Gary O’Neil hailed match-winner Hwang Hee-chan after Wolves edged out Burnley.
The striker’s first-half goal – his ninth of the season – condemned the Clarets to a 1-0 defeat at Molineux on Tuesday evening.
Wolves moved 11 points clear of the Premier League’s relegation zone with South Korea international Hwang earning praise from the boss.
“The numbers are incredibly impressive,” Boss O’Neil said. “Everything about him is impressive, will he continue at this rate for the rest of the season? I hope so. If the team can keep performing.
“When the ball falls to him in the penalty area I have a really good feeling he will be in the right area.
“It’s no fluke he has as many goals as he has, he’s bought in fully to what we’re trying to do. He arrives in good areas time and time again.
“It was a massive win for us. They are a good side, maybe it’s disrespectful to say ‘job done’ because they won the Championship by a long way last season, were the sixth or seventh biggest spenders in the summer. They have every right to be competitive, I’m really pleased as it’s a big win.”
Pablo Sarabia twice went close before Dan Bentley saved from Sander Berge and Josh Brownhill.
But Burnley shot themselves in the foot three minutes before the break to gift Wolves a winner.
James Trafford and Dara O’Shea played out of the back to find Berge, but the midfielder’s heavy touch allowed Sarabia to steal in and find Matheus Cunha.
He then picked out the unmarked Hwang who beat Trafford with a low finish for his ninth goal of the season.
From then Burnley struggled to create, with Bentley never troubled, as Wolves earned a first clean sheet since August and are now five unbeaten at home.
Burnley remain in the drop zone after a 12th defeat in 15 games and are three points from the safety line having beaten Sheffield United 5-0 on Saturday, but failed to follow it up.
Boss Vincent Kompany said: “It’s decided in moments, we had ours, didn’t take them and in one of the few chances we conceded, we concede a goal.
“I looked at it quickly but we’ll have to do an analysis. If something went wrong it wasn’t just decided by this one moment, we can look at ourselves and say we should have scored.
“We have been in games for quite some time now, we have to believe this will give us the results.
“We play against teams with quality, we have to stay in positions where we can get results and today was close. This is where we need to step it up.”
Maresca: Chelsea ‘not ready’ to challenge Liverpool and Man City for title
Enzo Maresca said that his Chelsea side are "not ready" to challenge the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City for the Premier League title this season despite their recent form.
The Blues put on an impressive display last time out by putting three past Aston Villa on Sunday, with Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer all on target.
They have now lost just one of their last 14 home games in the Premier League (W9 D4), while their 10 total league home wins in 2024 is their most at Stamford Bridge in a calendar year since 2021 (also 10).
Chelsea’s latest win moved them up to third in the standings, but ahead of facing lowly Southampton on Wednesday, Maresca tempered expectations for the campaign last week.
"I do not agree with that. We are not ready to compete with Liverpool, Arsenal and City for many reasons. Because we win today, I am not going to change my idea. We are not ready for that," he said.
"The good thing is we are improving. Soon, hopefully, we can be there. On the other hand, there was a team that was fantastic. I consider [Unai] Emery a top manager; he's won trophies everywhere and is doing something fantastic at Villa.
"For sure, we need to improve many things. We can attack better, we can defend better, but for me, what we need is that you need to live moments to get better."
Russell Martin, meanwhile, believes his fringe Southampton players are ready to step up amid several key absentees for the visit of Chelsea.
The Saints ended a run of nine straight away Premier League defeats by drawing 1-1 with south coast rivals Brighton last Friday, avoiding a loss away from home in a top-flight game despite conceding the opening goal for the first time since January 2023.
However, that vital point came with a price, with Flynn Downes, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Tyler Dibling picking up their fifth yellow cards of the season, meaning they will miss the game.
But Martin insisted that the players ready to make their mark in midweek have his full trust, as they aim to close the gap on the sides above them at the bottom of the table.
"We are probably without our five most consistent players, so we have to tweak and adapt. Am I kicking myself for playing three of our best players and getting a point away at Brighton? Absolutely not," Martin said.
"Ryan Manning coming in from being not even on the bench and doing really well is an example. We have a big squad, but we knew all season we'd need everyone.
“You can go from being not on the bench to starting and that's it. We have trust in the players coming in and trust in the shape because they have done it before."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Southampton – Adam Armstrong
With the absence of some of their key players, Armstrong will be key for the Saints on Wednesday. He has scored in each of his last three home appearances in all competitions.
