Wolverhampton Wanderers

Mike Taylor
BBC Radio WM reporter

Joao Gomes celebrated his 23rd birthday last week. Some 60,000 people turned up at his party, although only about 3,000 of them enjoyed it as much as he did.

The two goals he scored at Tottenham were, if this analogy will stretch a little further, just the icing on his cake. He finished them very well indeed - a guided header from a corner, and a nerveless drive at the end of a 70-yard sprint in the wake of Pedro Neto - but the bigger long-term story was how, against strong opponents, the Brazilian midfielder commanded a big stage.

Just over a year ago, Gomes joined Wolves after an amusing few weeks of transfer-window knockabout, during which the #FreeJoaoGomes online campaign made him one of the most popular players the club can ever have had before kicking their first ball.

A few minutes into his first appearance, near the end of a mad game at Southampton, he scored an unlikely winning goal. As the celebrations whirled around him, he looked stunned by the drama of it all, as if reality was on fast-forward. This guy, you thought, is going to be box-office.

There were a few games over the following months in which he did look a little bewildered, charging around midfield but never quite in the right place. We should be less surprised than we are when this sort of thing happens to young players coming into the Premier League. Not only is the standard and the pace so high, and the spotlight so harsh, but we of course only see what happens on the field. Arriving in a new country - a new continent in his case - at an age when many are yet to move out of home, into a high-pressure environment with public expectations set by your price tag, is a much more challenging prospect than we often allow.

But look at him now.

"I knew how much the game would suit him," said Wolves manager Gary O'Neil. "We were going to be without the ball and he was going to be able to press things and win it back for us."

He won possession from the Spurs midfield on demand, and often well up the field too, although the decisive goal was started at the edge of the Wolves box.

Sunday's game at home to Sheffield United may be a different sort of battle altogether, but Gomes is now showing us he has the authority to set the rules of engagement.

• Wolves v Sheffield United - live commentary on BBC Radio WM (all frequencies except online), Sunday 13:30 GMT

• BBC Radio WM Football Phone-in – weeknights 18:00-19:00

Here are the key facts and figures before Sunday's game between Wolves and Sheffield United in the Premier League.

• Wolves are unbeaten in their last eight home league games against Sheffield United (W4 D4), since a 3-1 loss in the Championship in October 2002.

• Following their 2-1 win at Bramall Lane in November, Sheffield United are looking to complete their first league double over Wolves since 1989-90, when they were promoted from the Championship.

• Wolves have won five of their last eight Premier League games (D1 L2), although their two losses in this run have come in their last two matches at Molineux (v Manchester United & Brentford). Wolves last lost three consecutive home top-flight matches in October/December 2022 (4).

• Sheffield United have lost five Premier League games by a margin of five ore more goals this season, the joint most such defeats of any side in a single Premier League campaign (also Derby County in 2007-08). Only Darwen (7 in 1891-92) and Ipswich Town (6 in 1963-64) have lost more top-flight matches in a single season by five or more goals.

• Despite making just 16 appearances this season, Pedro Neto has provided nine assists with no Wolves player registering more in a single Premier League campaign (Adama Traore also 9 in 37 apps in 2019-20). Seven of his nine assists this term have either been for an equalising goal (3) or a goal to put Wolves into the lead (4).

• Sheffield United goalkeeper Wes Foderingham has kept just a single clean sheet in the Premier League this season, conceding the most goals (63) of any keeper in their first 25 appearances in the competition.

A mini-league seems to have formed between the teams sitting 7th-11th in the Premier League table, but which of those can get into the European places?

I would be amazed if anyone can give me that answer at this moment in time with those teams. There are so many questions hanging over that battle - what kind of bounce, positive or negative, will teams have after recent results?

What turn around are we going to have from West Ham? Chelsea are showing little glimpses of improvement in performances at a time they need it so could quickly move up the table with their squad and attacking abilities. Wolves keep surprising everybody. If they went on and got into Europe this season, that would be unbelievable. To get ahead of Brighton, Newcastle, West Ham and Chelsea it would be amazing for Gary O'Neil and the side. With Newcastle, they have the squad togetherness and understanding with Eddie.

The truth is, who do I believe is going to be at the top of it come the end of the season? I really don't know. I couldn't call one, I couldn't say one team are the favourites. You might edge towards Newcastle United with that support they have and home form. When they just get themselves together a little bit, they probably edge it.

If you're looking at who needs those European places the most, that is difficult too.

