Brighton

The kindest thing I can say is that I didn’t see this coming.

Brighton are good, but boy, were we bad.

A totally spineless, idiotic performance littered with some of the worst individual errors I’ve ever seen from a Wolves team.

Matheus Nunes can’t have played a worse game of football in his 24 years on earth. He was personally responsible for at least two of the goals and I cannot fathom why Julen Lopetegui kept him on the pitch. It was borderline masochistic.

He was the headline act of this seaside horror show but well supported by a stellar cast including Sa, Collins and Kilman who all chipped in with comical mistakes to contribute to the emphatic scoreline.

I suppose the manager has to take a hefty old dollop of blame for a tactical setup that seemed to create the type of open game that Brighton dream about. Time and again they played through our midfield and exposed our backline with penetrating runs. It probably should have been more.

But even with the best game plan in the world, you can’t account for some of the giveaways his players offered up. They simply have to do better.

Predictably, we couldn’t make anything of the oceans of space they afforded our own attackers on the break with Podence, Neto, Hwang and yes, that man Nunes, all squandering good positions to at least put us on the board.

I would extend credit to Pedro Neto for a typically industrious performance, but it can’t be ignored that his inability to convert good positions into goals has been a problem whenever he’s been fit in this challenging season.

I’m not sure why Matheus Cunha wasn’t used at all having played a key role in our recent successes while the hapless Podence went through his usual routine of running into people and rolling around on the floor.

He is one of a number of players that must be hanging by a thread if Lopetegui is intent on building a more robust, consistent side to compete in the Premier League.

Based on this laughable effort, we’re still a long way off.

You can now get 200/1 on Wolves being relegated, just in case you want an insurance policy for irrational fear.

37 points will be enough but there’s no reason we should be expecting five defeats to close out the season.

It’s a bumpy-looking landing with four games against sides in and around the European places, but I expect us to be competitive.

The away form has been poor all season with just 2 wins from 16 and 9 defeats. A clear area for improvement in the immediate and, barring catastrophe, next season in the Premier League.

Brighton

It was annoying the Seagulls couldn’t avoid defeat at Forest on Wednesday, particularly having been a goal up at the City Ground.

That loss, combined with penalty shootout pain at Wembley on Sunday, has made it the worst week of the season for Roberto De Zerbi’s side.

European football remains possible with their games in hand but it’s a daunting run-in with Arsenal, City, Newcastle, Man Utd and Villa all still left to play.

Home games against Southampton, Everton and us tomorrow will be considered must-win if they’re to have any chance.

Wherever they do end up finishing it’s been another season of progress for the club. They’ve been playing great football for a few years but have added cutting edge to elevate them to a new level.

The vultures are already circling over their top talent so it will probably be another busy summer for their first-class recruitment team. Reports this morning suggest they’ve already agreed a £30m deal for Watford forward Joao Pedro so they’re not wasting any time.

Wolves

It’s incredible that we’ve beaten Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, Brentford and Palace without conceding a single goal.

All of those wins came at Molineux though and we’ve found it nigh on impossible to keep cleansheets away. The only one we’ve mustered was a stalemate with Bournemouth right at the start of the season.

We’ve gone ahead countless times (Leeds, Palace, Villa, Fulham and Leicester immediately come to mind) but haven’t been able to convert a good start into victories. The only two we have won on our travels were against Everton and Southampton where we conceded first and clawed our way back. Weird.

I wonder what Julen has in mind for this one? Brighton will likely have more possession so we need to be compact and able to break at speed. Perhaps a good one for either Neto or Traore?

Nelson had a stinker in the reverse fixture, but hopefully that’s a good incentive for him to keep up his recent form and atone for that torrid afternoon. It won’t be easy up against the brilliant Mitoma.

Predictions

Well done to Pauluswolf and Graham from Horsham for getting the scoreline spot-on in their predictions for the Palace game. Both pocket a maximum.

Rich still holds a 4 point lead at the top of the overall table at the end of Gameweek 33.

As always, if you’d like to join in with the Prediction League this season, it’s simple – just leave your prediction in the comment section below using the boxes provided. Then repeat for every preview article throughout the season, making sure you always use the same email address to make your prediction. Your email is what ties you to your overall score.

You can read my prediction for the game in the comment section below.

If Julen Lopetegui is willing to stake his reputation on this group, I’ll try to maintain hope for a while longer.