The last player to score in four in a row at St Mary’s with Saints as a top-flight side was Charlie Austin between September and October 2016.
Chelsea – Nicolas Jackson
Jackson has opened the scoring inside 10 minutes in four different Premier League games in 2024, the most of any player this year, with only Chris Wood (seven) scoring the first goal in more top-flight games than the Chelsea striker (six) overall so far this season.
He has been involved in eight goals in his last eight away Premier League appearances for Chelsea (six goals, two assists), while he has four goals and an assist in seven games against newly promoted clubs.
MATCH PREDICTION: CHELSEA WIN
Chelsea have won six of their last eight away Premier League matches (D1 L1), as many as they had in their previous 22 on the road (D5 L11). Indeed, since the start of May, no side has won more away points than the Blues in the competition (19).
They have also only won more top-flight away games against Tottenham (15) than they have against Southampton (14), while of team’s they’ve faced 20+ times on the road in the competition, their highest goals-per-game ratio is also against the Saints (1.9 – 45 goals in 24 games).
Maresca’s side have also been impressive in attack. They haven’t failed to score in any of their last 18 Premier League away games against Southampton, since a 1-0 loss in December 1997 under Ruud Gullit.
Southampton, however, have won their last two Premier League games against Chelsea, as many as in their previous 18 (D5 L11). They last won three consecutive league games against the Blues between 1979 and 1985.
But since enjoying a 10-game unbeaten run at St Mary’s in the Premier League between October 2021 and February 2022 (W5 D5), Southampton have won just four of their last 31 home games in the competition (D6 L21).
They have also lost six of their last eight midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League games (W2), losing each of the last three without scoring.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Southampton – 15.9%
Draw – 19.8%
Chelsea – 64.2%
Sky is the limit for ‘relentless’ Brentford ahead of Villa test, says Frank
Brentford boss Thomas Frank believes the sky is the limit for his players after they dispatched Leicester City last time out to move up to eighth in the Premier League table.
A hat-trick from Kevin Schade and a goal from Yoane Wissa earned the Bees their sixth win of the season last Saturday, all of which have come at home, more than they managed for the entirety of the 2023-24 campaign (five).
Brentford also became the first side to score 20+ goals at home in the Premier League this term. After seven home games, it's the earliest in a league season that they have reached 20+ home goals since 1982-83 (also seven), and the earliest in the top-flight since 1936-37 (also seven).
While their away from has left a lot to be desired, with a midweek trip to Aston Villa up next for the Bees, Frank is confident his players can push to finish in the European places.
"As high as possible. We are very happy with the season so far, always thinking of what to improve. Even this game, there are things we could do better, but football is tough. We celebrate today and we go again in training tomorrow,” Frank said.
"It was a very good performance, probably our best performance this year overall. I think we controlled and dominated that game from minute one to the end of the game. They got 1-0 up but we were just relentless.
"This group of players has a top mentality, top character and top culture. That bounce-back mentality is something you need to have not just after a game you lose, but also in games.”
Villa, meanwhile, endured a difficult day at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, losing 3-0 to Chelsea, which dropped them down into the bottom half of the Premier League standings.
The Villans are now winless in their last five straight top-flight games for the first time since August 2022 under Steven Gerrard. This current form is also the joint-longest streak without a victory in the Premier League (five – level with Everton and Leicester).
However, Unai Emery insisted that he was happy with his side’s displays this term, both domestically and in the Champions League, but acknowledged improvements were needed.
"We believe completely in our work. We are enjoying the Champions League, and in the league, we are more or less where we were [last season],” Emery said. "Our challenge is to fight on Wednesday with Brentford and see how our level is with Brentford.
“There are still matches to play and we are going to recover our confidence, trying to build the team. We have to try to be better than we are being now. We can individually do better.
"At the beginning of the season, we can sense some teams were better than us and one of them is Chelsea. We try to keep the balance and not be frustrated.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Aston Villa – Ollie Watkins
Against Crystal Palace last time out, Watkins became the first Villa player to reach 50 goal involvements in Premier League home games (35 goals, 15 assists).
His 35 goals is the second most by a Villa player at Villa Park, behind only Dwight Yorke (37), and the England international will be hopeful of adding to that total on Wednesday.
Brentford – Kevin Schade
While the likes of Bryan Mbeumo and Wissa have received plaudits for their starts to the season, the Bees were able to showcase the depth of their attacking talent against Leicester, none more so than Schade.
