Matheus Cunha says Wolves can start to look up the Premier League table after back-to-back wins, as Gary O'Neil's team bid to continue their revival against Bournemouth on Saturday.
Wolves were rooted to the bottom of the table and winless after 10 matches, but victories over Southampton (2-0) and Fulham (4-1) have lifted them out of the relegation zone.
Cunha has been the key to their resurgence, providing seven goals and three assists this season with seven of those involvements coming in their last four matches.
Since his Premier League debut in January 2023, Cunha has both scored more goals (21) and provided more assists (10) than any other Wolves player. His 31 goal involvements are the second-most of any Wolves player in the competition's history, behind Raul Jimenez (58).
Speculation had begun to mount around O'Neil's position before Wolves' turnaround, but Cunha says the squad are united in their aims after regaining their confidence.
"We never had a doubt about this," Cunha said of O'Neil's position. "He did a lot of good things for us last season, and then we started to build an unbelievable relationship.
"But, of course, football is like life, everyone knows that it's the results that matter in the end.
"But the work that you show is as important for me, for the group and for everyone. We are very happy with him and we are very happy with the results. I hope now we can start to fight for the things we want."
O'Neil's former club Bournemouth are six points clear of Wolves in 13th, having lost successive games after enjoying a strong start to the campaign.
Their latest defeat came against 10-man Brighton and Hove Albion at the Vitality Stadium, where a fifth yellow card of the season for star winger Antoine Semenyo ruled him out of Saturday's trip to Molineux through suspension.
"Every team has injuries, has suspensions," head coach Andoni Iraola said of Semenyo's suspension after the Brighton game. "We will miss now Ant, that is also a big miss.
"I don't know if everyone has finished healthy or not. We'll see, but we will have to adapt, I think for sure every team is adapting."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Wolves – Matheus Cunha
There is no doubt about Wolves' star man this campaign. As well as boasting more Premier League goal involvements than any other player outside the 'big six' clubs (10), Cunha has been involved in more attacking sequences (56) than any other Wolves player.
Cunha has been involved in half of Wolves' Premier League goals this term (10/20).
Only Mohamed Salah (66%), Dwight McNeil (60%), Bukayo Saka (57%), Erling Haaland (54%), Liam Delap, Chris Wood (both 53%) and Cole Palmer (52%) have been involved in a higher share of their team's goals.
Bournemouth – Milos Kerkez
In the absence of Semenyo, Bournemouth will have to rely on creativity from elsewhere, and left-back Kerkez is capable of providing it at a ground where he was sent off last season.
Kerkez ranks fifth among all Premier League defenders for open-play crosses (30) this season, with only nine defenders bettering his 12 open-play chances created.
MATCH PREDICTION – WOLVES WIN
Having won four consecutive Premier League away games in November and December last season, Bournemouth have won just three of their last 16 on the road (four draws, nine losses).
One of these was against Wolves in April, but O'Neil may just be confident of getting one over on his former employers on Saturday.
Wolves have won their last two Premier League games, as many as they had in their previous 22 combined (five draws, 15 defeats). They last won three in a row last December.
Bournemouth, meanwhile, are yet to win a Premier League match against a team that did not start the day in the relegation zone (Everton and Southampton) or the top four (Arsenal and Manchester City) in 2024-25.
Neutrals should expect entertainment whatever the result. Wolves' 12 Premier League games this term have featured 48 goals, more than any other side.
Their 20 goals scored are their most 12 games into a top-flight campaign since 1972-73 (25), while their 28 conceded are their most at this stage since 1983-84 (31).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Wolves – 39.1%
Bournemouth – 34.3%
Draw – 26.6%
‘Proud’ Glasner insists Palace are on the ‘right pathway’ to success
Crystal Palace’s point away to Aston Villa shows that the club are on the “right pathway” after a difficult start to the campaign, so says head coach Oliver Glasner.
Despite leading on two occasions against the Villans, the Eagles have just one victory in the Premier League this season (D5 L6); their joint-fewest after 12 games of a single campaign in the competition.
While Palace have failed to replicate the form they showed at the start of Glasner’s tenure at Selhurst Park, he is confident that they can build on their latest result when they welcome Newcastle United to south London this weekend.
"I’m very proud of the team's performance. We’re missing some key players in attack, but we still scored two amazing goals,” Glasner said.
