Premier League: Can Wolves Bite the High-Flying Saints?

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Southampton

The Premier League is here again folks, another international week over and the stars return to their clubs to renew hostilities back home.

What a weekend of football we have in store in England’s top flight. On Saturday Manchester City head to Spurs, with head coach Pep Guardiola signing a two year extension to his contract, signalling his intent to challenge again for more domestic and European glory at the Etihad. Then on Sunday champions Liverpool take on current league leaders Leicester City.

The round is capped off in style when early pace setters Southampton, now in fourth place, visit Molineux to face Wolves. We’ll be across all these games here at SBOTOP with all the Premier League 2020 news and highlights as they unfold.

And right now we take a look at the Wolves vs Saints match, with the latest updates from each club and the stats which can inform the best betting options.

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Premier League

Talking Points

Wolves hard working players aiming to bounce back

Ever since Nuno Espirito Santo arrived at the club at the start of the 2017/18 Championship season, Wolves have been blessed by an array of international stars, and the head coach has added more quality to his squad following promotion and two seventh placed finishes in the top flight. But that means a big chunk of his first 11 is in demand every time there is an international weekend.

Wolves’ Portuguese contingent had a disappointing week at the UEFA Nations League where they were ousted by France and so missed out on a chance to defend their title at the final stage. Goalkeeper Rui Patricio was a key player in the Portugal squad, along with team-mates Nelson Semedo, Daniel Podence, Pedro Neto and Joao Moutinho. Both Neto and Podence are starting to have a bigger impact at Molineux since the departure of Diogo Jota to Liverpool, and Podence scored in Wolves’ recent 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace, a result which temporarily put Nuno’s side joint top alongside Liverpool and Everton.

But in their last outing Wolves fell short in the clash of the Midlands giants, when they went down 1-0 to Leicester City. They fell foul of a tough VAR call when defender Max Kilman was adjudged to have handled in the penalty area, leading for Nuno to ask for more consistency from the officials. The Foxes went top as a result and that was a hard pill to swallow for Wolves who had picked up ten points from the previous four league games.

They will be looking for another bounce back on Monday night.

Daniel Podence scored Wolverhampton Wanderers' second goal against Crystal Palace in the Premier League — Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Daniel Podence celebrates scoring their second goal vs Crystal Palace

Saints’ Ings out for a month

This time last year Southampton were more likely to feature in the Premier League 2020 betting odds at the bottom end of the division, as the Saints were serious relegation candidates. At the same stage of the campaign they were 17^th in the table with seven points, whereas they currently sit fourth with 16 points.

Southampton pulled away from the drop zone largely thanks to the goals of Danny Ings, who scored an impressive 22 and missed out on the Golden Boot by a single goal to Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy. And he already had five goals to his name from the first seven games of this season when disaster struck as he went down with a knee injury at the end of the Saints’ 4-3 victory over Aston Villa. Fans feared the worst for the 28 year old as Ings has been beset by injuries throughout his career, with long lay-offs at both Liverpool and Burnley, but the good news is that he could well be fit by mid December.

He’ll be sorely missed though and the Saints will look towards striker Che Adams, who struggled last season, and the impressive James Ward-Prowse to stretch the Wolves’ defence; both have contributed three goals so far this season.

History

The head to head statistics are pretty even, with Wolves winning five and drawing five of the 16 meetings since 2003, Southampton having a slight edge with six wins.

With five wins and a draw (against Chelsea) to show for their last six games, the Saints are on a great run, while Wolves have three wins, one draw and two defeats.

Betting Tip

	Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Southampton	Total Goals 2-3 @ 1.91
	November 24, 04:00 (GMT+8)

This is a meeting of two fine sides with ambitions for European football and it should be a close contest. Wolves are favourites at odds of 2.36 with the Saints at 2.90 and the draw is 3.01.

Danny Ings is a loss for the visitors, but Wolves have a number of players who have endured tough international weeks. We’ll see two creative forces coming up against well organised defences and it will be a fascinating battle at either end of the pitch.