Wolves Soar to the Premier League Summit

 Today, Wolves beat Fulham 2-0 to temporarily go top of the Premier League. Two quick-fire goals from Kevin Doyle and Matt Jarvis just before halftime secured the three points. 

- I've never headed to Molineux before in the knowledge that a victory would see us go top of the Premier League. With England ranked as the Number One Test team in the world, this had potential for brilliance that I would remember for the rest of my life.

- We were unchanged from last week. The only change I expected was potentially Kevin Foley coming in, having replaced Richard Stearman at half time last week. With Ronald Zubar assumedly still injured, it looks like Stearman has the right back shirt in his possession at the moment.

- From a tactical point of view, we lined up with an orthodox 4-4-2 formation, but with Jarvis and Stephen Hunt playing as inverted wingers. Normally when this happens, the wingers switch flanks, but today it was Hunt and Doyle who swapped positions. Doyle drifted out wide right, probably to give him the advantage in the air over John Arne Riise, but it resulted in leaving Hunt the space vacated by Doyle to run into. A couple of times Hunt was able to create opportunities, and this was a tactic that worked very well. I've always advocated giving Hunt a role through the middle, especially when playing with one upfront, but this role could give him that freedom.

- Speaking of which, this gave us numerous angles of attack. In what is virtually a front-4 of Hunt, Doyle, Steven Fletcher and Jarvis, with O'Hara and Stephen Ward getting forward as well, if one channel of attack was blocked, we were able to start again elsewhere on the pitch. If Hunt is going to drift inside, the way I mentioned earlier, it will also give Stearman the opportunity to push further forward on the flank. It should also be noted that Karl Henry had a good game, keeping the ball ticking over and not being afraid of making a big tackle.

- One problem I did have with our attack is that Ward and Jarvis occasionally got in each other’s way. Both favour hugging the touchline on the left flank and getting to the byline. They are developing a good partnership defensively, but work still needs to be done when on the offensive. I would like to see Ward drive inside Jarvis towards the penalty area instead of always looking to go outside the defender. Not only will this create space for Jarvis wide on the flank, it could also see Ward get in to one or two good goal scoring positions in and around the box.

- Jamie O'Hara was a buzz of energy today, and had he had his shooting boots with him, he could have easily had found his way onto the score sheet. One issue I did have is that occasionally he got too far too close the strikers, especially when our defenders had the ball. This limited the passing options on the ball when the ball was at the back, and put a lot of pressure on Henry if we were planning on playing the ball short. At times it seemed like he thought he was playing as if he was in behind the one striker, with two deeper midfielders in supporting him.

- Saying that, at times it seemed like we were a little careless with the ball in defence, with Roger Johnson especially giving the ball away three times. Each time he was guilty of playing a loose short ball into the midfield which was intercepted, and each time it put instant pressure onto our defence when none was necessary. Johnson had a good game defensively, but I'd like to see him cut the lazy passes out.

- Perhaps the most impressive improvement this season has been the way we've closed the two matches out. At times today, we kept possession beautifully well to take the sting out of the game. One other point of note in this respect is that we haven't retreated to defending the 18 yard box. Whether Johnson can be accredited with this change I'm unsure, but we seem a lot more confident in our ability to see the game out, rather than all out panic at the back.

- As for Fulham, given how they played in the two matches I saw them last season, I was extremely disappointed in them. They had a lot of movement upfront, especially when Moussa Dembélé came on at halftime, but lacked width on the right. I think Pajtim Kasami and Clint Dempsey were supposed to be nominally providing the width on that flank, but both tended to drift inside. This did give a lot of space for the right back to push forward into, but given that this was Aaron Hughes, normally a centre back, this space was not utilised. Maybe 10 years ago when he was playing for Newcastle United he would have been able to take advantage of this, but today he couldn't.

- Not sure if anyone can shed any light on this, but at fulltime there was a little spat between Henry and Dempsey. The referee definitely saw it, and pointed it out to new captain Roger Johnson who swiftly intervened. I also noticed that at fulltime, many of the substitutes celebrated the victory with their rivals for a first-team place - Ward and George Elokobi, and Dorus de Vries and Wayne Hennessey. I'm not sure how much this means, but it seems to give a decent account of the team spirit seen in the squad.