"I’m very proud how they played together, worked together, fought together and believed in getting a point here. Overall, it was a good performance for us, and we go home very pleased with the point.
“I think we're on the right pathway, getting a point here at Villa is a good result for us. And now we want to improve our performance to take the win against Newcastle, because this will be necessary.”
The latest round of fixtures concluded at St. James’ Park, though Newcastle faltered at home to West Ham, with Tomas Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka on target either side of half-time.
The Magpies have now lost two of their last three Premier League home games (W1), as many defeats as in their previous 20 league matches (W13 D5), leaving them 10th in the table and four points behind the top four.
And Newcastle boss Eddie Howe lamented his side’s inability to put away their chances against the Hammers, while also citing the manner in which his side conceded both goals.
"I don't think anything takes me by surprise in the Premier League. We know every team has qualities. We were the dominant team at half-time and the game would have been very different if we had equalised before the end of first half,” Howe said.
"We know we made individual mistakes for both goals. It was disappointing from our perspective. Very uncharacteristic from us because we've defended well in recent weeks.
"At the end we had players out of position, so I didn't like the way we looked at the end. But up until that 60-minute mark, I thought we were the dominant team.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Crystal Palace – Jean-Philippe Mateta
While Mateta has failed to hit the heights of last season for the Eagles so far this term, the Frenchman’s assist against Aston Villa will give him confidence about returning to home soil.
All five of his goals for Crystal Palace in all competitions this season have come in home games. Since Glasner’s first game in charge of the Eagles in February, Mateta has scored 16 goals in just 13 starts at Selhurst Park in all competitions.
Newcastle – Anthony Gordon
After failing to make the desired impact against West Ham last time out, Gordon will be keen to add to his two Premier League goals this season.
The England international has created more chances (24) than any other Newcastle player this season, and has two goals in six appearances against Crystal Palace, one for the Magpies and one during his time at Everton.
MATCH PREDICTION: NEWCASTLE WIN
While Newcastle are favoured by Opta’s data-led simulations, after winning their first four Premier League away games against Crystal Palace, they have won just one of their last nine visits to Selhurst Park in the competition (D5 L3).
After being unbeaten in eight Premier League away games against London sides between October 2022 and October 2023 (W4 D4), Newcastle have also now lost six of their last eight visits to the capital (W2), shipping at least two goals in seven of those games.
Newcastle have lost three of their last five Premier League games (W2), as many as they had in their previous 17 combined (W9 D5).
However, the Magpies have kept 14 clean sheets in their 26 Premier League games against Crystal Palace. Only against Aston Villa (19) and Arsenal (15) have they recorded more in the competition, while it’s their highest percentage of clean sheets against sides they’ve faced 20 or more times (54%).
Crystal Palace won this exact fixture 2-0 in April, last winning consecutive league meetings with Newcastle between 1971 and 1972 (a run of three).
But the Eagles have just one win and eight points from their 12 Premier League games this season, their lowest points haul at this stage since 2018-19 (also eight), and fewest wins since 2017-18 (also one). This will be the first time they’ve played a Premier League match while starting the day in the bottom two of the table since December 2017 (2-1 v Watford).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Crystal Palace – 33.6%
Draw – 26%
Newcastle – 40.4%
Forest should be ‘worried’ about recent run of form, says Nuno
Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo believes his side should be “worried” after losing back-to-back Premier League games for the first time this season.
On their return to top-flight action following the international break, Forest were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Arsenal, with their toothless display in attack seeing them fail to register a shot on target.
The result dropped Nuno’s side down to seventh in the standings after their impressive start to the campaign, and the Forest boss wants to see improvements, particularly at the back after conceding six goals in the space of two games.
“It was not a good performance. I will not say bad, but I think we did a lot of bad things. We came up short in all aspects of the game. Offensively we were short, and defensively we must recognise we have conceded six goals in two games, so we should be worried,” Nuno said.
“We have to put it right immediately this week. We have to get back to being compact, solid and not giving too much time to individual players with such quality.
“Second half we were better when we had adjusted a little bit. We were better pressing. But Arsenal were very clinical and played good. They killed the game, and it was a tough day for us.”
Ipswich, meanwhile, denied new Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim a winning start with the Red Devils after holding them to a goalless draw at Portman Road last Sunday.
