Preview | Wolves vs West Ham

1 | Roll Call

Wolves will be without their captain on Tuesday evening as Toti will serve a one-game suspension after being sent off in Saturday’s defeat to AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League. The defender will be back in contention for this weekend’s Premier League meeting with Everton, and might have been rested by Vitor Pereira anyway with the head coach revealing after Saturday’s game that he will use the visit of the Hammers to give some of his players who haven’t seen much game time in the opening two Premier League games an opportunity. This could see the likes of Sam Johnstone, Yerson Mosquera, Rodrigo Gomes and Fer Lopez in from the start.

For West Ham, midfielder George Earthy has returned to training, but wasn’t involved in Friday’s loss to Chelsea, while Brazilian teenager Luis Guilherme was also missing from that game having picked up an injury in training earlier in August. Crysencio Summerville also remains on the sidelines for the Hammers, who might also be tempted to rotate their side for the visit to Molineux on Tuesday evening. Graham Potter had the likes of Alphonse Areola, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Oliver Scarles on the bench for the opening two Premier League games without getting any minutes.

Jackson Tchatchoua's first matchday squad

🇨🇲🐺 pic.twitter.com/HgNjJOACVA

— Wolves (@Wolves) August 23, 2025

2 | The Stat Pack

(2024/25, from current squads)

Goals

• Jorgen Strand Larsen | 14
• Jarrod Bowen | 14

Assists

• Jean-Ricner Bellegarde | 7
• Jarrod Bowen | 10

Biggest win

• Wolves 3-0 Leicester City | April 2025
• West Ham 4-1 Ipswich Town | October 2024

Cards

• Joao Gomes | 11
• Lucas Paqueta | 10

Clean sheets

• Jose Sa | 7
• Alphonse Areola | 5

3 | Journey to Tuesday

It’s been a slow start to the season for Wolves, who came through a pre-season without victory to start winless in their two Premier League outings so far. One of only two teams to not take at least a point from their opening two games, Pereira’s side began the new term with a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City – despite being the stronger of the sides in the opening half an hour – before succumbing to a 1-0 loss away at Bournemouth on Saturday after having to spend more than 40 minutes down to 10-men.

Wolves are being kept off the foot of the Premier League table by Tuesday night’s visitors to Molineux, West Ham. The Hammers are to only other team to have lost both of their opening top flight fixtures of the campaign, having fallen 3-0 to newly-promoted Sunderland in the season’s curtain raiser before a 5-1 hammering at home to Chelsea on Friday evening. The minus-seven goal difference has meant Potter’s men are currently propping up the table but they will be hoping to turn their season around in the Black Country.

4 | Last Molineux cup meeting

Tuesday’s game with West Ham is the first time the two teams have ever met in the League Cup, but they have previously gone head-to-head in the FA Cup on three occasions. History is on the side of the Hammers, with the men from London claiming two FA Cup wins at Molineux as well as one in the same competition at the Boleyn Ground.

The last time Wolves and West Ham faced off in the cup at Molineux came in January 2004 and an FA Cup fifth round tie, where first half goals from Brian Dean and former Old Gold men Marlon Harewood and David Connolly secured a 3-1 victory for the visitors.

The hosts pulled one back between Harewood and Connolly’s goals as Vio Ganea hit a well-struck effort past Stephen Bywater – another ex-Wolves player turning out for West Ham that day, but Leon Clarke missing an open goal and Colin Cameron striking the post ensured it wasn’t to be Wolves’ day.

Wolves | Oakes, Luzhny (Craddock 45), Butler, Clyde, Naylor, Silas (Gudjonsson 66), Ince, Cameron, Kennedy, Miller (Clarke 59), Ganea.

West Ham | Bywater, Ferdinand (Quinn 82), Harley, Dailly, Mullins, Harewood, Etherington, Horlock, Carrick, Deane, Connolly.