Match Preview: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Brighton

In last week’s preview of Brighton v Crystal Palace, we said victory against the Eagles was so important because of run of fixtures that were coming up afterwards – a run which starts against a Wolverhampton Wanderers side who are enjoying one of their best ever seasons.

We don’t want to go over old ground or anything, but things didn’t go quite according to plan against our rivals from up the A23. As a result, Graham Potter and his side find themselves in a very precarious position ahead of the trip to Molineux.

It was of course a similar story last year. Brighton headed to Wolves having just lost two Amex games in three days. A heaviest home defeat in 46 defeats against Plucky Little Bournemouth was followed by a 2-0 loss to Cardiff City.

Relegation looked inevitable at that point. And yet Chris Hughton went back to basics and we defended as if our lives depended on it to draw 0-0 with the Old Gold.

The Albion would go onto pick up further draws against Newcastle United and Arsenal, living to fight another Premier League season by their skin of their teeth. A similar result and performance this time around wouldn’t go amiss.

A brief history of Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers were one of the founding members of the Football League with the club’s golden period coming in the 1950s under the management of Stan Cullis. Between 1949 and 1960, they were crowned champions of England three times, finished as runners up on a further three occasions and won two FA Cups.

It’s fair to say that being a Wolves fan is very rarely dull. In the 1980s, Wolves managed to achieve the impressive feat of three consecutive relegations to tumble from top flight into the fourth division. Even more troublesome were their financial issues as the club came close to going out of business on more occasions than Boris Johnson has had children.

Towards the end of the 1980s, they achieved back-to-back league titles to return to the second tier, where they have spent most of their time since, barring a few interludes in the Premier Division and League One.

The purchase of Wolves by the Chinese conglomerate Fosun International in 2016 saw the club form links with the Portuguese super agent Jorge Mendes, who instantly began sending his clients to Molineux for knock down prices.

Wolverhampton Wanderers subsequently strolled to the Championship title in 2017-18 with several Mendes clients starring – but that was only a preview of what was to come once they joined Brighton in the Premier League. After winning promotion, players who had helped Portugal win the European Championships just two years early such as Rui Patricio and Joao Moutinho signed for peanuts.

Under the inspired leadership of Nuno – another bloke on Mendes’ books – Wolves qualified for the Europa League in their first season back in the top flight. They are currently on course to do even better this time around.

Wolverhampton Wanderers this season
At the start of the campaign, most pundits giving their thoughts as part of a preview said that Wolverhampton Wanderers would struggle as a result of second season syndrome and the extra demands of European football being placed on a small squad – yet as Brighton prepare to go to Molineux, the Old Gold have their eyes set on a Champions League spot.

What makes that achievement all the more impressive is that Wolves have used the least number of players out of any squad in the Premier League so far. We’re constantly told that playing Thursday night in Bratislava or Istanbul and Sunday away at Newcastle is untenable for many of the world’s biggest stars, and yet Nuno has relied on his strongest line ups in both competitions with no signs of fatigue or tiredness.

Manchester City’s ban from the Champions League opens up the prospect of a fifth placed finish bringing the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to Molineux in 2020-21. Even with all that Chinese investment and Mendes’ stable of stars, that is seriously impressive for a club who were playing against Stevenage and Crawley Town as recently as 2014.

Brighton’s head-to-head record against Wolverhampton Wanderers
All of which makes the Albion’s trip to Molineux sound very ominous, doesn’t it? Well, the good news for any straw clutching Brighton supporters out there is that our match preview can reveal that Brighton have a sensational record against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

We went unbeaten in our first 14 clashes with the Old Gold with the 33 game head-to-head record reading 15 Albion wins, 11 draws and just six victories for Wolves.

Before last April’s 0-0 stalemate at Molineux, Brighton had never dropped a point in the top flight against Wolves. December’s 2-2 draw at the Amex ensures that we still haven’t lost a game in the top division against them, a record that we could really do with extending given the current look of Premier League’s bottom six.

Brighton’s head-to-head record with Wolverhampton Wanderers

Last six meetings
• Brighton 2-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Premier League, 08/12/19)
• Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-0 Brighton (Premier League, 20/04/19)
• Brighton 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Premier League, 27/10/18)
• Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Brighton (Championship, 14/04/17)
• Brighton 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Championship, 18/09/16)
• Brighton 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Championship, 01/01/16)

The Albion have suffered only one defeat in their past 11 games against Wolves stretching all the way back to 2006. That came on New Year’s Day 2016, a midday start live on Sky in which James Wilson summed up how most of us were feeling by being sick on the pitch before kick off.

