Wolverhampton Wanderers

Dazzling Dave
Fan writer

Image source, Getty Images

Remember the iconic show Red Dwarf? There's an episode featuring the despair squid, and that's exactly how I feel! Totally sapped of joy and hope, I wonder if that’s how the players feel to.

Losing to Villa sure stings, and we saw a whole host of problems in this game but the real blow is watching Yerson Mosquera go down with an injury. Missing scoring opportunities is annoying, but the defence's stability is a bigger concern. Without Mosquera, the back four is in disarray, and shifting to a back three isn't straightforward. Wolves have gone 17 Premier League matches without a clean sheet, the squad is already thin in defence and more reshuffling could lead to bigger problems.

Mosquera is expected to miss the rest of the campaign. This situation leaves Wolves in a tough spot and underscores their failure to bring in a proven centre-back during the transfer window. Fans were aware that replacing Max Kilman was necessary, but the club risked relying on the current squad at least until the January window.

Wolves have been adjusting to a back four formation, which requires the right players for success. Bueno struggled when he was substituted during the Villa match. It's tough stepping into that role mid-game, but he might not be ready to handle a back four effectively. Gary O’Neil might consider switching to a back three, but with only three senior centre-backs, they would lack sufficient cover on the bench. It's a conundrum.

While Wolves played well for 45 mins they yet again failed to kill off the game. Surely Liverpool will be licking their lips with glee at the thought of playing us next week.

The characters of Red Dwarf always find a way out of hopeless situations, let’s hope Wolves can too!

Find more from Dazzling Dave at Always Wolves, external

Dave Azzopardi from the Talking Wolves podcast says Wolves fans "were very spoilt" after they returned to the Premier League and believes the atmosphere at Molineux could become "toxic" if the club remains winless by October.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, Azzopardi said the club's successes after getting promoted from the Championship have led to extremely high expectations, which are difficult for the club to maintain.

Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer or listen on BBC Sounds

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We asked for your thoughts after Saturday's Premier League game between Aston Villa and Wolves.

Here are some of your comments:

Villa fans

Rudgey: Unai Emery showed his genius again! For 60 minutes, Wolves had the measure of us but our substitutes and tactical tweaks turned the game. Seeing Gary O'Neil's face at full-time as he shook hands with Emery said it all - when the game changed, he couldn't keep up. We can now get results even when we're not at our best. Exciting times!

Simon: Surely Jhon Duran deserves to start soon? Ollie Watkins scored but he looks off his game after the Euros. We huffed and puffed in the first half against a Wolves team with no natural finisher, but it shows how deep the Villans can dig to pull it out of the bag! It says a lot about the coach and his well assembled squad.

Leona: Villa showed the mentality required to overcome Wolves after giving away a goal due to repeatedly bad defending. Ross Barkley played a blinder and his input helped turn the result around. Surely Duran has to start the next game? I still feel Villa are better playing in a 4-4-2.

Thomas: Another great win for Villa. A poor first-half performance but we came alive in the second half and Duran scored again! We move on to Wycombe on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup and hope to get through to the fourth round.

Wolves fans

Alan: We better hope that there are three worse teams than us because at the moment, relegation beckons. Too early to panic after a hard run of fixtures? The excuse brigade is still failing to accept the facts. Is it too soon to start the Gary O'Neil out discussion?

Mark: Really frustratingly disappointing once again. We had a dominant first half, an awful second half and we were an absolute mess defensively. I'm afraid we are in serious trouble. If the mindset of the manager and his players is that the fixtures will eventually get easier, they are sadly mistaken. There are no easy games in the Premier League. The Championship beckons.

Glyn: Great first-half display but again no Plan B for the second half. We knew that Villa would change things, but we didn't and couldn't react as we don't have the quality of game-changing players that our opposition have. There is no plan B and I'm getting worried.

Norman: We are having a bad run at the moment, but I see them getting out of this bad run. I have all the confidence in our manager. In the owners? That is a different question and I'm not going to go there. It is the team that means more to me than the owners. I have supported them for over 64 years and I still find when we lose most upsetting.

