Wolverhampton Wanderers

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

For this week's midweek games, he takes on Chelsea fan Matthew Vaughn, director of new spy film Argylle.

Sutton's prediction: 1-1

I feel sorry for Erik ten Hag. Even when his Manchester United side win, there always seems to be something going on.

This time it is about what is happening with Marcus Rashford, or Bruno Fernandes basically saying some of their players are too greedy in front of goal.

This is a tough game for United and Wolves will still feel hard done by after creating so many chances at Old Trafford in August, when they were the better team and still lost the game.

United are getting their injured players back, like Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro, but I am still not convinced by them as a team.

They are good on the counter, but Wolves are well balanced and I don't think they will get caught out too often there.

Gary O'Neil's side are hard to beat, so I am going to go with a draw.

Vaughn's prediction: United are a very weird team. We know Chelsea are unpredictable - and I kind of know why, because our problems are obvious - but I really don't know what is happening with United.

With the players and coach they have, I don't understand why they are not doing much better than they are. Wolves are a hard team to beat and I can see them sneaking a goal and then shutting up shop. 1-0

See the full list of predictions

Image source, Getty Images

The perception of and mood around Wolves has changed massively in the six months since Gary O'Neil was appointed as Julen Lopetegui's successor as manager.

A summer dominated by financial concerns and several high-profile exits, not least that of Lopetegui himself less than a week before the season started, led many to tip Wolves for relegation before a ball was kicked.

However, Wolves put in a hugely creditable performance in their opening Premier League match at Manchester United - albeit the final result was a 1-0 defeat - and O'Neil believes that was a "good start point" for what has followed.

"What it showed was that the group were capable and willing," said O'Neil, whose side are unbeaten since mid-December and will move into the top half of the table if they beat United in the return fixture at Molineux on Thursday.

"When I watch it back now, we've come a long way tactically since then. For the boys to be able to buy into what I'd asked them in such a short period of time and to carry it out with as much zest and passion as they did was a good start point for us.

"We've suffered a few setbacks from there, and I'm sure we'll suffer some more, but it was a good start point for us and a day I look back on fairly fondly because it was my first game in charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers."

Victory over the same opponent on Thursday evening would see Wolves leapfrog their opponents and potentially move into the top eight but O'Neil said he is not yet satisfied with their progress this season.

"I'm pleased with where we've managed to get to, but not content," he said. "There are areas that still need improving - the boys know that as well."

Image source, Getty Images

Chelsea’s Armando Broja has been attracting interest from Fulham as manager Marco Silva attempts to solve his side’s goal shortage but time is running out to formulate a package.

Wolves have also been trying to do a deal for the 22-year-old, who Chelsea value at about £50m but are now believed to be willing to accept a £5m loan fee for the rest of this season.

Will this spark even further interest?

Fulham are exploring all their options to strengthen in the attacking areas and Broja seems certain to be part of that wider conversation at Craven Cottage before the transfer window closes.

On Wednesday, we asked you what Wolves' ideal final day of business in the January transfer window would look like.

Here is a selection of your responses:

Richard: A striker might be on the wish list, but why not wait until the end of the season when contracts are up? Get a good striker for a realistic price in the summer. We have enough to finish the season well without the burden of European football. Settle this squad and then all guns blazing next season.

Liam: Hugo Ekitike. He is the kind of player we need, as long as we pay the right money.

Tyler: Sign Armando Broja.

BG: If Fulham are really going to spend silly money on Broja,can we have Raul Jimenez,our true number nine, back?

Whether it turns out to be a day of high drama or a pretty quiet one for your club, you can rarely take your eye off transfer deadline day.

Are you hoping for a rush of late deals or expecting a relaxed one?

Follow our live text coverage throughout the day here

Wolves are in talks over a loan move for 22-year-old Corinthians and Brazil forward Yuri Alberto. (Telegraph - subscription required), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

When does the transfer window close?

The transfer window will close at 23:00 GMT on Thursday for the Premier League and English Football League, while in Scotland, the window will shut 30 minutes later at 23:30.

Across Europe, the Bundesliga window will close at 17:00, Serie A at 19:00, Ligue 1 at 22:00 and La Liga at 23:00 - but the Women's Super League transfer window already closed on Wednesday night.

The transfer window for the Saudi Pro League, where a number of high-profile Premier League players moved in the summer, closed on 30 January.

Can a Premier League player signed on deadline day play this weekend?

Under league rules, new signings are eligible for the next Premier League game if the club submit the required documents by midday on the last working day before that match.

Where can I see all the confirmed transfer deals on deadline day?

You can find all the deals completed on transfer deadline day within our dedicated confirmed transfers page.

