MATCH PREVIEW: Wolves vs Manchester City
Image courtesy of Manc Pete
Stadium: Molineux Stadium
Kick-off: Saturday 16th August, 17:30pm (BST)
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Assistants: Scott Ledger, Marc Perry
Fourth Official: David Webb
VAR: Michael Salisbury, Richard West
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Written by Jacob Jones
Wolves begin their 2025/26 Premier League campaign as they host Manchester City, Wolves have not played at home on the first game of the season since 2018 where they drawn 2-2 with Everton on the Midlands club’s return to the top flight.
Few Wolves fans will come into this fixture filled with optimism, not only due to the quality of the opposition but also because of a very lacklustre pre-season campaign. Vitor Periera’s men failed to win a match in pre-season with many fans taking to social media to voice their concerns over the quality of the performances.
It has been a frustrating summer for Wolves, Matheus Cunha’s move to Manchester United seemed inevitable as it was eventually proven, however Wolves would lose another key player in Rayan Ait-Nouri as he left for tomorrow’s opponents, for a fee of £31 Million, that could potentially rise to £36.3 Million including add-ons (Sky Sports).
Wolves also lost captain, Nelson Semedo without making any money on the player. As of right now, there has been no replacement brought in for the Portuguese fullback, with a returning KI Jana Hoever filling the role during pre-season.
The first of Wolves’ new summer additions was Fer Lopez, coming to the Molineux from Celta Vigo for a fee of £19.5 Million (Molineux News). Further signings came in the form of crafty, Columbian winger Jhon Arias and Norwegian international, David Moller Wolfe.
The Citizens did the majority of their transfer business early in the transfer window. Of course, Rayan Ait-Nouri left the Molineux after an impressive tenure at the club. Marquee signings also include Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and James Trafford.
Manchester City did not have an extended pre-season in the same way that Wolves did, only competing in one friendly due to their participation in the FIFA Club World Cup earlier in the summer, the home side will be hoping that there is a lack of sharpness within Pep Guardiola’s men.
Wolves have only won once in their last five meetings with Manchester City, with the last win over the Manchester club coming in 2023 with help from a Ruben Dias own goal and a second half winner from Korean forward, Hwang Hee Chan.
August has traditionally been a very tough month for Wolves, with the club only winning one game in this month since returning to the Premier League in 2018. Of course, a worry going into tomorrow’s game will be squad depth, with the opposition’s bench looking much stronger than Wolves’.
There is a touching tribute planned to celebrate the life of Diogo Jota before kick-off tomorrow evening, guaranteeing an emotional beginning to the season. Diogo was a fantastic footballer and somebody who is so close to every Wolves fans heart and the team will be hoping to feed off the atmosphere that the Wolves fans will create tomorrow evening.
MATCH PREVIEW: Wolves vs Arsenal
Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP
Match Information:
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Arsenal
English Premier League - 3:00 pm KO
Saturday 25th January 2025
Stadium: Molineux Stadium
Referee: Michael Oliver.
Assistants: Stuart Burt, James Mainwaring. Fourth Official: Tony Harrington.
VAR: Darren England. Assistant VAR: Adrian Holmes.
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Written by Cameron Gorman
Wolves’ opponents for this Saturday's Premier League action is second-placed Arsenal, who despite early season aspirations for a long-awaited Premier League title are equal on points with Nottingham Forest and six points behind table toppers Liverpool who have a game in hand.
Arsenal come into this game off the back of a 3-1 win, midweek against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb. These two sides started off the Premier League season against each other with the Gunners running out 2-0 winners.
Arsenal are twelve (league) games unbeaten, with only Liverpool having a longer streak. Their last five fixtures boast three wins and two draws, including a win against North-London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, and most recently, a 2-2 draw at home to their former manager Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, a game in which they let a two goal lead slip through their fingers.
However, this won’t dismay Mikel Arteta’s side, whose high-scoring side will see Wolves as opposition there for the taking, having won eight of their last ten Premier League away games against Wolves.
Things don’t seem to get much better for Wolves, since doing the double over Arsenal in the 2020-21 season, Wolves have lost their last seven encounters with the Gunners, and historically it is both Wolves’ longest run without a clean sheet against specific opposition as well as Arsenal’s longest scoring streak against a specific team, dating back all the way to 1979.
The defensive stats don’t get much better, as the Gunners' eleven goals from crosses this season is a league-high, while Wolves’ ten goals conceded from crossing is too. Nobody has conceded more goals from defenders than Wolves this season (13) while Arsenal have a league-highest scored through defenders (7).
The biggest threats to Vitor Pereira’s squad will undoubtedly be Gabriel Martinelli, who is excelling in his new right-wing position after the injury to Bukayo Saka, as well as Leandro Trossard, who has been involved in more goals against Wolves than any other opponent in the Premier League, having two goals and six assists against Wolves in previous meetings.