Chelsea have underachieved if they don't get it, that is just a complete given. Brighton may say, 'well, we were open to push for that and we've got in a European position again'. Newcastle would have huge disappointment after last season. West Ham would look to achieve it and have been in a good position, but would they have said that they would finish above Newcastle United or Chelsea? I don't think they would, but the West Ham supporters will expect them to.

Because of the likes of Aston Villa this season, that's one team everyone can look at and say they have gone and delivered in a big way. You think about Brighton and the complete turn around of the players that they've had, they still just keep sitting nicely, contributing and they could finish seventh and that would be an unbelievable season for them.

Michael Brown was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson

Wolves defender Max Kilman joins Liam MacDevitt for 'Firsts', where the aim of the game is to answer a series of questions with the first thing that comes into your head.

You can catch more on Football Focus this Saturday

Image source, Getty Images

Wolves striker Sasa Kalajdzic has sustained a knee injury while on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Bundesliga club said on Monday that Austria international Kalajdzic, 26, ruptured the cruciate and lateral ligaments in his right knee during Sunday's 3-3 draw against Freiburg and he will be out "indefinitely".

Kalajdzic sustained anterior cruciate ligament damage to his left knee on his debut for Wolves in September 2022.

After nearly a year out of action, he had returned to score three goals in 13 appearances for Wanderers this season - including winners in Premier League games at Everton and Bournemouth - before joining Frankfurt on loan for the remainder of the season in January.

We asked you for your thoughts on Saturday's Premier League match between Tottenham and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Here are some of your comments...

Spurs fans

Brian: Spurs came up against a clearly superior manager. Angeball hasn't changed our long-term problem of ponderous, side-to-side passing around the opposition's box in games we dominate. We still seem more of a threat on the counter. The goals we gave up were laughable. Had numbers to deal with the threat each time. Entertaining but (literally) pointless.

Doug: Wasted points again - we should not be losing games like these. We need to be more clinical in our passes because too many poor ones gave Wolves the chance to break. We need to work on breaking down teams like this that park the bus and just hope they can counter. Dragusin needs to start the next game as our defence is leaking far too many goals.

Ray: Great at getting forward but no cutting edge. Need to look at the midfield - there's so much talent but they don't seem to be clicking. And then, defensively, we got sucker punched not once but twice. Ange - love him but we need to take the next couple of weeks to sort out a few issues.

Wolves fans

Richard: Another organised display from a Wolves team that, on their day, are very hard to beat. Classic counter-attacking football in front of a well-drilled defence. Played well as a team. We are having a quiet revolution... knocking off some big teams along the way.

Gary: We're finally an exciting team to watch. O'Neil doesn't make subs for the sake of it and you can see the tactical reasons behind them all. The players seem really tight-knit as well. Great performance. The stats are heavily favoured towards Spurs, but thought we were comfortable for pretty much the whole game. What a player Neto is!

Rob: Wolves had enough chances to have won more comfortably. Tactics were spot on and the work-rate immense. Neto scared the Spurs defence (and supporters) every time he had the ball.

BBC Sport's chief football writer Phil McNulty has been answering your questions on Monday.

Will: Morning Phil, do you think it's within Wolves’ reach to claim a European spot? Perhaps a shock FA Cup win? We've seen they can match the big boys on their day.

Phil: Hello, Will. Not out of their reach at all, which is a testimony to the superb work done by manager Gary O’Neil. The win at Spurs on Saturday, and the manner in which it was achieved, shows how far they have come and you’re right – they fear no-one so they will always fancy their chances.

He has also clearly formed a great bond with the Wolves fans, as proved by the scenes after the final whistle on Saturday.

I thought O’Neil was unlucky to be sacked by Bournemouth, although they have recruited well with his replacement Andoni Iraola.

So why not? There is plenty to play for. The loss of Matheus Cunha was a huge blow but they looked good without him at Spurs so you’re right to be optimistic.

I, of course, tipped them to be relegated but my only excuse was that I made that call in the brief period between Julen Lopetegui’s departure and O’Neil’s appointment. And I’m sticking to that.

There's more of McNulty's Q&A here

Gary Lineker introduces highlights and analysis from Saturday's seven Premier League matches.

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

Listen back to BBC Radio 5 Live match commentaries in full on BBC Sounds:

Burnley v Arsenal

Man City v Chelsea

Image source, Getty Images

Former Premier League midfielder Danny Murphy spoke to Match of The Day about Wolves' midfield pairing Mario Lemina and Joao Gomes during their victory over Tottenham on Saturday: "They set the tone absolutely terrifically. They've got a nice partnership going.