What is the story so far?

Only 15 players have been signed by Premier League clubs in January, with 10 permanent transfers, five loan deals and disclosed fees of about £50m.

It is a far cry from the past three transfer windows - January 2023 and the summers of 2022 and 2023 - which each set Premier League spending records.

At the same point last year, on the eve of deadline day, there had been 38 transfers worth about £550m - 10 times this year's amount.

How can I follow transfer deadline day on the BBC?

From 07:00 on Thursday, we will have a page dedicated to all the latest transfer news, reaction and analysis. You cannot miss it as it will be the first thing you see on our football website.

Your Premier League club's page will have all the latest transfers for your team in one place.

You will also find regular updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and breaking news across BBC Sport's social media channels, including X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

There will also be a special edition of The Football News Show on BBC iPlayer and the Red Button from 22:00 until 23:30.

Image source, Getty Images

Wolves have confirmed the signing of winger Noha Lemina on loan from Paris St-Germain for the rest of the season, with an option to make the move permanent.

The 18-year-old is the brother of midfielder Mario Lemina, who also plays for Wolves.

Lemina spent the first half of the season on loan at Italian side Sampdoria, where he featured once for the first team and nine times for the club’s under-19s.

"Noha’s an exciting, quick and direct winger," Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs said. "He has good technical ability and had a great football education at PSG. It’s an opportunity for him to get a feel for us and we can assess him.

"When Mario first joined, his brother had been flagged up by our scouting team. Mario’s a driven individual, so doesn’t want any favours, but he has real belief in him and thinks he’s a Premier League player in the making - and Noha will back himself."

Mike Taylor, BBC Radio WM

Had Wolves broken their transfer record by meeting Chelsea's reported asking price for Armando Broja, it might have been considered the most ironic deal of this window, at least in its timing.

Not because Broja is not a good player - he looks well-qualified to fit into the Wolves squad, albeit relatively inexperienced - but the need to fill that gap is arguably less acute now than at any time since 2020.

For the past three seasons before this one, Wolves have not risen above a one-goal-per-game average in the Premier League, which often led to football as dull as the statistic. Each passing transfer window led to more pressure on any forwards Wolves did bring in. Putting that right was never going to be as simple as just signing one player, as the experience of Matheus Cunha demonstrated last January. What was needed was a more extensive rewiring of Wolves' attacking play - something Gary O'Neil and his players have achieved unexpectedly quickly.

Cunha has made more progress than most, becoming especially productive in a role described by O'Neil recently as "left number 10". At a news conference just after Hwang Hee-chan left for the Asian Cup, O'Neil explained his reluctance to move Cunha, while recognising that he was the most obvious deputy for Hwang in the middle. Hwang is not necessarily a specialist "number nine" - his goalscoring run this season notwithstanding - but his trip away brought the issue back into the foreground.

That was the context for the Broja bid, and no doubt enquiries for several other players, but Wolves would have known that there are few discounts in football's January sales. Last year, they felt they had to spend big to stave off relegation, but with the fair play rules in mind, the ledger had to be balanced in the summer.

More irony: if Wolves had, say, 10 fewer points than they do now, there would be greater pressure to flirt with the financial fair play (FFP) precipice and, as we have seen, risk losing another 10 eventually.

If a useful, self-funding combination of deals come into view before Thursday night, fine; otherwise, the percentage play is to hold and get ready to back O'Neil's judgement more substantially in the next window, when it seems any lingering FFP concerns will have faded.

Wolves v Manchester United - live commentary on BBC Radio WM, Thursday 20:15 GMT

BBC Radio WM Football Phone-In - weeknights 18:00-19:00

• Since matchday 15, only Liverpool (17) have amassed more Premier League points than Wolverhampton Wanderers (14).

• Having won just two of their first six Premier League away games against Wolves, Manchester United have triumphed on their past three visits to Molineux.

• After losing their first two home league games of 2023-24 (to Brighton and Liverpool), Wolves have since gone unbeaten in eight. Only once before have they had a longer run without defeat at Molineux in the competition (a run of 10 ending in August 2019).

• Coming into this round of matches, only bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United (100 minutes) and 18th-placed Luton Town (223 minutes) had spent less time ahead in Premier League games this season than Manchester United (288 minutes), with the Red Devils failing to lead at any point during their past four away games.

• Wolves' Gary O'Neil has lost all three of his Premier League encounters with United as a manager without scoring a goal (twice with Bournemouth last term, and at Old Trafford in their opening game of this season). As a player, he only lost more games against Chelsea (15) than he did against United in the competition (10 out of 14).

