- Competition: Premier League
- Date: 18.02.2023
- Kickoff: 15:00 UTC / 16:00 CET
- Venue: Molineux Stadium (Wolverhampton)
A duel between two teams fighting for survival in the league. Wolves had a desperate start to the season, so the club decided to change the coach in the early part of the season. Bruno Lage was replaced by the experienced sleeper Julen Lopetegui. With his arrival, the club breathed a sigh of relief and once again aspired to that of the previous seasons. They managed to escape from the bottom of the table and are now in the safe 15th position in the table with 23 points won, 5 more than the first team in the danger zone. After a convincing victory at home against Liverpool 3:0, in the last round they also defeated one of the competitors for survival, Southampton, so Wolves in a great mood waiting for this very important match.
Wolves midfielder Lemina will serve a one-match suspension on Saturday after controversially seeing red in the win over Southampton, which will certainly benefit Gomes’s chances of coming in for a start after his dramatic late winner at St Mary’s.
The long-term quartet of Boubacar Traore, Sasa Kalajdzic, Chiquinho and Hwang Hee-chan all remain out of contention for Wolves, who are also sweating over the fitness of Daniel Podence as the Portuguese attacker battles a muscular strain.
Both Joao Moutinho and Rayan Ait-Nouri were taken off at half time last weekend as Lopetegui adjusted to Lemina’s red card, and the latter in particular is at risk of losing his spot to Hugo Bueno.
As for the visitors, Senesi took a blow to the back against Newcastle and had to come off early in the second half, but O’Neil is confident that the issue will not rule him out of Saturday’s match.
Inside, supporters can hear from Dawson, as well as Nathan Collins and Hugo Bueno, who sit down for the usual regular features in this week’s edition.
There’s plenty of content surrounding the club’s No Room for Racism fixture, while we hear from head coach Julen Lopetegui and captain Ruben Neves in their usual columns.
There are updates from Wolves Women, Wolves Academy and Wolves Foundation, as well as another packed out history section.
