So... It's Derby Day!! Wolves travel the short distance to Villa Park this evening for their third Premier League game in ten days and the third under the management of Julen Lopetegui.
Once again Wolves will take to the pitch knowing that three points can lift them away from the relegation zone and drop Everton into it following their devastating loss to Brighton last night. With Wolves' fellow relegation zone teams Southampton and Notts Forest also battling each other tonight it is important Wolves come away from Villa Park with a positive result. However this will not be an easy task considering the fact that Villa will be on a high after their 2 - 0 win at Spurs on Sunday. The team seems to be responding well to the new management team led by Unai Emery and settling down after the poor performances under Steven Gerrard, and they now occupy a mid-table spot.
The fact remains that Aston Villa haven't won any of their last six Premier League home games against Wolves (D3 L3), alternating between a draw and a defeat each time and who could forget the way Wolves came back from being 2 - 0 down to win 3 - 2 last season, with Wolves going on to complete the double over their local rivals in April. So the game is there for Wolves to win this evening and fans will have seen some encouraging performances in the team despite them losing to Man United by a solitary goal at the weekend.
It's difficult to establish how fit the squad is for this game! There is talk of a player beijng injured, but this hasn't been confirmed or the player identified. Otherwise it appears that the team which played against United is fit. Whilst it is widely anticipated that new striker Matheus Cunha will make an appearance tonight, if not start. Raul Jimenez also appears to have recovered from his injury and will no doubt stake a claim to start in place of the ineffective Diego Costa who still hasn't scored!
Aston Villa have some injury worries with Captain John McGinn likely to be unfit and several others struggling, including former Wolves man Leander Dendoncker.
Tonight's game is scheduled to kick off at 20:00hrs and doesn't feature on any TV channels. Our referee will be Jarred Gillett with Simon Hooper on VAR duty.
Subject to an available stream this board will endeavour to provide regular updates of the progress of the game. Board members are encouraged to post their own observations and join in the conversation.
Match Thread: Aston Villa vs Wolves
Posted by: Wolves (IP Logged)
Date: 04/01/2023 17:51
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:01:08:16:22:34 by Cheshire wolf.
Perhaps surprising to see an unchanged starting Xl this evening, and perhaps wonder just how many more chances Costa is going to get to score!! Perhaps JL thinks they are beginning to bond as a team - let's hope Hwang does more tonight than in the last game and our defence stop giving the ball away!! At least Cunha has made it to the bench. Line-up:
Hang and Costa upfront again? Think that unless we get off to a rip-roaring start new boy Cunha might be on early.
Costa was a great idea; just hasn’t worked. Maybe his days starting are done.
Great ball in by Hugo put out for a corner by Mings. Villa break through Cash but regained by Wolves Nunes is showing well in midfield tonight and putting some good cross field passes in
Nunes seems to be OK. Costa to Pod with a lovely ball but his cross put out for a corner, which Joao puts too far across the area. Two added minutes to play.
Boos ring out as the whistle goes at the end of first half, a good game so far and Wolves have played very well. An excellently created & finished goal by Podence is the difference between the teams, but Wolves have been the better team without doubt. At the moment we are out of the bottom three and up to 16th place so we need more goals!!
Aston Villa 0 Wolves 1
Wolves good for their halftime lead. Bueno, Semedo, Podence all giving it gusto with Moutinho and especially Neves with his passes and Nunes taking them on, all working hard.
Our defence looks a bit wobbly , getting penned in with those scary pitty-pat short passes. Trying to pass out is the way now of course, but from a nervy back line it can be terrifying, inviting trouble
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:01:04:21:01:35 by chicagowolf.
It seems it must becBiubacarxTraore who is injured as he’s unavailable for tonight’s game. Digne puts an excellent ball in but just too high for Bailey
Once again Danny Ings scores against Wolves from a long ball over the defence. Jose slipped coming out to him and it was an easy finish
Villa 1 Wolves 1
And the whistle goes so it is a positive result but not the three points we needed. Bailey on the ground seemingly crying over his last minute failure. A good game with aplenty of good action particularly from Wolves in the first half but Villa had the better of the second half. Danny Ings once again scoring against us after a ball over the top to him. The referee deserves a mention as he had a very good game.
One win, one draw and one loss for JL so far!
Aston Villa 1 Wolves 1
A decent enough result and performance. Excellent first half with a great goal. Maybe a bit unfortunate with Sa's slip when Ings was through but it seemed inevitable he would score against us.
Dare I say another decent match from Collins and Bueno has responded really well after his below par showing against Everton, impressive again today. Nunes another to have one of his better games. Difficult to judge Cunha but he was lively enough and made one or two good runs and looking forward to seeing him again.
All in all, a good point away from home and for me at least the positivity under Lopetegui continues.
By the way Lupy, I watched it on MMFOOTY.COM.
Shame we didn't hang on for the 3 points but I thought we played well especially first half, with a bit of luck in front of goal we could of put the game to bed.
We needed that 2nd goal which just wouldn't come.
Villa had the better of the 2nd half but sa didn't really make many saves.
Just had a bad feeling when ings came on what would happen.
Thought nunes had his best game in a wolves shirt, and ran did well when he came on.
A points better than none.
We really outplayed Villa in every department in a great first half and we should have (woulda coulda) got the second, in particular a scuff from Nunes. Second half we were second best but nothing like the margin that we dominated in the first 45. I couldn’t see Villa scoring then in the space of a couple of minutes Kilman made that amazing goal line clearance followed by us falling asleep and Ings punishing.
As for that Villa miss in the last minute of injury time ….. as laughable as it was massively scary. Luckily Cry Baby Bailey was on hand to tamely kick the ball wide instead of winning it for Villa. The reality is that would have been incredibly harsh on us. A draw was fair, I would have taken a point beforehand, however I think we edged it overall.
With results going as they did, frustrating we couldn’t hold on the emerge out of the bottom 3 and with cup fixtures with Liverpool on Saturday and Forest next Wednesday, our next league match v West Ham at Molineux is now verging on massive!
Good match tonight, encouraging signs from Wolves, still 19th! A performance to cling onto for us fans!
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