• Marcus Rashford has scored (two) or assisted (one) in his past three league appearances for Manchester United, as many goal involvements as in his first 17 games this term. The forward has scored two Premier League goals against Wolves, both assisted by Bruno Fernandes in 1-0 victories (December 2020 and December 2022).

Image source, Getty Images

Former Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin, writing for the BBC Football Extra newsletter:

This feels like it has been the quietest Premier League transfer window ever. There is still a day to go and, in the past, huge deals have been done right up to the deadline, but it will not suddenly become a free-for-all this time. The question is: why?

Are all the clubs and their managers deeply satisfied with their well-balanced and over-performing squads? I hardly think so. Have all the coaches suddenly decided that they really want to work more with the youngsters coming through, rather than get a ready-made striker in the morning? Probably not.

Have the big clubs suddenly got sensible and concluded that it is silly spending hundreds of millions of pounds on players, destroying any possible company profits and yet still having no certainty of success at the end of it? This thought might have crossed a few minds.

There is always the possibility that some clubs got the fright of their lives after Everton’s 10-point deduction. Have they finally realised that some of the very complicated and fancy financial and accountancy sleights of hand might not bamboozle the Premier League after all?

Some clubs have spent huge sums and are now quietly trying to sell players to make the books balance.

Does it not smack of just the vaguest possibility of a chance that there might have just been a bit of blustering, self-indulgent financial mismanagement by the owners of some of the top clubs? Surely not - these Masters of the Universe always know what they are doing and understand finance so much better than the rest of us.

I remember listening to a hugely successful banker once braying on to me about how they knew best. I think he was from an organisation called Lehman Brothers.

Image source, Reuters

Wolves manager Gary O'Neil believes it is a "bad idea" and "not ideal" for his side to be playing a Premier League fixture on the final day of the January transfer window.

The deadline for new deals is at 23:00 GMT on Thursday, about an hour after Wolves' game with Manchester United is scheduled to finish.

"I don't like the transfer window closing on a match day, it's a bad idea," said O'Neil. "I need to be 100% focused on the game, but there may be stuff going on that may need input from me as well. From a management point of view, it's not ideal having to deal with the last day of a transfer window and a game on the same day.

"If I have to make a choice between the two, it will be 100% focus on the game. [Sporting director] Matt Hobbs and the recruitment team have got everything in hand and are working really hard on trying to do something to help the group. Hopefully we'll be able to get a few bits done and have a successful day on the pitch as well."

O'Neil confirmed Wolves are still trying to sign a striker before the deadline, although he would not comment specifically on reports linking Wanderers with Chelsea's Armando Broja.

"We are still looking for a number nine," added the Wolves boss. "There are still some things ongoing that we might be able to get done before tomorrow, but we'll have to wait and see.

"Completing deals can be complicated so we'll see how the next 36 hours unfold. Hopefully we'll have a little bit extra to add to the group, but as I've said all along, if not and this is the group, this is the group. I'll be delighted to keep working with them for the next 17-18 games and see how much we can get out of them."

Wolves manager Gary O'Neil has been speaking to the media before Thursday's Premier League home match against Manchester United.

Here are the main headlines from his news conference:

• Wolves are still working to sign a new striker before Thursday's transfer deadline, although O'Neil would not comment specifically on reports linking the club with a move for Chelsea's Armando Broja.

• However, he did confirm a deal is close to sign Paris St-Germain forward Noha Lemina, brother of Wolves midfielder Mario. "He's an exciting young talent, maybe not expected to impact the first-team group instantly, but that doesn't mean he won't because he has some fantastic attributes."

• O'Neil said it is "not ideal" the transfer deadline falls on the same day as a Premier League fixture. "If I have to make a choice between the two, it will be 100% focus on the game. [Sporting director] Matt Hobbs and the recruitment team have got everything in hand and are still working hard to try to do something to help the group."

• Pablo Sarabia is fit and available to face United after missing the FA Cup win at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, while Rayan Ait-Nouri, who came off the bench at The Hawthorns after appearing for Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations, is fit to start. Midfielder Joao Gomes is also available for selection after completing a three-match suspension.

• The defeat by United in Wolves' opening match of the season was a "good starting point" for O'Neil's reign, and he believes his team has made significant tactical improvements since that 1-0 loss at Old Trafford.

Follow Wednesday's Premier League news conferences and the latest transfer news

Listen to live commentary of Wolves v Manchester United on Thursday from 20:15 GMT on BBC Radio 5 Live

As deadline day looms, we want to know what your ideal final day of transfer business would look like for Wolves.

Do they need to make any signings? If so, who should they look to bring in? And does anyone need to be offloaded?

