#1 Two hurting sides
Saturday’s game sees two sides not in particularly good form lock horns, so something has to give. Last Sunday both were beaten 4-0, Wolves to Leicester City and Brentford to Aston Villa, meaning both clubs have won one of their last six Premier League games each. The Bees will look to their home form for heart going into the weekend – they’re sixth in the Premier League’s home table, having claimed 11 of their 14 points at the Gtech Community Stadium. Their only win of October came on home soil against Brighton & Hove Albion a fortnight ago, when Ivan Toney was at the double.
The fixture is Wolves’ last on the road before the World Cup and provides the perfect opportunity to get up and running. Life away from Molineux has been tough so far, with the old gold claiming just one point from their six trips. Things could have been different, of course, Wolves had by far the better chances in the draw with Bournemouth and dominated large spells of the defeats at Leeds United, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace. Having travelled to the capital three times without success this month, could Saturday be the time for that to change?
Building up to Brentford 👊 pic.twitter.com/Wj958Hbl9K
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 28, 2022
#2 Time for a freshen up?
A week on from the Foxes defeat, Steve Davis may be looking within his group for other options ahead of the weekend. On the bench that day was a number of players who may come in to start in west London. Full-backs Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nelson Semedo have made a combined 21 appearances this term, so are putting pressure on Jonny and Hugo Bueno, who are in possession of the shirts currently. In midfield, Boubacar Traore put in an energetic appearance against Palace, and could return to bring a different element to the old gold midfield. The likes of Hee Chan Hwang, Chem Campbell and Goncalo Guedes are also available, should Davis wish to freshen his side.
The Bees look set to be without a quartet of options for the fixture. Captain Pontus Jansson is missing with a thigh injury, while Thomas Strakosha and Aaron Hickey will both be absent until after the World Cup. Influential midfielder Christian Norgaard has been out since August with a calf injury, and while he’s back running and getting closer, the fixture may come too soon for him. With the Bees 3-0 down to Villa at half-time last weekend, Thomas Frank turned to Sergi Canos and Josh Dasilva, so they’ll fancy their chances of earning a start on Saturday.
#3 You don’t see it every day
Wolves’ last trip to the Gtech Community Stadium in January was one of the most bizarre games since the club’s return to the Premier League in 2018. The primary reason for those unusual circumstances were for reasons off the pitch. Just after the half-hour mark, referee Peter Bankes was forced to take both sets of players off the pitch when a device was spotted flying above the stadium. The players re-emerged more than 15 minutes later, and 19 minutes of added time was slammed on the end of the first-half. That incident had come after a six-minute break following a collision between two Brentford players, punctuating the first-half further.
After the break, the focus remained on football. Joao Moutinho’s fine finish – the first time he’d made it double figures for Wolves goals in a season – had the old gold in front, before Toney steered the hosts level. Toti then saw red for Wolves, but the decision was overturned by VAR and the visitors went on to claim three points thanks to Ruben Neves’ fine curling finish. That win led to Bruno Lage earning the Manager of the Month award for January and another positive result at Brentford will be just the tonic for Davis this time around.
#4 Time to start taking chances
An area of focus for Davis this week has been on scoring goals. He spoke after the defeat to Leicester of being more clinical, which the Foxes were, and he’s now looking for the same confidence in front of goal from his own attacking players. The old gold took 21 shots to Leicester’s five last Sunday but ended up losing 4-0. The head coach would be more concerned if chances weren’t being created, but now it’s about taking them. Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Davis said: “We worked on it last week and the week before, we recognised that we're struggling to create chances. At Leicester it was the best we've done it, but we didn't deal with their chances.”
One man he’ll hope will take a chance should it arrive in the capital is Diego Costa, who is expected to be fit to travel. The Spaniard picked up a knock during the club’s open training session on Wednesday, but Davis hopes he’ll be “OK”. No Premier League club has scored fewer than Wolves’ five this term and that must change if Davis’ side are to pick up a victory in the capital.