"I saw the set up, and dealing with Maddison, Sarr and Bissouma, I thought they might get outnumbered in there.

"They work well together defensively, they get back in and fill holes and with the ball they've got belief and great technical ability.

"They know Tottenham like to play out, they were brave and tried to win it back. As soon as they won it back they got the transitions with the pace of Neto and Hwang [Hee-Chan] up front.

"The defensive work in central midfield is something that goes unnoticed sometimes, but you can't win matches in the Premier League unless your midfielders do the hard yards and the dirty bits and they did it brilliantly. The pair of them, outstanding."

Listen to the rest of Saturday's match of the day here

Michael Emons
BBC Sport journalist

Image source, Getty Images

An excellent win on the road for Wolves as they beat Tottenham with a performance boss Gary O'Neil called "pretty close to perfect".

He had every reason to be pleased as his side did excellently to grab another three points and secure their fifth away victory of the season in the Premier League.

Wolves were the better team in the first half and goalkeeper Jose Sa did not have to make a save before O'Neil's side went ahead when Joao Gomes was left unmarked eight yards out and rose well to powerfully head home Pablo Sarabia's right-wing corner.

O'Neil would have been expected a response from the hosts and it came within 34 seconds of the restart as Dejan Kulusevski equalised after Wolves failed to clear a throw-in.

Wolves had to sit deep but remained a threat on the counter attack with Sarabia wasting a good chance when he only had goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario to beat.

Sa did excellently to get down to his left to deny Kulusevski a second and that proved crucial as another excellent breakaway, led by Pedro Neto, ended with Gomes grabbing his second.

Despite late pressure for the hosts, Wolves hung on for a victory they will feel they deserved.

Gary O'Neil speaking to BBC Match of the Day after Wolves' win over Tottenham: "Pretty close [to perfect]. Disappointing lapse for the goal, similar to the one we conceded in the last minute against Manchester United but that is probably the only negative I can find. We were close to perfect. I am proud of the group. It is a tough place to come and I think we deserved to win the game.

"The way we got the goal wasn't how we looked like getting it. We were more than that [just counter-attacking] and when we had the ball we caused them loads of problems and kept missing chances. I was a little bit frustrated that we weren't more clinical and we kept going and kept threatening. João was really calm and got a good connection on the ball and got us the win.

"It was really important for us to go 1-0 up and then the second one was fantastic. We worked on Pedro getting in behind on the right and then a really good pass for Joao."

• Wolves have beaten Tottenham on three of their five trips to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Premier League (L2), with only Chelsea (4) enjoying more wins there as a visiting side.

• Tottenham suffered their first home defeat in the Premier League since December, having won each of their previous five. Indeed, since a 2-0 win over Fulham in October, they’ve conceded in each of their past nine home league games.

• Tottenham have now scored in each of their past 37 Premier League games; only Arsenal between May 2001 and November 2002 (55 games) have had a longer run in the competition’s history.

• Joao Gomes’ first goal was Wolves’ eighth goal from a corner in the Premier League this season; only Arsenal (11) and Everton (9) have more in 2023-24.

• Dejan Kulusevski has scored six Premier League goals this season, his outright most in a campaign. Indeed, two of his last three league goals for Tottenham have been equalisers in the game, after none of his first 10 were.

• Pedro Neto has assisted nine goals in the Premier League this season, only Ollie Watkins and Kieran Trippier (both 10) have more. Indeed, it’s the joint-most by a Wolves player in a season along with Adama Traore in 2019-20.

Joao Gomes scored twice as Wolves gained an excellent win at Tottenham - a result that saw Spurs drop out of the top four in the Premier League.

The visitors went ahead just before half-time when Gomes was left unmarked eight yards out and rose well to powerfully head home Pablo Sarabia's right-wing corner.

But Tottenham made it 1-1 after only 34 seconds of the second half.

Wolves failed to clear a Spurs throw-in and Dejan Kulusevski ran past Craig Dawson and prodded the ball through Jose Sa's legs.

Tottenham had fought back after conceding the first goal to beat Brentford and Brighton in their past two home games and Kulusevski had two chances to put the hosts in front this time.

However, Sa made an excellent save low down to his left and Nelson Semedo blocked a goalbound-effort to keep it level.

Those squandered chances proved significant as Wolves sprang a quick counter-attack with Pedro Neto pulling the ball back for Gomes to side-foot home what proved to be the winning goal.

Spurs began the day in fourth place, but Aston Villa's win at Fulham saw them move above Ange Postecoglou's side.

