapped up the points.
A month later, Wolves got revenge with a post 2-1 Christmas win in the Midlands.
Nouha Dicko gave them a seventh-minute lead, which was doubled by an own goal by James Tarkowski in the 72nd minute. The hosts’ Kevin McDonald was sent off five minutes later and Danny Batth put through his own net in the 87th minute to give us late hope, but it proved just a consolation.
The following 2015/16 season we did the double over Wolves – starting with a 2-0 midweek win at Molineux in October.
Marco Djuricin gave us the lead in the 17th minute and Philipp Hofmann, on as a substitute, confirmed the victory with an 88th-minute second.
The Griffin Park game was also played under floodlights and once again we kept a clean sheet against as we ran out 3-0 winners.
A goal in each half from John Swift, sandwiching a strike from Sergi Canos, wrapped up a comprehensive triumph which ended a three-match losing run and took us up to 11th in the table.
Things flipped, however, in 2016/17, with Wolves winning both our meetings.
Joao Teixeira put Wolves ahead just after half-time in our September meeting at Molineux with his first goal for the club and added a second 10 minutes later.
Sullay Kaikai replied with his first goal for the Bees but Ivan Cavaleiro secured a 3-1 victory for the hosts in injury-time.
Brentford looked set for victory at Griffin Park on a Tuesday night in the middle of March after Maxime Colin gave us a first half lead. But two goals in the last four minutes by Matt Doherty and Helder Costa earned all three points for the visitors with a 2-1 win.
We failed to score against Wolves as they stormed to the title in 2017/18 – sharing a goalless draw with them in what proved to be their last visit to Griffin Park in August, and going down 3-0 at Molineux at the start of January.
OPPOSITION VIEW
BBC WM commentator Mike Taylor, writing before the Chelsea game, analyses Wolves’s season, discusses the job done by Gary O’Neil, and looks at how ex-Bee Daniel Bentley has done when he has been called upon in goal.
Q – How would you analyse Wolves’s season so far?
A – A lot better than it might have been. At the start of the season many fans feared, and maybe expected, a struggle against relegation. Less than a fortnight before the first game, the chairman Jeff Shi wrote an open letter to supporters saying the club would “need to be humble with a challenger attitude, as if it was our first Premier League season all over again”. Within a few days Julen Lopetegui had gone, Gary O’Neil was appointed, and morale among fans was subterranean.
But O’Neil’s Wolves put up a good showing at Old Trafford first time out and maybe proved something to themselves, as much as their fans. Lately, some of the momentum gained by the statement wins over Manchester City and Tottenham has faded, but they should have enough of a head start over the strugglers to be safe in some comfort – which would have felt like a real achievement last August, and still should.
Q – How much of a surprise was it when Julen Lopetegui left and how is Gary O’Neil doing so far?
A – The Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs explained later that Julen Lopetegui told him after a friendly against Celtic on 29 July that he was throwing the towel in, but agreed to keep it to himself until Wolves had decided how to replace him. Quite how the situation had been allowed to go so far is hard to say, since Lopetegui had been advertising his discontent with the club’s spending plans in increasingly plain terms since May. He maintains that their difficulties with FFP – and the frugal summer that would be required to address them – came as a surprise to him, but Wolves had clearly spent a lot of money in recent windows, especially in January to stave off last season’s relegation danger.
Lopetegui clearly felt that Wolves were poorly equipped to survive this season, so by that measure Gary O’Neil is doing a fine job. His arrival received a very lukewarm welcome and a lot of unkind comment from supporters, but his engaging public manner – and obviously some landmark results – has won quite a few of them over. He deserves a fuller hearing from his critics.
Q – Wolves have been quite inconsistent so far and not won more than one game in a row – what is this down to?
A – There has been some variation in levels of performance, as you’d expect in a team that struggled for much of last season and has lost quite a few senior players since then. Wolves can also point to a number of contentious incidents this season, as you’ll no doubt have heard – in Wolverhampton, V-A-R is a four-letter word. The squad remains a little thinner than would be desired, and although others have stepped up in the recent absence of Pedro Neto, whose form was inspirational until his hamstring could bear the strain no longer, they have missed him.
Q – How much business do you expect Wolves to do in the transfer window – both in and out?