That nugget of good news is something for a beleaguered fan base to cling onto as the nights draw in and Wolves continue to invent new and imaginative methods of torture.

Semedo was a few days late for Halloween but his first half horror show proved costly with the superb Mitoma twice stealing in on our hapless fullback to draw Brighton level and then gain the man advantage.

That’s the second time Nelson has been the chief culprit in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory after a similar implosion at Selhurst Park.

But the whole team have been far from convincing whenever they’ve been ahead with 11 points now surrendered from winning positions.

The well publicised issue has been scoring goals but an inability to defend a lead has quietly crippled our season.

Credit should be extended for coming back from the early Lallana goal to get ahead with Guedes scoring a superb equaliser to remind us he can be an asset.

The team also rallied admirably in the second half and would have been worthy of a point had they managed to hold on.

Boubacar, Bueno and Collins in particular covered the ground and showed the appetite to dig in against the odds.

But the inability to keep them out in that period after getting ahead and half time was pivotal, underlining the soft centered nature of the team as well as Semedo’s individual shortcomings.

Brighton were always the sharper, the more incisive, the better organised, the team with a clear idea about what they wanted to do.

And that’s the job that awaits Lopetegui – to somehow drag all these disparate components together and build something cohesive.

I don’t envy him the challenge.

We could really do with a win tomorrow.

Stating the obvious I know but on the assumption we’ll get slapped up by a good Arsenal team it’s important we don’t come unstuck here.

Brighton should also be considered a top side based on their consistency over the last 12 months, but it’s the more winnable of the two.

The memory of the 3-0 kicking they gave us in this fixture back in April is still fresh in the mind with the most worrying aspect being that the scoreline flattered us. It definitely should have been more.

There was a solid response against Brentford to the more recent beating we took against Leicester so that’s something to carry into this one.

Brighton

You do wonder whether things might come unstuck for the Seagulls now Graham Potter has left for Chelsea.

But the 4-1 drubbing they handed out to their former boss last weekend suggests that may not be the case.

Consistent performers like Trossard, Caicedo, Webster and Dunk remain to give them stability and you get the sense that the team is greater than the perceived sum of its parts. The fact they’re still underrated by many is to their advantage.

Italian Roberto De Zerbi is the man in charge now. An interesting appointment. He was at Shakhtar Donetsk last season and doing well by all accounts but left when Russia invaded Ukraine.

It’s been a mixed start for him with defeats to Brentford, Spurs and Man City, a credible draw at Anfield, a less credible stalemate with Forest before that first victory against Chelsea last time out.

Wolves

It would have been nice to have made it to the World Cup with Costa giving us consistency upfront. I felt he was getting better so it’s a blow to lose him.

You would have thought Guedes would be the man to benefit and maybe we can get more from him playing through the middle than we’ve seen out wide?

He’s scored goals for Valencia and Portugal playing up top and we need him to find some form. We can’t afford such an expensive flop.

Other than that I don’t see Steve Davis making changes, unless there are injuries. I haven’t heard much about Nunes after he went off clutching his arm at Brentford so hopefully he’s alright for tomorrow. If not, you’d expect Joao Moutinho to carry on.

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Predictions

Well done to St.Kitts Wolves, Toronto wolf, basherbaz, So some pride boys, Ben Rasmin, Prawny, DeptfordWolf, Liz, StrangeLuck, Franski and DebenhamWolf for all correctly predicting the 1-1 last time out.

PeteRobbo has the lead at the top of the overall table at the end of Gameweek 13.

As always, if you’d like to join in with the Prediction League this season, it’s simple – just leave your prediction in the comment section below using the boxes provided. Then repeat for every preview article throughout the season, making sure you always use the same email address to make your prediction. Your email is what ties you to your overall score.

You can read my prediction for the game in the comment section below.

Up The Wolves!

The players and Fosun should hang their heads in shame.

I’ve spared Bruno. Yes, the three in midfield was too cautious and no fan would have selected a front line of Hwang and Silva, but I don’t think it would have mattered what system or personnel he selected.

It’s inexcusable how we played as 11 individuals that simply gave up from minute one in a game that still had so much riding on it for our European hopes. It felt more like a testimonial.

The squad should have been ripped up last summer to cater for Bruno’s attacking vision. The need to do so is even more urgent this off season but we all know Fosun won’t dare to dip too deep in their pockets.

Instead we’ll continue to bumble along with the same old faces with Bruno unable to implement his philosophy.

