Match Preview: Brighton v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Game three in Brighton and Hove Albion’s run of nine “winnable” fixtures is at home to last seasons Championship champions, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were billed in the summer as the best ever side to be promoted into the Premier League and while that is up for debate, what isn’t is the fact that they’ve made a strong start to life back in the top flight after a six year absence.
They sit ninth in the table with four wins, three draws and two defeats and managed the notable feat of taking a point from Manchester City. Some clever transfer dealings aided by the links to Jorge Mendes mean that Wolves should spent most of this season looking up rather than down.
That makes their visit to the Amex important for both sides if they want to achieve the dream of a top 10 finish.
Who are Wolverhampton Wanderers?
Once one of the grandest clubs in the country, Wolverhampton Wanderers were founding members of the Football League in 1888 and have only ever spent six seasons outside of the top two divisions in the past 130 years. Wolves were the team of the 1950’s, winning three league titles and finishing runners up twice under the great Stan Cullis. They were one of the first teams to install floodlights and used them to host glamour midweek friendlies at Molineux against other top club sides from around the world which proved to be the inspiration for the establishment of the European Cup. Things haven’t been quite so great over the last few years, back-to-back relegation seeing them tumble from top flight to third tier at the start of the decade but they romped to the Championship title last season to return to the Premier League after a six year absence and look well placed to stay up this season.
What are they like now?
Wolves were bought by Chinese investment group Fosun International in the summer of 2016 and, unlike most of the rich Chinese investors who buy into English football clubs, these guys actually seem to know what they are doing. They forged a link with Portuguese super agent Jorge Mendes which helped them land talented manager Nuno Espirito Santo and a whole host of Mendes’ clients at knockdown prices, or for free in the case of Portugal’s number one goalkeeper, Rui Patricio. Wolves maintain that Mendes officially has no role with them, which is rather like my missus officially thinking I don’t fancy Taylor Swift. Everybody knows what is going on but nobody wants to talk about IT, not least Mendes who must be making an absolute killing on consultancy fees when he’s bringing players like Joao Moutinho to Molineux for around £15m less than Wolves should be paying.
Which players should we be worried about?
We’ve already mentioned Moutinho, who just two years ago was European Champion with Portugal and just five years ago cost Monaco £20m in the days before clubs could just find £20m down the back of the sofa. Diogo Jota inherited Anthony Knockaert’s crown as the Championship’s best player last season when scoring 17 goals from midfield while Connor Coady looks to be a seriously underrated defender who could follow Lewis Dunk into the England squad at some point. Presuming he isn’t snapped up by Mendes’ agency and becomes a Portuguese national before Gareth Southgate gets a look at him.
What’s the Albion’s record against Wolverhampton Wanderers like?
There aren’t many teams that the Albion can claim to be a bogey side of, but Wolves are one of them. There have been 30 previous meetings between the Albion and Wolves and the Old Gold have only won six of them. One of those came in the FA Cup and one in the League Cup, meaning that the Albion have lost just four times in the league against the Molineux-based side. Our record in the top flight is even better with six wins from six, 13 goals scored and one conceded. All of which set things up nicely for an 8-0 victory to Wolves.
What’s the best WeAreBrighton.com memory of Wolverhampton Wanderers at home?
The best performance of Steve Coppell’s reign as Brighton boss came against Wolves in February 2003. The visitors to Withdean would end the season being promoted to the Premier League as the Albion were relegated to the third tier. Despite that apparent gulf in class, Wolves were hammered 4-1 as goals from Bobby Zamora, Dean Blackwell, Paul Brooker and Gary Hart secured one of the greatest results that the Theatre of Trees ever witnessed.
What’s the worst WeAreBrighton.com memory of Wolverhampton Wanderers at home?
After a 21-game undefeated streak at the start of the 2015-16 season, the wheels were coming off Brighton’s promotion bid. Chris Hughton’s side had picked up just three points from a possible 15 when Wolves came to the Amex on New Years Day and won 1-0 through a Connor Goldson own goal. The game was more memorable for James Wilson throwing up all over the pitch before kick off which pretty much summed up how we felt 90 minutes later – and not just because of the hangover from the previous evening.
Whose played for both sides?
We’ve had a couple of successful loans from Wolves with Rajiv van La Parra, Stephen Ward and Ívar Ingimarsson impressing in the 2015-16, 2013-14 and 2002-03 seasons respectively. While Hughton decided to sign Anthony Knockaert rather than seek a permanent deal for van La Parra, the Albion were very keen on keeping both Ward and Ingimarsson. The Ward deal never materialised because Brighton didn’t want to add an extra three pence to Ward’s weekly wage and over weeks of haggling, he’d had enough and signed for Burnley. The Ingimarsson transfer meanwhile was in the days when those bastards at Reading would bid a tenner more for every player we wanted, so naturally he wound up moving to the Madjeski Stadium instead.
Other than football, what is Wolverhampton famous for?
Wolverhampton was originally a wool town and then during the industrial revolution it was at the heart of the coal mining in England as well as dabbling in steel production and lock making. More recently it has gained notoriety for being the only town we’ve come across that attempts to ban away fans from virtually every pub on a match day apart from Walkabout.
Where’s the betting value for Brighton v Wolverhampton Wanderers?
With the odd exception, goals tend to be few and far between in games between the Albion and Wolves. It’s been four games since both teams scored in the fixture while only twice in the last 15 has there been over 2.5 goals. History suggests then that backing both teams to score no and under 2.5 goals is the way to go and that’s before you take into account the potential absence of Glenn Murray and the fact that Wolves have only scored nine goals so far themselves.
Prediction
It has all the makings of a draw. In the unlikely even that Murray is fit, 1-1. If he isn’t, 0-0.