Let us know your views here

Image source, Getty Images

Pat Nevin, writing for the BBC Football Extra newsletter:

A more upsetting memory from the old days was triggered by pictures of fans fighting at West Brom following Wolves’ second goal, then pouring out on to the pitch and then blood pouring from a fan’s head wound. It had a very 1970/80s hooligan vibe about it, totally incongruous with what we are used to in the modern game.

It was headline news on all UK TV stations and people were genuinely shocked, which in an odd way made me feel quite good. Those sorts of scenes were so common back then, that they barely registered most of the time, but now any sort of violent incident is rightly splashed across all media outlets. We have come a long way.

Just like the grotesque racist chanting back then it was accepted by many as part of the fan experience. Now these outrages are rarer, totally unacceptable and shocking to see. It was not an overreaction in the media, it was simply the correct reaction you should expect from a civilised society.

West Ham United will rebuff interest from Wolves and Crystal Palace for 31-year-old forward Danny Ings. (Mirror), external

Wolves are interested in Armando Broja, with Chelsea willing to sell to raise funds for a new striker. (Standard), external

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

Wolves are in talks about a loan deal for Mario Lemina’s teenage brother Noha, who is currently at Paris St-Germain.

Any transfer is likely to include an option to buy.

Wolves are keen on the 18-year-old, whose season-long loan at Serie B outfit Sampdoria has been cut short after he only made one appearance over the first half of the season.

Image source, Getty Images

Matt Cooper, Talking Wolves, external

I think I speak for most Wolves fans when I say I didn't expect Gary O'Neil to be doing such a great job this season.

Despite coming in a day before the season started, operating with a limited budget and with a squad who were told by Julen Lopetegui they weren't good enough for the league, O'Neil feels like he has revitalised the club.

You can understand the club's hesitancy to back an inexperienced manager and with profit and sustainability now becoming a huge thing for Premier League clubs, but they have to give O'Neil the opportunity to bring in players.

It's very well documented that O'Neil wants a centre-forward. With both Fabio Silva and Sasa Kalajdzic leaving the club, Wolves now don't have an out-and-out striker.

Wolves, no doubt, will need to be clever this window, but both O'Neil and the fans will be disappointed this month if one or two aren't brought in.

It's been a great season so far. Wolves are still in the FA Cup and not completely out of the question for European qualification. I just hope a lack of squad depth isn't the reason for this team running out of steam.

Image source, Getty Images

Alex Howell, BBC Sport

Crystal Palace and Wolves are interested in Birmingham City midfielder Jordan James.

The 19-year-old has made 26 appearances for the Blues and has scored six goals this season.

James has been capped by Wales eight times is a product of the Birmingham academy.

Palace have also had an £18.5m bid rejected for Blackburn midfielder Adam Wharton and are getting closer to completing the signing of right-back Daniel Munoz from Genk for 8million Euros.

Manager Roy Hodgson says that the club hope to announce the signing of Munoz in the next few days.

Image source, Getty Images

Wolves fan Jez Constantinou, who was at the Black Country derby with his son Alfie, described witnessing the crowd trouble as "absolutely shocking" on BBC Radio 5 Live.

"We could see everything that was going on and we could see it was escalating and getting more intense as time went on," said Constantinou.

"It was absolutely shocking scenes."

BBC commentator John Murray was also at the game and said West Brom players were seen carrying children out of the stands where violence had erupted.

"What caught my eye was that several West Brom players ran towards the trouble because many of their family members were in that area," said Murray.

"They were obviously concerned about their families.

"I know it’s a high profile match and they haven’t played each other in front of supporters for 12 years, but people witnessed things in a football ground with their families that you simply would not want to see."

Listen to reaction from Sunday's FA Cup trouble on BBC Sounds

Image source, Getty Images

West Midlands Police have confirmed six people were arrested in connection with trouble at Sunday's Black Country derby between West Brom and Wolves and have vowed "to make further arrests in connection with the unacceptable violence".

Missiles were thrown, fights broke out and fans spilled on to the pitch after Matheus Cunha put Wolves 2-0 up.

Players then returned to the dressing rooms with play suspended for 38 minutes.

Chief Inspector Tim Robinson of the football department at West Midlands Police, said: "What we saw yesterday was completely unacceptable violence directed at both fans and officers, which sadly led to the suspension of the game.

"No football fan wants to see that. It’s important to stress however that it was very much a minority of fans involved in the trouble, and the vast majority of supporters were a credit to their clubs."

Four West Brom supporters and two Wolves fans were arrested, and have all since been bailed while the investigation continues.

Reasons for arrest include violent disorder, assaulting police officers and suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon.