Wolverhampton Wanderers have had an utterly tremendous season up to this point, and it’s kind of impossible to argue otherwise. It’s their first year back in the Premier League and not only have they been able to reach the FA Cup semi-finals, but they’ve also beaten some of the top flight’s finest en-route to a likely seventh place finish.
We say likely, of course, because Wolves have a tendency to drop the ball in certain situations – which is the crossroads that we’re going to be talking about here today. During their game against Fulham this weekend, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men can go one of two ways. They could break the trend/stereotype which has followed them around all season long, or, they could falter, which would swing the door wide open for their rivals to take advantage.
Can they do it?
The trend that we’re referring to is simple: they take from the rich and they give to the poor, in the form of beating the top six and dropping points to sides that are involved in the relegation battle. It’s a seemingly never-ending process that has no natural conclusion – or does it?
It certainly seems as if there’s a mentality shift depending on who Wolves are playing on any given day, as if they’re playing up to the ability of the side that stand opposite them. That makes a lot of sense, but you can also probably understand why it’s such a frustrating process for Wanderers fans around the world. If they were able to piece together the results you’d expect of them from teams situated lower down in the table, it’s not unrealistic to suggest that they could be pushing for a place in the Champions League. At the start of the campaign that would’ve sounded utterly ridiculous, but now, not so much.
This is a really addictive football team to watch, mainly because you can just kind of sense which direction they’re heading in. They have more potential than any newly promoted team that we’ve seen in years, to the point where they’re already being compared with Manchester City following their rise to prominence in the last decade or so.
Stay focused
We aren’t suggesting that Wolves will definitely achieve the same kind of success, but why not allow their fans to dream?
Before they get carried away, though, they really do need to address the situation at hand: Fulham. The Cottagers have won three on the bounce as they attempt to pick up as many points as possible before they return back down to the Championship. Wolves need to be very cautious, because if there was ever a time to step up to the mark, this is it.
The bookmakers would have you believe that Wolves are the clear favourites to walk away with the three points, but there’s absolutely no guarantee of that no way or the other. If they drop points then they’ll go into the final weekend of the season knowing that they need a result against title challengers Liverpool. As you can imagine, that’s not a particularly fun position to be in.