Gary Lineker presents highlights and analysis from Saturday's eight Premier League fixtures.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth

• Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester United

Joe Rindl
BBC Sport journalist

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Wolves have lost back-to-back league fixtures against Villa for the first time since 2003-04.

A win over one of their arch-rivals could have been the spark they needed to turn their form around.

Gary O'Neil's side have just one win across their past 15 Premier League matches - including 11 defeats - their worst run for more than two years.

However, with matches against Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle, it is fair to say their opening fixtures have been particularly tough.

Their only point this season came at Nottingham Forest, and they were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Brighton in midweek.

Frustratingly for Wolves, they had the measure of their opponents for 70 minutes, winning the ball back with a high press - a tactic which resulted in Matheus Cunha's opener.

But the visitors were ultimately made to pay for their wasted chances.

Meanwhile, defender Yerson Mosquera was taken off on a stretcher with a knee injury in the second half.

A day to forget for the visitors.

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Villa have now gained six points from losing positions in the Premier League this season; the joint-most of any side alongside Manchester City. While Wolves have dropped six points from such positions, with only Everton (8) having dropped more.

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Wolves boss Gary O'Neil, speaking to Match of the Day after today's loss: "The first half we played very well. No team comes here and wins at a canter. It was not like they were banging the door down. But when we need to fight we need to do it better. The lads are finding out the hard way you cannot play well for a bit.

"It’s disappointing we have come up short. That [second] goal has to be stopped as does the first goal. We need to make sure the fixtures, we have some really tough ones coming up, we need to find a way to fight and scrap.

"We’re not going to dominate games against Aston Villa and Liverpool. We need to behave and act like a team scrapping for everything. We have to make sure we are better when it gets tough."

On the injury to Yerson Mosquera, who was carried off on a stretcher: "It doesn’t look good at this moment. It’s a big blow for us."

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

Have your say on Villa’s performance, external

What did you make of Wolves' display?, external

Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

Follow reaction and read the match report

Eight matches make up Saturday's Premier League action, and we will bring you every moment.

All kick-off times BST

Follow all of the action and reaction here

BBC Radio 5 Live match commentaries:

• Liverpool v Bournemouth

• Crystal Palace v Manchester United

Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League matches this season, against a variety of guests.

For week five, he takes on singer-songwriter and West Ham fan James Smith whose debut album Common People is out now.

Aston Villa host Wolves on Saturday at 15:00 BST.

Sutton's prediction: 2-0

There were some strange results that cost me last week - I was nailed on to get the exact score of Wolves versus Newcastle until Harvey Barnes smashed in Newcastle's winner late on.

Wolves hit the post too when they were 1-0 up and, although they have only picked up one point from their first four games, they have not had much luck and I still think they will end up being fine this season, even though I don't expect them to get anything here.

Villa boss Unai Emery has to find a balancing act with their Champions League campaign and any chopping and changing to his team, which is a much bigger ask than when they reached the Europa Conference League semi-finals last season.

I didn't captain Ollie Watkins in my Fantasy team last week, when he scored a double against Everton, but Jhon Duran coming on to score Villa's winner in that game shows the depth in their squad to cope.

So, I don't feel they will be affected by their win over Young Boys in Switzerland on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see how much Emery rotates his players, but I can only see a Villa win.

Smith's prediction: 2-1

I feel like Villa are going to have another really good season.

Read the full predictions and have your say here

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Earlier, we asked you for the four players who have scored at least 20 Premier League goals for Wolves.

Raul Jimenez is Wolves' leading Premier League goalscorer, while Steven Fletcher, Ruben Neves and Hwang Hee-chan have also reached the 20-goal mark for the club in the competition.

Jonty Colman
BBC Sport journalist

Wolves boss Gary O'Neil has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Aston Villa (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• On injuries to Toti Gomes, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Boubacar Traore: "Need to check on Toti and Rayan today in training to see how they go - neither of them has done too much this week. Both have still got a bit to do. Bouba is still out [and] on crutches at the moment. He had a repair to the joint surface in his knee and he will probably be out until about Christmas. "

• O'Neil also confirmed that centre-back Yerson Mosquera is available this weekend.

