Wolves face top-five chasing Aston Villa in a Midlands derby at Molineux.
Victory would see Wolves climb to 13th in the table, whilst Villa can go sixth with a win if Tottenham slip up elsewhere.
Team News
Nelson Semedo is a doubt for Wolves after he suffered a knee injury during their defeat at Brighton last weekend.
Boubacar Traore (groin) could return if he is match fit but Chiquinho and Sasa Kalajdzic (both knee) remain absent.
Villa could welcome the quartet of Matty Cash, Philippe Coutinho (both muscle), Leon Bailey (hamstring) and Boubacar Kamara (foot) back into contention.
Jed Steer (Achilles) remains absent.
When is Kick-Off
Wolves meet Villa at Molineux in a 3pm BST kick-off on Saturday 6 May, albeit untelevised in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Wolves are unbeaten in six of their last seven meetings against Aston Villa (W4, D2, L1).
- Villa have won just one of their last five visits to Wolves (W1, L4), winning 1-0 in December 2020.
- Anything other than defeat would see Wolves go five matches unbeaten against Villa in all competitions for the first time since a nine-match streak between April 1957 – August 1961.
- No Wolves player has been caught offside on more occasions than Diego Costa, who has been found offside on 14 occasions in 20 league appearances this season.
- Nine of Ollie Watkins’ 14 league goals for Villa this season were scored on his right foot.
Prediction
After a shambolic defensive performance away at Brighton last weekend complete with little attacking impact in terms of intensity, Wolves are lucky that Jose Sa’s goalkeeping prevented a much worse defeat but they have to reset and return to the quality which saw them win their last three home games.
Villa meanwhile were totally outclassed at Manchester United last weekend but were lucky to only lose 1-0 due to Utd’s wasteful end product, amidst decent defending aside from Bruno Fernandes’ rebound winner whilst their own attack lacked its usual sharpness.
Now if Unai Emery can get his Villains to quickly reset and back to their energetic best, they should have enough quality if can tear into Wolves’ defence like Brighton did, but I can see a draw here given that Molineux has been a tricky away ground for Villa.
Prediction: Wolves 1-1 Aston Villa
Result: Wolves 1-0 Aston Villa
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