#1 Delving into the past
Going into the weekend, the record books look fondly upon the old gold, who have won nine of the previous 12 meetings with Fulham. The most recent three have all finished in 1-0 victories for the Molineux outfit, with Leander Dendoncker, Pedro Neto and Adama Traore all scoring winners against the Cottagers in recent years. Fulham are also winless in their last ten top flight visits to Molineux, with their last success coming back in 1962 under Bedford Jezzard.
However, for Wolves, they have an unwanted record to avoid at the same time this weekend. The old gold have lost their opening home match of the previous two seasons, against Manchester City in 2020 and Tottenham Hotspur last season, and they’ll want to avoid number three for a number of reasons. One of those is because the club have gone since 1987 without losing three consecutive Molineux opening days. Newport County, Cambridge United and Halifax Town beat the old gold between 1985 and 1987 in Molineux’s first games of the seasons, and history repeating itself would not be welcome at the famous old stadium this weekend.
#2 The changing of the guard
Only once before has Ruben Neves led Wolves out at Molineux as captain in the Premier League, but on Saturday that looks set to change. In his pre-match press conference, Bruno Lage confirmed Neves will take over the armband, while revealing he’s also considering Maximilian Kilman as vice. Neves was captain at Elland Road last weekend, and Conor Coady has since departed for Everton, meaning the Portuguese will do so against Fulham once again this weekend. The only other time that was the case was in November 2020, when Coady was ruled out and Neves deputised for a 1-1 draw with Southampton.
Wearing the armband isn’t unfamiliar territory for Neves, however. The midfielder took the responsibility for youth levels of Portugal and in October 2015 made history, becoming the youngest player to start as captain in the Champions League. Neves was just 18 years and 221 days old when he helped Porto to a 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv and overtook previous record holder Rafael van der Vaart. Four years later, the Portuguese was given the Wolves responsibility for the first time, as he led the old gold to a Carabao Cup success over Reading in September 2019.
#3 Time for a big debut?
The news from the treatment room was mixed on Friday afternoon. Two back in, two out for Wolves. Starting with the positives, Nelson Semedo and Adama Traore are back available, however given the lack of pre-season both had, caution will naturally be taken. Semedo last featured back in April, when he was injured against Brighton & Hove Albion, while Traore’s most recent Wolves outing came at Brentford, before his loan spell at Barcelona. Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez still need more time however, and will not feature against the Cottagers, according to Lage.
One man facing a significant day is Goncalo Guedes, who will be eyeing a Wolves and Premier League debut. The Portuguese signed on the dotted line earlier in the week and is reunited with Lage and a whole host of former teammates from Benfica and the Portuguese senior team. Should he appear against Fulham, it would be Guedes’ fourth debut in a major European league. In January 2015, his Primeira Liga debut for Benfica came in a win over Penafiel, two years later he was in Ligue 1 and his debut was a draw for PSG against Monaco, before a La Liga bow for Valencia came in a draw with Atletico Madrid. Wolves will hope he can go a fourth league debut unbeaten on Saturday.
#4 Attention FPL managers!
Finally, as FPL managers step into their second game week, they may have their eye on a number of Wolves men. Daniel Podence will be of particular interest, given he was in the top five players with 2% or less ownership to hit double figures on the opening day. The Portuguese, priced at £5.5m, scooped five points for his goal, two for playing the 90 minutes and the maximum bonus points of three. Before the Leeds fixture, Wolves’ number ten was owned by only 0.9% of FPL managers, but that’s certain to change this weekend.
Another option may well be new man Guedes, who it was confirmed this week will cost managers £6.0m. The Portuguese is registered as a midfielder, so will earn more points for goals than strikers and comes into contention for the clean sheet point, should Wolves achieve a stop out. Elsewhere, Hee Chan Hwang was also amongst the points for his assist for Podence and costs a mere £6.0 and Neves earned two bonus points for his work at Elland Road. Who will be this week’s big earners? Only time will tell.