• On Goncalo Guedes' return to the side: "We just made him believe he’s got a chance if he shows something. He shows he’s willing to work and buy in and add quality. He’s had a good start to the season when you consider where he was in the group a year or so ago to where he is now. It has been a really big upturn and he looks like he can be a goal threat."

• However, O'Neil also said that Guedes is not in contention to start after playing 82 minutes against Brighton in the Carabao Cup in midweek.

• He is unhappy with the results so far but determined to turn them around: "I absolutely despise losing as everybody does.My job is to make sure the group is always ready for what comes next. I don’t shirk away from any of these challenges."

• He understands the rollercoaster nature of a season: "I’m comfortable that the group understand well enough now that in a Premier League season, there will be some tough moments. We don’t accept them, we’re not stood here saying it is acceptable to lose games because the opposition are good. It’s not acceptable."

• Meanwhile, he dismissed worries of tiredness: "The boys are good. They trained yesterday and didn’t show any signs of fatigue or having not recovered. We’re yet to train today, but I’m sure they will be bright."

• The appeal of a derby game should also inspire his players: "It's one we enjoyed [last season], especially the home game was a great game [with] two teams going at it. We went away to Aston Villa late last season with a lot of injury issues but we were still able to put up a fight and we go there tomorrow looking to win. I have huge belief in the group that we can go to Aston Villa and win."

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news here.

Can you name the four players who have scored at least 20 goals for Wolves in the Premier League?

Answer will be revealed at 17:00 BST

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The issue around the footballing calendar and the demands being placed on players right now is a difficult one.

First, we need to take into consideration the really high demands on the body that go on all-year round with few breaks, especially for international footballers and those in teams competing on multiple fronts.

I know the men's and the women's games are different, but we got exposed to these issues when we went from amateur to professional. There was a lot of loading, a lot of games and the result of that was a higher risk of injury and we have seen a lot of anterior cruciate ligament injuries now in the women's game.

From the fans' side, their point is often that players get paid a lot of money but I think that is irrelevant. That is just the industry players are in and, if you take out the money, they are still human beings.

The governing bodies need to look at who they consult with about changes in the calendar such as World Cups being held in winter and summers where there is just a couple of weeks off before going straight back into it. The changes and fixtures that are put in are there to generate more money, which makes it difficult. As a business, it is about money.

We talk about mental health a lot and you wonder, where is the time to switch off and have that time away from playing? To have that family time which is a deep human need? At some point mentally, if not physically, it will take its toll.

None of us want to see players striking, but players need to be listened to. What do they need to do to make change happen?

Fara Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson

Mike Taylor
BBC Radio WM reporter

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Every June, on the day the new league fixture lists are released, there are a few dreadful bores who point out that every team will play all the others twice in a roughly random order, and it doesn’t really matter all that much.

I should confess here to often having been one of those bores, but that view may need revision in the light of Wolves' current predicament.

Gary O’Neil’s opinion after the galling defeat by Newcastle - that Wolves had gone "toe to toe with a team that are going to be higher up the league than us" - attracted critical commentary from some fans who felt it was evidence of a negative mindset.

But O’Neil had said nothing but the truth, and had in the same breath pointed out his team might well have beaten a more fancied side.

However, there may be something in the words of an exceptionally disappointed captain, Mario Lemina, though we should make allowance for them being said in the moments immediately after the game when the emotion was highest.

"We need to change this losing mentality now, and get back to work and win games now.

"We fought a lot, it’s not about the performance of the players, it’s more about sometimes luck, and we didn’t have it. But we need to create more chances to have luck."

As you will have read elsewhere on this page, O’Neil suggested that the statistic adding Wolves' winless Premier League start to their poor run at the end of last season was "irrelevant".

He is right. Unfortunately, and however unfairly, Wolves - and therefore O’Neil - are destined to keep hearing those numbers until the league victories arrive to change them.

They are the sort of widely quoted numbers that sometimes cause club officials to make rash decisions, even though O’Neil is clearly building a team with potential on relatively limited resources and the fixture list handed them an unkindly demanding start.