He became the fourth German player to score a Premier League hat-trick last time out against the Foxes, with his three goals in that game more than he’d managed in his previous 41 appearances in the competition combined (two).
MATCH PREDICTION: ASTON VILLA WIN
Villa are unbeaten in their last four league games against Brentford (W2 D2), having been winless in their previous eight (D4 L4).
However, the Villans have won just two of their last 14 Premier League games played on a Wednesday (D4 L8), though one of these was in their last such home match against Manchester City in December last year.
They have also impressed at Villa Park, losing just one of their last 11 Premier League home games (W4 D6). Each of their last three have finished level, though, with Villa last drawing four consecutive Premier League games on home soil between March and April 2007.
Brentford, meanwhile, have never won an away league game against Villa (D6 L3), with the Bees only facing Stoke City (14) and Halifax Town (11) more often on the road without ever winning in their league history.
While Frank’s side have won more points in Premier League home games than any other side this season (19), no side have won fewer points on the road than the Bees this term (1, level with Southampton).
They have also lost nine of their last 10 top-flight games against sides that finished in the top four the previous season, with the only exception being a 1-1 draw with Manchester United in March.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Aston Villa – 50.8%
Draw – 23.6%
Brentford – 25.6%
Nuno looking beyond Man City's poor form ahead of clash with Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo insists Manchester City remain a top-quality side despite their poor run of form heading into Wednesday's Premier League contest.
City have gone seven games without a win in all competitions – the longest-such streak in Pep Guardiola's managerial career – with six of those ending in defeat.
Sunday's 2-0 loss at leaders Liverpool leaves the reigning champions fifth and now 11 points adrift of the Reds, but Nuno is looking beyond this poor run of form before facing off at the Etihad Stadium.
"It's the reality of the game – you always have ups and downs," Nuno said. "Every team has to be ready to face those moments of uncertainty when things are not going well.
"It's how long you stay there and how you bounce back from those moments; how you reorganise and improve. Their run doesn't take away the quality and the talent they have.
"Let's not forget, they're the champions and have won so much with such quality players and such a good manager. When you have such quality players and play such good football, for sure they'll turn it around."
Recharge and go again. pic.twitter.com/H5bQhrPL74
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) December 2, 2024
City are only one point and one place better off than Forest, who put back-to-back defeats against Arsenal and Newcastle United behind them with a 1-0 win over Ipswich Town at the weekend.
Guardiola, who has won 18 trophies across his eight full seasons as City boss, is determined to battle on having only just signed a new two-year contract.
"I've lived better before than now," he said. "But I'm incredibly honest with myself and, when we were winning a lot, my perspective was I was fortunate to live that.
"Now I'm not depressed that everything is going bad. When I think I cannot do it we will talk with the club but I feel that I want to do it and life is not in all departments perfect."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Manchester City - Erling Haaland
Haaland has failed to score in back-to-back Premier League games for City, although he does still have 15 goals in his past 11 games at the Etihad Stadium in all competitions.
The leading Premier League top scorer this season, who has 12 goals in 13 matches overall, has also netted four times in two games on home soil against Forest.
Nottingham Forest - Chris Wood
Wood scored the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win over Ipswich via the penalty spot and also has 12 goals in his past 13 away Premier League away games for Forest.
The New Zealand international is looking to become the first Reds player to score in four successive away games in the competition, and the first in the English top flight for the club since Garry Birtles in 1983-84.
Ready for more? pic.twitter.com/zpomnE4CtA
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 2, 2024
MATCH PREDICTION: MAN CITY WIN
City have conceded three-plus goals in both of their past two home games in all competitions, which they last managed in 1963 when going on to be relegated from the top flight.
Guardiola's men may be in poor form, but they are unbeaten in their past eight league games against Forest stretching back to a 3-2 loss in the second tier in December 1997.
Forest have also lost their past four away league games against City by an aggregate scoreline of 12-0, while they are winless in their past seven top-flight visits since 1989.
The Reds have lost their past five away games against reigning top-flight champions by an aggregate scoreline of 21-2, meanwhile, since beating Manchester City 2-1 in December 1994.
If the omens were not already stacked against Forest, opponents City are unbeaten in their past 31 home Premier League games on a Wednesday, winning each of the past 20.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Manchester City win - 66.8%
Nottingham Forest win - 14.8%
Draw - 18.4%
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