Sports Mole previews Saturday’s Premier League clash between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Molineux is the place to be at 5.30pm on Saturday, as Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace both endeavour to build on recent morale-boosting results in the Premier League’s evening kickoff.
Gary O’Neil‘s men miraculously fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend, while the Eagles dumped Aston Villa out of the EFL Cup on Wednesday night.
Match preview
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When Evan Ferguson doubled Brighton’s lead at the Amex with five minutes of normal time remaining – adding to Danny Welbeck‘s opener on the stroke of half time – Wolves fans could have been forgiven for resigning their side to another miserable top-flight outing.
However, Rayan Ait-Nouri‘s quickfire response allowed the visiting faithful to believe again, and after Brighton midfielder Mats Wieffer inexplicably wasted a four-on-one attacking situation, O’Neil’s men launched forward one more time and completed a fabulous comeback through Matheus Cunha‘s deflected strike.
The Amex away end has surely not seen celebrations as raucous as Wolves’ for some time, as Saturday’s hosts snapped a six-game losing sequence across all competitions in astonishing circumstances, but that maiden Premier League win of 2024-25 continues to elude them.
Only Southampton have performed worse than 19th-placed Wolves after nine games this season, and a four-point gap to safety means that O’Neil’s troops – the leakiest side in the league with 25 goals conceded – will remain below the dotted line even if the 10th time is the charm this weekend.
Shipping two to Brighton means that Wolves have conceded multiple goals in seven straight games leading up to Saturday’s showdown, but the Old Gold have now made the net bulge in 10 straight matches across all tournaments, making it easy to pinpoint where their problems lie.
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As Wolves go in search of their first Premier League success of the season this weekend, Palace deservedly made it ninth time lucky on October 27, dominating a tepid Tottenham Hotspur in the London derby and prevailing 1-0 courtesy of Jean-Philippe Mateta‘s first-half strike.
Mateta’s low strike succeeded an exquisite flicked assist from Eberechi Eze, who alongside Daichi Kamada propelled Palace to the most unexpected of back-to-back victories away to Aston Villa in midweek, earning the Eagles a quarter-final date with Arsenal in the process.
Now able to revel in consecutive wins for the first time since the end of the 2023-24 campaign, Oliver Glasner‘s rejuvenated team start the weekend just above the trapdoor in 17th place in the table, two points clear of Ipswich Town and boasting a significantly better goal difference than the Tractor Boys.
Wednesday’s Villa Park success must be a catalyst for improved away fortunes if Palace are to pull themselves away from danger, though, as they have taken just one point from four Premier League road fixtures this season and have kept just one clean sheet in their last 17 top-flight away matches, although that did come away to Jurgen Klopp‘s Liverpool in April.
Palace have often had Wolves’ number in recent times too, as the Eagles have won six of their last seven Premier League battles, doing the double in 2023-24 as a 3-2 Selhurst Park success preceded a 3-1 win at Molineux in the closing stages of the season.
Wolverhampton Wanderers Premier League form:
Wolverhampton Wanderers form (all competitions):
Crystal Palace Premier League form:
Crystal Palace form (all competitions):
Team News
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Wolves boss O’Neil was forced to withdraw Mario Lemina at half time in the Brighton draw due a calf concern, but he is confident that his skipper will shake off the issue in time to lead his team out on Saturday evening.
Goalkeeper Sam Johnstone (groin) could also be back in the ranks – he trained in the lead-up to the Amex trip but missed out on a place in the squad – and the 31-year-old will push to start against his old team after Jose Sa‘s error for Welbeck’s goal.
However, Sasa Kalajdzic (knee), Enso Gonzalez (knee), Yerson Mosquera (knee), Boubacar Traore (knee), Hwang Hee-chan (ankle) and Bastien Meupiyou (fitness) are still absent, although there is a slim chance that Hwang could be back this side of the international break.
As for Palace, the Eagles’ victory over Villa came at perhaps the biggest cost imaginable, as both Eze and Adam Wharton were withdrawn through injury in the opening period; the former is confirmed to be nursing a hamstring issue and will likely miss this match.
In a surprise twist, Glasner told the press that he was “very positive” that Wharton would not be missing for long – the Englishman is still managing a long-standing groin complaint – but his chances of starting this one are surely slim now.
Jefferson Lerma (thigh), Chadi Riad (knee), Matheus Franca (groin) and Chris Richards (thigh) are also taking up beds in the Palace medical bay, while Cheick Doucoure (toe) is a doubt, and Rob Holding has been ostracised from the group after an apparent falling-out with Glasner.
Wolverhampton Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Sa; S. Bueno, Toti, Dawson; Semedo, Lemina, Doyle, Ait-Nouri; Gomes, Cunha; Larsen
Crystal Palace possible starting lineup:
Henderson; Chalobah, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz, Kamada, Hughes, Mitchell; Sarr, Mateta, Nketiah
We say: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Crystal Palace
Saturday’s clash pits a Palace side whose Premier League games have seen the least goals (17) against a Wolves team whose matches have seen the most (37), and the latter’s penchant for finding the back of the net should finally propel them to a long-awaited win.
O’Neil’s men will have had a full week’s worth of recovery under their belts, and we cannot see how a fatigued Palace team ruing injuries to two key cogs in Wharton and Eze can obtain anything from their trip to Molineux.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
