Wolverhampton Wanderers’ festive schedule is far from pleasant, and it begins with a side who will be looking for redemption at Molineux.
Manchester City make the trip down on Boxing Day as they will want to avenge the defeat at the Etihad stadium several months ago.
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A lot has happened since the previous meeting as the reigning champions have slipped away from league leaders Liverpool, Wolves next opponents, while Nuno Santo’s side have edged closer to breaking the top six.
Last time out, the west Midlanders got back to winning ways with a 2-1 win over Norwich City at Carrow Road while City beat second-placed Leicester City 3-1.
On the Chalkboard
Wolves will be coming up against a lethal attack that poses the likes of Raheem Sterling, Kevin de Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus, which is a worrying prospect considering the home side have only kept one clean sheet in ten league games, and that trio have combined for 21 goals alone.
The last time they managed to hold off the opposition before that was indeed that 2-0 win up in Manchester.
Since then, Nuno has had to deal with an injury to Willy Boly, resulting in him playing central midfielders Romain Saiss and Leander Dendoncker in defence.
Clearly, it hasn’t been working if they have leaked a goal in 90% of their matches during that spell, so it’s maybe time to reintroduce an actual centre-back, one who contributed to the clean sheet against City before.
Ryan Bennett has been sat on the bench for the past three matches, but his presence in defence could have the same desired effect as before.
Whose Line Is It Anyway: Michael Owen, Garth Crooks or Mark Lawrenson?
Per SofaScore, the 29-year-old recorded four clearances, three interceptions and blocked two shots after coming on as a 13th-minute substitute, that’s pretty good going for someone who probably didn’t expect to feature at all that afternoon.
As a natural option in the heart of defence, he can bring Nuno and his side much more stability, and it’ll certainly be needed against a Pep Guardiola side trying to regain ground on Liverpool quickly.
And in other news, one of our writers believes Nuno can seal his legacy at the club if he signs this ‘Pogba-like’ midfielder…