A – Some, but perhaps still limited as they keep careful watch on the accounts. Wolves have whopping losses to make up for in the current FFP cycle, but ended up with a little more elbow room at the end of the summer transfer window than they might have expected, after the huge sales of Ruben Neves and Matheus Nunes. Although Matheus Cunha has added some goals to his otherwise very tidy work, and Hwang Hee-Chan has enjoyed a dreamy goalscoring run, a striker remains the primary requirement. Some horse-trading might be necessary to make it happen, but ideally O’Neil would like to end the window with a slightly larger squad than he has now.
Q – How has ex-Bee Daniel Bentley done since getting his chance in goal?
A – Number two goalkeeper must be a difficult job, especially for a player who has spent most of his career to this point playing nearly every week. He impressed on debut at Old Trafford near the end of last season and against Burnley recently when Jose Sa was injured, but was criticised after conceding three at Ipswich in the League Cup and last week at West Ham – although on both occasions he was by no means the only player below par. Sa remains the first pick when available, but I suspect Bentley is not too far behind.
Q – What are your memories of previous Brentford-Wolves games?
A – I didn’t see this fixture last season, so my last visit with Wolves was for Drone-gate. That game eventually ended with a hard-fought Wolves win; some of the other Brentford-Wolves games were arguably in greater need of a long distraction. I remember Michael Jacobs, now part of the Chesterfield squad marching back towards the EFL, scoring two goals in a Wolves win in their League One promotion season.
But perhaps Wolves’ most important win at Brentford in recent memory was in March 2017, when they scored twice in the final five minutes at a time when a return to the third tier looked a serious possibility. Their manager at the time, Paul Lambert, told me afterwards that the team were playing so well that he didn’t feel any serious stress as they remained 1-0 down in the second half. I’m not sure many Wolves fans who were there could say the same, but it all worked out well.
Q – Finally can you give me a possible Wolves line-up and formation please?
A – They are in the habit of switching between a back four and a back three/five, sometimes in the same match, but on the whole they have looked steadier of late with three central defenders.
Sa;
Kilman, Dawson, Toti;
Semedo, Lemina, Gomes, Ait-Nouri;
Neto (if fit, otherwise Sarabia), Cunha, Hwang.
IAN WESTBROOK
@ianwestbrook
HOW TO FOLLOW THE GAME IF YOU CAN’T BE THERE
If you can’t get to the Brentford Community Stadium for Wednesday’s 7.30pm kick-off and want Brentford commentary, audio coverage is available via Buzz Box for free.
Coverage starts half an hour before kick-off and is advert-free, with Mark Burridge and Karleigh Osborne.
The game is also being shown live on Amazon Prime, with live commentary on the TalkSport app.
PUBS IN BRENTFORD AND TRAVEL NEWS
For Wolves fans coming to the Gtech Community Stadium, there are plenty of pub options pre and post-match and all are most welcoming and away-fan-friendly (as it should be).
The pub areas are split into two zones. There is the area around Brentford’s old Griffin Park stadium. The pubs there are still very busy on match day frequented by Bees locals before heading down the road to the stadium at Kew Bridge which is only 15 mins walk.
Then there is the area in and around the stadium in Kew Bridge.
It is possible, if you have a good early start, to savour a few pubs in and around Griffin Park and Brentford zone before heading off to the pubs in the Kew zone or even vice versa if you so fancy.
Pubs in Griffin Park/Brentford zone
When at Griffin Park, Brentford was well known for its four pubs – one on each corner of the ground. Three are still operating.
The Griffin is closest to the old away end and has always been very popular with both home and away fans and has its regulars who still make the journey down to the new stadium from there on matchday. The New Inn is on the other side which used to also be popular with away fans before the move. The Brook pub is the other option if you want to savour a pub in and around what is left of our old home. Worth a peep if you want to reminisce about old Brentford.
About five minutes’ walk away from the old ground are two pubs which are enormously popular. The Globe (Windmill Rd) is a “lively but comfortable” pub on matchday. Incredibly friendly and cosy, it has always been popular with a selection of away fans who fancied having a beer a few minutes further walk away from the ground without having to queue six persons deep. After the move to the new ground, The Globe has retained many of lot its regulars from the Griffin Park days and with screens throughout the pub and in its sheltered beer garden, it shows both Premier League and EFL football before and after each match.