Were you at the match or did you follow it from home?

Spurs fans - let us know your thoughts on the game here

How did you rate the side's performance, Wolves fans?

Follow all of the reaction here

There are seven games being played in the Premier League on Saturday and we will bring you every moment.

Follow all of the action and reaction here

All times are GMT

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

For this weekend's games, he takes on rapper Songer, who is a Chelsea fan.

Sutton's prediction: 3-1

Wolves won the reverse of this fixture in November with two goals in stoppage time - but I can see Tottenham getting their revenge here.

I was right last week with my hunch that Spurs were going to beat Brighton, although my guest, actor Stephen Moyer, did even better and got the 2-1 scoreline spot on.

Spurs just find a way, don't they, with 'Ange-ball'. They never stop coming forward, which is why they keep scoring goals.

Son Heung-min is back from the Asian Cup and he will start this week. Tottenham will concede, even with Wolves forward Matheus Cunha out injured, but they are just relentless in attack and they are going to give someone such a hiding soon.

Songer's prediction: 2-1

I do not feel like Tottenham have any chance of competing for the title and I also hope they do not make the top four. I always have a bet about the top four before the season starts and I stuck Aston Villa in fourth, which meant I got odds of 150-1 for the order I went with.

So, I am hoping Spurs drop points here but I am thinking they will come out on top. I can see it being 1-1 for a long time and Spurs scraping something at the end.

Read all of Sutton's predictions for this weekend's games

Wolves head coach Gary O'Neil has been speaking to the media before Saturday's trip to face Tottenham in the Premier League.

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• O'Neil confirmed that Hwang Hee-chan is "completely fine" and "available to start" after missing last week's loss to Brentford with calf soreness which "he's not feeling at all anymore".

• When asked if Matheus Cunha, who has suffered a "fairly significant" hamstring injury, will return before the end of the season, he said: "Yes he will. He's really optimistic and feels good with not too much pain there. He's keen to get straight to work and start pushing to get back and help the team as soon as he can."

• O'Neil said he is "really confident in the team and the group and what they try and produce" but that "Tottenham at full strength will be a real test for us."

• He knows it is one of the toughest away trips, stating: "In any Premier League game you're going to have to be 100% and as close to perfect as we can get, like we were at Stamford Bridge. We'll see if we can make it an uncomfortable afternoon for Tottenham."

• On the challenge posed by Spurs: "They will ask us a lot of questions, so we will need to be ready to answer them and respond with our attacking threat. They don't change, they play the same way a lot, really comfortable with the ball, have a lot of it, really aggressive without it. I've prepped the lads for what that might be like."

• On dealing with Ange Postecoglou's style of play: "They try and combine a lot - lots of short passes, attacking through the middle, fantastic attacking players. (James) Maddison is probably the most free player they have, the rest tend to stay in their positions. We go there with a game plan and a shape we've used before and look to use it as well as possible."

Follow the rest of Friday's Premier League news conferences

Arsenal target Pedro Neto could cost £60m with Wolves looking to bring in a club-record fee for the Portugal forward. (Standard), external

Want more transfer news? Read Friday's full gossip column

Here are the key facts and figures ahead of Saturday's game between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.

• Tottenham have lost three of their last four Premier League games against Wolves, including the last two in a row. They’ve never lost three consecutive league matches against them before.

• Following their 2-1 win at Molineux in November, Wolves are looking to complete their first league double over Tottenham since 2009-10.

• Since their return to the Premier League in 2018, only Chelsea and Liverpool (4 each) have won more away games against Tottenham than Wolves (3).

• Wolves have won two of their last three away Premier League games (D1), as many as in their previous 17 combined (W2 D3 L12).

• Only Liverpool (10) have won more Premier League home games this season than Tottenham (9), who have won their last five at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

• Wolves have won their last two Premier League games in London, having gone 14 without a win in the capital beforehand (D3 L11). They last won three consecutive top-flight away games in London back in September 1979.

• Since losing 1-0 to Wolves in March 2023, Tottenham Hotspur have scored in each of their last 36 Premier League matches. In Premier League history, the only team with a longer scoring run is Arsenal between May 2001 and November 2002 (55).

• Son Heung-min's 18 goals and assists this season have been worth 16 points to Spurs, with only Mohamed Salah’s goal involvements being worth more for a side in the top-flight this term (18).

• Brennan Johnson has scored in two of his last three Premier League appearances, with both coming as a substitute. The only Spurs player to score in three sub appearances in a row was Teddy Sheringham in 1994.