The Tractor Boys have now failed to win any of their first six home league games in a season for just the fourth time in the club’s league history, though Kieran McKenna believed his side were worthy of the victory against his former employers.
"We could have won the game, we finished the first half in the ascendancy and deserved to be at least level. The second half was competitive, we had a few big chances but had to be disciplined with our defending,” McKenna said.
“On another day we could have won it but if you concede an early goal the game could have run away from us, so credit to the players."
McKenna also showered praise on midfielder Omari Hutchinson, with the former Chelsea man netting a stunning equaliser to cancel out Marcus Rashford’s early opener.
“He’s shown good stuff from the start of the season, but he’s starting to understand it a bit more. It’s his second season of senior football, it’s his first season of starting, and it’s his first season being in a team who are going to be in the bottom third of the league, or likely to be,” he added.
“He’s maturing well, and he showed all the qualities we want from a number 10 today. We feel like when teams come and press us high and open up the middle of the pitch, having a dribbler like Omari in there is really, really hard to handle.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Nottingham Forest – Callum Hudson-Odoi
Hudson-Odoi has created more chances (18) and had more touches in the opposition box (40) than any other Forest player this season.
However, he has managed just two goals from 13 appearances in all competitions so far this term, and Nuno will be hopeful he can rediscover his scoring touch this weekend.
Ipswich Town – Leif Davis
Davis has adapted well to life in the top-flight, and Ipswich fans will be glad to know that the knock he sustained against United was nothing serious.
He has created more chances than any other Ipswich player in the Premier League this season, with his 28 also the most among defenders so far in the competition this term.
MATCH PREDICTION: NOTTINGHAM FOREST WIN
Forest have lost just one of their six league meetings with Ipswich (W4 D1), with this the first between the sides since a 1-1 draw in March 2019.
The two teams have met each other four times in the Premier League – Ipswich won both meetings in 1992-93 as Forest were relegated, while Forest won both games in 1994-95 with the Tractor Boys going down.
Forest are unbeaten in their last eight Premier League games against promoted sides (W5 D3), though, winning the last four in a row. Forest had failed to win any of their previous 15 such games before this run (D9 L6).
However, having lost just one of their first 10 Premier League games this season, Forest have now lost both of their last two. They’ve conceded three goals in these defeats, as many times as they’d conceded three or more goals in their previous 22 league games combined.
Ipswich, meanwhile, are winless in their last 14 away league games against Forest (D6 L8), with their last such victory coming in December 1999 (1-0 thanks to a Matt Holland goal).
McKenna’s side have drawn more games than any other Premier League side this season (six). It’s the first time they’ve drawn as many as half of their first 12 league games since 2018-19 (six) and first time in the top-flight since 1992-93 (seven).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Nottingham Forest – 57.9%
Draw – 21.9%
Ipswich Town – 20.2%
Haiti's Real Hope take 1-0 advantage over Dom Rep's Moca FC in Caribbean Cup third-place tie
Haiti’s Real Hope FA edged Dominican Republic’s Moca FC 1-0 in the first leg of their Concacaf Caribbean Cup third-place tie in Stadium in Santiago de los Caballeros, on Tuesday.
Stanley Joseph opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a right-footed strike as he capitalized on a deflected ball in the box. Jeudy Johnson was essential in the buildup play and later provided the ball over the top, which led to the goal.
Huguens Michel went close to extending the lead for Real Hope in the 14th minute as his header went just wide of left upright.
Real Hope was reduced to ten men in the 45+1 after Steeve Mondestin was shown a straight red card.
With the numerical advantage, Moca FC should have pulled level in the 45+5, but Eduardo Montenegro well-struck free kick, but Real Hope’s goalkeeper Gooly Elien proved equal to the task.
Argentina-born Gustavo Ascona had a dangerous hit on target from outside the box in the 45+6, but Elien again came up big to deny him.
Like they did at the start, Real Hope came out more purposeful after the break, and Angelo Exilus danced his way through Moca’s defence but his final effort in the 74th was charged down by Keudy Jimenez.
Yveto Dort again went close for Real Hope with a stinging 78th-minute drive from a distance that went just wide of the target.
Real Hope’s custodian Elien was again called up on to deny a 90+5-minute effort to preserve the clean sheet and ensure his team remained on the front foot heading into next Tuesday’s second leg.
He finished the night with four saves and his third clean sheet in the tournament.
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