The only glimmers of hope for Wolves will be the injury to star boy, Bukayo Saka, who usually grabs goal contributions against the Old Gold, after scoring his first in the Premier League against them on the 4th July 2020.
Question marks over the fitness of William Saliba also bode well, however Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta confirmed that the French defender will be back next week. As for their trip to Molineux, he said "this week, let’s see how it goes.” When Saliba has not been involved in the starting line-up, Arsenal have conceded 1.7 goals per game compared to 0.8 on average when he does (since start of 22-23 season).
The Gunners have kept just two clean sheets in thirteen games during this time, Wolves have the most goals scored in the bottom five, yet have conceded the most.
While us Wolves fans will be expecting star player Matheus Cunha to start on Saturday, some may be fearful he will only be putting himself in the shop window due to Arsenal closely monitoring the forward’s situation all month as they look for reinforcements, something which Wolves fans can seemingly only dream of.
Mario Lemina will be absent from the squad as he looks to force a move away, while Sasa Kalajdzic, Boubacar Traore, Yerson Mosquera and Enso Gonzalez are all currently injured.
For Arsenal, they are without Bukayo Saka, as well as Gabriel Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu. Ethan Nwanieri and Riccardo Calafiori are set to return, whilst defender Ben White is also back in training. Miles Lewis-Skelly and William Saliba could still potentially be involved.
Arsenal will smell blood considering Wolves' terrible record this season for defending set pieces, and combined with our defensive troubles I would expect them to win somewhat comfortably after we have lost our opening three matches of 2025, conceding three goals in each game.
MATCH PREVIEW: NEWCASTLE UNITED VS WOLVES
Match Information:
Newcastle United v Wolverhampton Wanderers
English Premier League - 7:30 pm KO
Wednesday 15th January 2025
Stadium: St. James’ Park
Referee: Darren England.
Assistants: Nick Greenhalgh, Akil Howson. Fourth Official: Darren Bond.
VAR: Graham Scott. Assistant VAR: Steve Meredith.
Images:
90min.com
inkl.com
Written by Cameron Gorman
Wolves’ Wednesday night Premier League action is set to be a tough clash against Eddie Howe’s in-form Newcastle United, who will be hoping to extend their eight-game winning streak to nine games on the bounce, as they look to complete a first league double over Wolves in 119 years.
Since Vitor Pereira’s arrival as Gary O’Neil’s replacement, Wolves have had an upturn in form themselves, Earning seven points in their last four league fixtures, rising from 19th to 17th in the table, only clear of the relegation zone on goal difference.
Both teams played lower league opposition in the weekend's FA Cup fixtures, with the Wolves enjoying a 1-2 win away at Championship side Bristol City, while Newcastle survived an early scare against league two side, Bromley.
Wolves’ last Premier League match was a 0-3 loss to high-flyers Nottingham Forest who are going through a fairy-tale season. With many key players injured or suspended, they still managed to dominate periods of the game which will give many of the old gold faithful hope for their journey to Newcastle Wednesday night.
As the Wanderers make the travel up north to St. James’ Park, many Wolves fans will be right to be nervous however, to couple the Magpies' terrific form, they have scored at least two goals in their 10 matches across all competitions, Whilst all Wolves matches this season have had 2 or more goals scored. This fixture has the highest draw rate of any Premier League fixture (58%), which gives me some hope we can earn a point against a tough side.
The best news possible for Wanderers fans however, is the return of this season's star man Matheus Cunha, who returns from his suspension after an altercation in the aftermath of our match vs Ipswich Town. Cunha is essential to the way we play this season and will be instrumental in our efforts to earn anything from this game.
Matheus’ 10 league goals are only bettered by seven other players so far in the Premier League, one of which being the Swedish striker Aleksander Isak, who is in scintillating form having 14 league goals despite some lengthy spells with injuries.
Newcastle’s attack has been in great from, with Anthony Gordon and Joshua Murphy both hitting purple patches both in front of goal and assisting their teammates.
A defensive boost for Wolves is the possible (and probable) Premier League debut of Emmanuel Agbadou, who looked good in Wolves’ fixture this weekend. More good news regarding team selection is the return of club captain Nelson Semedo, as well as Craig Dawson from injuries that kept them out of FA Cup action, and previous captain Mario Lemina from an illness, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t in the squad regardless due to Vitor’s comments of him needing to decide on his future.
For the Toon, Harvey Barnes is side-lined for the foreseeable, with Emile Krafth, Nick Pope and Jamal Lascelles all injured too. Isak, Botman, Murphy and Willock all missed their FA Cup fixture this weekend, but are expected to be in the squad to face Wolves to our dismay.
Fans should expect a high-scoring affair at St. James' Park tonight, thanks to our own attacking prowess as well as Newcastle's ; however, the defensive differences between the two sides are what may prove to be the real decider, with Wolves' defensive record still unfortunately being the worst in the league.
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