Brighton v Wolves: The Old Gold view with Wolves Blog

The good news for Graham Potter in his quest to drag Brighton away from the relegation zone is that the Albion have an excellent record against Wolverhampton Wanderers, as we were all too keen to remind Wolves Blog when we caught up with them.

Wolves victories against the Seagulls are rarer than hens teeth. Take Brighton’s top flight record against the Old Gold for example, which reads seven wins and three draws from 10 meetings. It is astonishing.

Can it continue at the Amex as the Albion kick off a 2021 that everyone is hoping will be a huge improvement on 2020? There are reasons to be optimistic.

Wolves are suffering badly from injuries, which explains the stuttering start they have made compared to their normal high standards. There is also a transitional feel in the air at Molineux, something that many outside the Midlands seem to have picked up on.

All of that is covered by Tom Baugh from Wolves Blog ahead of his side’s trip to the Amex.

Wolves finished seventh in the Premier League in 2019-20 and enjoyed a memorable run in the Europa League. How happy were you with last season?
It was a tremendous journey, albeit disappointing to eventually miss out on European football altogether after some poor results late on in the season.

But considering we finished toward the bottom of the Championship just a few years before, it’s remarkable to consider how much the club has developed in such a short space of time.

What were your expectations for the current campaign and are Wolves living up to those?
In my most optimistic moments, I hoped we would do even better in the Premier League without the distraction of the Europa League. But it has quickly become apparent the team is in transition and we don’t have the consistency of previous years. When you factor in a lengthy injury list, I think a top half finish would be a decent achievement.

Jose Mourinho said Wolves should be considered part of the big six now. Is that fair or was he talking typical Mourinho nonsense?
Well, we have never finished sixth so it is not true. I think the squad we had at the end of last season was one or two players away from competing for the top four, but we sold Diogo Jota and Matt Doherty and have since had to contend with injuries to Jonny, Raul Jimenez and more recently Leander Dendoncker and Willy Boly.

That is half the team who played every week last season and although we have brought a few in, we have lost fluidity and cutting edge.

Who have been Wolves’ star players this season? Any disappointments?
I would single Pedro Neto out for praise. In selling Jota, the pressure was on him to perform consistently and he’s done that. We’d be very close to the bottom three had he not delivered in key moments.

Nelson Semedo, a £27 million buy from Barcelona, has not done nearly enough to warrant the walloping great fee we paid for him and we could really do with some better output from Adama Traore.

What do you think you need to do in the January transfer window?
Buy a striker. It looks like Raul might be out for the season, so we need some firepower. We have got plenty of creative players who disrupt defences, but we do not put the ball in the net enough.

It seems like a lifetime ago since Brighton played Wolves, but what did you make of the two meetings last season if you can remember them?
It was great first half at the Amex in that 2-2 draw back in December. We started well, then you bossed it and we then seized on a mistake to get level again. The second half fizzled out as I recall.

The game at Molineux later in the season was another dull stalemate, which is fast becoming a tradition. I can vaguely remember watching the second half and thinking you had some good moments and could have won it.

We have always been mystified as to why Brighton have such a ridiculously good record against Wolves to the point where we are probably your bogey side. Any ideas?!
You are definitely our bogey side, but who can say why? Football matches are usually decided by a few key moments and for whatever reason, you have managed to edge ahead when it mattered in a lot of the games over the last 20 odd years.

If you had to give Graham Potter some advice for beating Wolves (don’t worry, he won’t listen to it), what would it be?
Probably look to push our creative players wide and restrict them to crosses as we do not get a lot of bodies in the box. Although we are trying to get a greater share of possession, we are still a team who like to win the ball back and break quickly.

Finally, what is the Wolves Blog prediction for Brighton v Wolves?
I’ll back us to get a narrow 2-1 on a law of averages.

Thanks to Tom for answering our questions. You can read his work over on Wolves Blog and why not follow him on Twitter to remind him of his prediction of a 2-1 Wolves victory should Brighton maintain their excellent record against the Old Gold.