By Opta Analyst | Created at 2025-02-01 20:34:27 | Updated at 2025-02-01 23:06:39
2 hours ago
Goals from Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Matheus Cunha earned Wolves a valuable three points. Check out the best facts and Opta data in our Wolves vs Aston Villa stats page.
Wolves gave their survival hopes a massive boost as they battled to a hard-fought 2-0 win over a tired-looking Aston Villa with two goals at either end of the game.
On the evidence of the first half, you could have been forgiven for forgetting that Aston Villa were chasing another season in Europe and that Wolves were mired in a relegation battle.
Villa were high on confidence after securing qualification for the last-16 of the Champions League with a win over Celtic in midweek, and they were also unbeaten in five Premier League games. Wolves, meanwhile, had lost their last four league games, scoring only one goal in the process.
It was Wolves who dominated the early part of this game, though, and they created the better chances, too. Jean-Ricner Bellegarde opened the scoring for the hosts, slamming home at the near post after a neat through ball from Pablo Sarabia.
But they failed to build on their lead. Villa created nothing of note and did not have a single shot on target in the first half, while at the other end, Matheus Cunha and Gonçalo Guedes both wasted huge opportunities when clean through on the Aston Villa goal.
Perhaps it was fatigue from their midweek European exploits that was causing Villa to be so far off their best. Frustration appeared to get the better of them as they picked up three yellow cards in the first half alone.
Manager Unai Emery clearly didn’t like what he was watching, either, because at the start of the second half, he used four of his five permitted substitutions.
There was more attacking intent from the visitors after the break and more quality, too. They created far more, and were denied an equaliser by a controversial call from the officials. From an offside position, Morgan Rogers was deemed to have impacted Nélson Semedo’s attempts to get back into position and stop John McGinn‘s cross, from which substitute Donyell Malen scored.
The second period was a completely different story to the first, with Wolves spending long periods camped in their own half, but they dug in and kept Villa out. Villa managed just 0.51 xG over the course of the 90 minutes.
Late on, Cunha raced up the pitch all on his own and finished impressively to wrap up three points that take Wolves above Leicester and out of the relegation zone. This was their first win and first clean sheet since beating Manchester United 2-0 on Boxing Day.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Wolves vs Aston Villa stats from their Premier League meeting at Molineux.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Wolves vs Aston Villa: Post-Match Facts
- Aston Villa have lost six of their last eight Premier League away games (W1 D1). Indeed, no side has lost more often on the road than the Villans since the start of November (6, same as Leicester City).
- Wolves have kept three clean sheets in their eight Premier League games under Vítor Pereira, more than they had in their final 33 games under Gary O’Neil (2).
- Matheus Cunha scored his 25th Premier League goal, just the second player to reach this milestone for Wolves after Raúl Jiménez (40).
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