We made yet another team look like peak-Barcelona that knocked the ball around and through us at will, while we were content with sitting back and not being bothered to press.

And when it was our turn to have possession, the passing and movement was so chronically slow that we either knocked it aimlessly long or Brighton pressed us off the ball with ease.

The pioneers of the passing game like Cruyff and Guardiola would have laughed at our attempts at the style today – we resembled more of a kick and rush Sunday League team.

No wonder we don’t look like creating any chances let alone scoring when we can’t perform any of the basics.

What upsets me the most though is that it looked like none of the players cared and they were quite happy to capitulate and lose 3-0 to Brighton. Didn’t they realise that there were still realistic hopes of European football, something Bruno and the fans are all desperate for?

Every single player let themselves down today and I hope that we’ve seen the last of Saiss, Boly and Donk in old gold and black. Great servants but no longer to the required standard.

Hwang and Silva shouldn’t be anywhere near the side either but both rather sum up our woeful recruitment.

I really hope the lads take a long, hard look at themselves because no one did the shirt justice today.

Us fans who turn up week in, week out deserve a hell of a lot better.

The result nearly always influences how you view a performance.

Had it been Wolves that made the breakthrough against Burnley in a game of few chances some of the not-so-good aspects of their play would have been swept under the carpet.

And the same applies when it goes the other way. There were some good passages of play in the game but ultimately their inability to score, the concession of a goal and then the failure to react made it feel terrible.

Bruno is right when he says we’ve seen that performance too often this season, but I suspect with the players he’s got there’s every chance we’ll see it again.

Hopefully not tomorrow though in what should be one of the more winnable games left to play against a team not too dissimilar in their deficiencies.

Brighton

Credit to the Seagulls who were on a dire run and staring down consecutive games against Arsenal, Spurs and Man City. They took six points and have given themselves a chance of salvaging a top-half finish.

They’re 8 points behind us with just 4 left to play, so you would hope they won’t catch us but victory at Molineux may just see the door creaking open, particularly when you consider our remaining fixtures.

It’s been a familiar tale really for them this season, dominating the ball on plenty of occasions but not taking chances. They’ve scored two fewer than Wolves, which is pretty much all you need to know.

Failure to convert a rare two-goal lead into another win against Southampton last weekend must have felt particularly painful.

Their away record is strong with 6 wins, 7 draws and just the 4 defeats so far. A draw would see them achieve their best-ever Premier League points tally in what must be considered a solid season of progress despite their recent struggles.

There are no major injury problems or suspensions so Graham Potter has a full deck to choose from tomorrow.

Wolves

News that Kilman, Neves and Podence all remain out is a crushing blow to our prospects. One could argue that’s our best defender, midfielder and attacker all sidelined. Have we won any games without all three? I’m not sure we have.

One of the great disappointments of last weekend was how far off the pace Pedro Neto looked when he came off the bench. He really needs a pre-season to get back up to speed.

I think Fabio has done alright in the last two games. Yes, no goals and two defeats but I don’t think he’s the root cause of those problems. I might bring Trincao in for Hwang to see what that combination looks like, but it’s a complete coin toss.

The positive is we’re playing another team that move the ball well but aren’t clinical so that probably suits us, particularly with the limited personnel we have available.

Last time out

Up until last season Brighton were our number 1 bogey team, but we’ve won the last two including a narrow 1-0 at The Amex in December courtesy of a smart Romain Saiss volley from a sumptuous Neves pass. We started badly but on the balance of chances created over the 90 were just about good value for the three points.

We came from behind at Molineux to win 2-1 last season with Morgan Gibbs-White netting the winner after Adama Traore’s equaliser. Brighton took the lead but were down to 10 in the second half after Lewis Dunk hauled Fabio down and that poor decision ultimately swung the game back in our favour.

Predictions

Well done to Chesterwolf and MILDENHALL WOLF who both correctly predicted the 1-0 defeat at Turf Moor. It’s a maximum for both of them.

Brompton Wolf remains clear at the top of the overall table at the end of Gameweek 33.

As always, if you’d like to join in, it’s simple – just leave your prediction in the comment section below using the boxes provided. Then repeat for every preview article throughout the season, making sure you always use the same email address to make your prediction. Your email is what ties you to your overall score.

You can read my prediction for the game in the comment section below.

Up The Wolves!

Polite request – when commenting in the preview article after the game has finished, can you not place score predictions in the boxes, please? It confuses the system. Many thanks.