Wolves play three Champions League teams in their next four Premier League games and feasibly could play well enough to find themselves in winning positions in any of them.

If they do, they will need to trust their luck, and hold their nerve. If they don’t manage it, it may be the leadership of the club who will have to hold theirs.

Tune into The West Midlands Football Phone-In from 18:00 on weeknights

Phil Cartwright
BBC Sport journalist

Wolves ended last season with only one win from their final 10 Premier League games and are winless in four league outings in 2024-25.

Head Coach Gary O'Neil has said it is "irrelevant" to compare the end of last season with the start of this one and, given the changes in playing personnel and formation implemented, he has a point.

But whether you look at the shorter or longer term, the statistics are far from ideal.

As with anything, context is key.

Nine of the 14 games stretching across the two seasons were against teams that finished in the top half in 2023-24, while injuries to attacking players in the closing months of last term left Wolves' already threadbare squad down to its proverbial bare bones.

Already this campaign, they have faced three of last season's top seven.

They may only be averaging one goal scored per league game this season, but there are positive signs. Mario Lemina's well-worked goal against Newcastle showed what can happen when they get it right.

According to Premier League statistics,, external seven "big chances" have not been taken - just six clubs have a higher total - and only Manchester City (four) have hit the woodwork more times than Wolves (three).

It is at the other end where the major problems have arisen. Only Everton (13) have conceded more than Wolves' tally of 11 in four games this season.

Some of those can be put down to Wolves' switch from a flexible back five to a back four, which has left them more open, but others are simply because of basic errors - Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson and Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood being left unmarked to head home from corners, for example.

Looking ahead, things do not get much easier for Wolves. Three of their next four games are against Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester City - all of whom finished in the top four last season.

It may be during a slightly kinder run of fixtures during November and December when this team will truly be judged.

Dave Azzopardi
Fan writer

Find more from Dave Azzopardi at Talking Wolves, external

Image source, PA Media

We asked for your thoughts after Wednesday's Carabao Cup game between Brighton and Wolves.

Here are some of your comments:

Brighton fans

Kev: Another performance that highlights what we are and where we are at. We are an exciting work in progress. Lots of new faces under a young manager, with the highlight again being Carlos Baleba. He is another player off the Bloom production line who looks destined for a great career. Winning when you're still finding your new identity is very encouraging. Roberto de Zerbi who?

Hugh: There is so much talent going forward. Baleba is so composed, powerful and confident. Adingra is so gifted. Ferguson looks like he is getting back to his best. We are a bit shaky at the back, but I think that can be put down to the lack of minutes together? At least I hope so! Exciting times ahead. Hurzeler is still unbeaten and it is setting up to be a very interesting game on Sunday!

Phil: The overall passing from Brighton was amongst the worst I've seen in a long time. They gave away the ball so many times, including goalkeeper Steele who gifted Wolves their second goal with a touch that was never going to reach the Brighton defender. It was very surprising and disappointing for a Premier League side.

Peter: I thought we looked quite poor in defence to be honest and we were quite lucky to get through. We are still through though, so I suppose that's all that matters. I did think Baleba looked very good and he scored an absolute cracker. A nice cameo and goal for Ferdi too. But we have to tighten up the defence and please stop mucking about in the area!

Wolves fans

Steve: A battling performance from Wolves. Unfortunately, and as usual, it was only a battling performance and not a win. Maybe they will come good eventually - I hope it's not in the Championship next season though, but that is looking more and more likely. There doesn't seem to be much belief from the players. The talent is there, but is the belief?

Bob: O'Neil has to get rid of his obsession with playing four at the back. He needs to get the defence tight and organised. We have the cattle but no idea how to use them.

Luke: I said this team will be bottom by Christmas and it looks like I'll be proven right, unfortunately. The manager is the biggest problem.

Don: The club shouldn't have given a four-year contract to this inexperienced manager after last season's end run. It was a big mistake.

Miguel: We might be going through a period of bad results but we should look at laying the blame on the players that are being picked to play and then the manager. If I was on the board, I would suggest that the club puts O'Neil on probation for the next few matches and, if things don't improve, then start looking for a replacement. I would maybe look at Gareth Southgate.