Meanwhile around the corner, The Lord Nelson (Enfield Rd) is another incredibly friendly and cosy away-friendly pubs about one minute walk from The Globe. Again with a TV screen for live sports and a lovely beer garden, this is another pub frequented by “away fans in the know”.
The other pub worth checking out in the Griffin Park region is The Black Dog Beer House, formerly The Albany, on Albany Road, if you like your real ales.
There are plenty of other pubs in and around Brentford High Street including real ale pub Magpie and Crown (Brentford High Street) and the cosy Brewery Tap (Catherine Wheel Road) near the river.
For a Griffin Park area pub crawl before heading over to Kew we recommend the following: Take the Piccadilly line to Northfields station. Turn left and walk for 2 mins and you will come to The Plough (Northfields Ave). Then walk to The Lord Nelson (10 min walk from The Plough) & then The Globe (1 min walk from The Nelson) en-route before hitting The Griffin (8 min walk from The Globe) and then The Black Dog (2 mins from The Griffin). You can also try and do the other three pubs on the corner whilst down here if you fancy.
Then you can then either walk (15 minutes from The Globe/The Nelson and The Griffin/Black Dog ) or take a train from Brentford station (which is five minutes walk away from both The Globe/The Nelson and The Griffin/Black Dog) or a bus (237/267) to Kew Bridge.
Trains run at 24 and 54 minutes past the hour to Kew Bridge from Brentford and take 2 mins.
Pubs in the Kew Bridge zone
Right next to Kew Bridge station, you will find the Express Tavern – an ale pub with a retro feel. The pub has been refurbished in readiness for the new football season and needless to say, is popular before the match due to its close proximity to the stadium.
Across the road by the river is One Over the Ait – a spacious boozer right next to Kew Bridge. This pub is situated on the location of the now-demolished Oxford & Cambridge pub where Brentford Football Club was founded in 1889.
Across Kew Bridge and the River Thames, there are two pubs on Kew Green – the Cricketers and the Greyhound – very close to the pier where Brentford fans have embarked on their away journeys by water to F*lham, Orient, Charlton, West Ham and even Southend.
North of the river along hoity-toity Strand on the Green, you will find The Steam Packet, in an old Cafe Rouge, and The Bell. A bit further down are The City Barge and the Bulls Head – two pubs side-by-side in which you would often see Ant and Dec hanging out.
There is also The Pilot which you can get to coming out of the BACK entrance of Gunnersbury station and we believe the old John Bull pub at the front of the station has been refurbed as The Gunnersbury but we have never been there so can’t give it a or a
Transport to Brentford and Kew Bridge
The simplest on paper to get to Brentford FC from town is to get the tube to Waterloo (Northern, Jubilee lines) or Vauxhall (Victoria Line) and then take the Overground train to Kew Bridge, which is right by the stadium. Brentford is one stop further on if you are on an ‘Original Griffin Park Pub’ mission.
With trains from Waterloo being only twice an hour (22 and 52) and taking 28 minutes, we normally recommend people jump on the tube from Kings Cross or Euston and head to Northfields or South Ealing on the Piccadilly Line as it is quicker (including the time getting across London and waiting at Waterloo) and trains are more frequent.
It is only 40 mins max station by tube to station meaning you could be in a Brentford pub within an hour of embarking your train at Kings Cross, Euston or Liverpool Street.
The other station option is Gunnersbury. You can walk to the stadium from Gunnersbury tube station (District line) in 25 minutes or take a bus (H91, 237, 267, 110), but note that it is closed for entry for one hour after the match.
For the Brentford/Griffin Park pubs you can get the Piccadilly line tube to Northfields station from King’s Cross or Euston (35 minutes) then walk down to The Plough, The Globe, The Lord Nelson and The Griffin and other pubs from there.
The new stadium is around 25 minutes’ walk from South Ealing station – if you don’t fancy Gunnersbury – or you can get on the 65 bus from across the road which will drop you almost outside in 15 minutes.
You can also pick up the 65 bus from Ealing Broadway (district and central line) which will take you to the new stadium in 25 minutes.
You can check out Transport for London’s guide to travel on the Tube and Overground.
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