Wolves didn’t even manage to net their own winner that day – it was an own goal from Connor Goldson which did the damage. Kenny Miller was therefore the last Wolves player to score a winner against Brighton, his penalty giving the hosts a 1-0 win at Molineux in April 2006.

The game was played out in front of a hostile home crowd who spent most of the afternoon demanding the sacking of Glenn Hoddle and the Wolves board. Mark McGhee’s Brighton had already been relegated by that point.

Team news
Given that Brighton took a point from another one of the top six challengers in Sheffield United playing with a back three, Potter would have to be mad not to consider reverting to 3-5-2 again for the trip to Molineux.

Shane Duffy missed the defeat to Crystal Palace through a family bereavement but he should walk back into the side if available, especially given the threat posed by Wolves’ 22 goal top scorer Raul Jimenez.

The biggest selection question after that will surround Alexis Mac Allister once again. There was an excellent rumour on North Stand Chat this week saying that Potter didn’t want the Argentinian playmaker brought in before the summer, yet Dan Ashworth went over his head and got him anyway.

That may well be bollocks. But Mac Allister has been in the country for nearly a month now – it’s going to look very strange if he doesn’t feature soon, especially given the way in which the Albion’s social media team had been instructed to hype him up as the next Lionel Messi in the weeks following his arrival.

Wolves’ key players
We’ve already touched on Jimenez who has shown everyone what £33 million can get you since his initial loan deal from Benfica was turned permanent last summer. Ruben Neves has done what Anthony Knockaert couldn’t and gone from being the Championship’s best player to a proven Premier League performer.

Diego Jota meanwhile has six Premier League goals from midfield so far this season. For context, that is more than Davy Propper, Dale Stephens, Yves Bissouma, Aaron Mooy and Beram Kayal have managed combined since we became a Premier League club in 2017.

A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Wolverhampton Wanderers away
Speaking of Knockaert, one of his finest moments in an Albion shirt came against Wolves away. Good Friday 2017 turned into Bloody Great Friday as the Little French Magician scored twice to give the Albion a 2-0 victory which gave us one foot in the top flight.

The job was completed three days later when Wigan Atheltic were beaten 2-1 at the Amex. Those heady days seem light years away now.

A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Wolverhampton Wanderers away
Let’s be honest, if Wolverhampton wasn’t so close to Birmingham, Wolves would be an away day that you’d rank alongside Burnley as trips that are about as fun as drilling a rusty nail through your own eyeball.

Every pub in Wolverhampton inexplicably becomes home fans only on a matchday and sections of the locals aren’t exactly pleasant as there always seems to be some sort of scuffle on the grim walk back to the station.

Case in point was our visit in the 2012-13 season. We ended up in a nightclub before the game drinking strawberry flavoured cocktails because it was the only venue serving alcohol allowing Brighton fans in that wasn’t the Walkabout.

The football was entertaining at least, a 3-3 draw. There was a punch up on a roundabout afterwards (while one member of the WeAreBrighton.com team was being sick in a bush) and it was just an all round horrible experience.

It’s little wonder that we sold so few tickets for this. As a result, the Albion section has been moved from the normal away fans location along the side of the pitch to a corner of the stand behind the goal in order to accommodate more home supporters.

Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Wolverhampton Wanderers
There have been a few loan players to make the move between Wolves and Brighton over the past 20 years or so. Ivar Ingimarrson, Rajiv van La Parra and Stephen Ward all proved to be capable Championship performers, with Ward even winning our WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Season award for 2013-14 during his spell at the Amex.

We bumped into him a year later in Guinness Village at the Cheltenham Festival and he was nice enough (pissed out of his tree) to stop for a chat. Ward was by now a Burnley player after the Albion decided to play hardball over paying the fee that Wolves wanted for him, allowing the Clarets to nip in and take him to Turf Moor instead.

Still, he said he loved his time at Brighton and he wished us well. A class bloke wearing a class tweed jacket.

What we like about Wolverhampton
Next.

Prediction
In every match preview of Wolverhampton Wanderers v Brighton, we seem to go for the draw. That’s based on the Albion’s ridiculous record against Wolves, which surely has to take a bit of a hit at some point?

Given the way that we’ve been playing lately, this could be that time – a 2-0 win for Wolves and further pressure heaped on Potter and the Albion.