FOOTBALL journalist Adam Goodwin (@AGJournalism) shares his verdict on Saturday night's Premier league match-up between Wolves and Tottenham at Molineux.
Wolves v Tottenham | Saturday 3rd November 2018, 19:45 | Sky Sports
We have a rare Saturday 7:45pm kick-off in the Premier League this weekend, where newly-promoted Wolves take on Tottenham at the Molineux.
Sides promoted from the Championship are so often predicted to go straight back down, so when the majority of pundits were tipping Wolves to finish in the top half this season, there was perhaps some expectancy on the West Midlands side.
And, so far, they’ve lived up to those expectations, sitting in 10th with four wins, three draws and three losses. Their most notable result was undoubtedly the 1-1 draw with reigning champions Manchester City, and Nuno Espirito Santo will be hoping his side can pull off a similarly impressive result on Saturday night.
Wolves’ only game to go Over 2.5 Goals was their opening day 2-2 draw with Everton. They’ve kept things pretty tight in their other games and pride themselves on their defensive solidity in the 3-5-2 formation. Just 3/10 (30%) of their games have seen Both Teams To Score land too, so you’d expect to see a tight game at the Molineux on Saturday.
But without a 0-0 yet this season, perhaps one team will nick it either way.
Spurs
After what has been an underwhelming start to the season, Tottenham still find themselves just five points off the top of the league. Their defence has been dodgy, they lack creativity without Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane hasn’t quite hit top form, but they’re still within touching distance of the top four.
Despite Manchester City being the better side, Spurs were perhaps slightly unlucky to not get anything from that 1-0 defeat on Monday but they’ve been grinding out positive results pretty much all season.
This is Tottenham’s third game in six games, so you’d expect them to be slightly sluggish here. They’re also still without Jan Vertonghen, who looks more and more crucial to Spurs as every game goes by.
I think Mauricio Pochettino will reasonably be happy to be playing away from home with the current state of the Wembley pitch, but I think their mediocre performances could catch up with them here.
The betting angles
I’d like to get Wolves onside here. I think they have enough quality to cause Tottenham some problems, especially as they’ve had a full week’s rest compared to Spurs.
Just 2/20 (10%) of games involving these sides have seen Over 3.5 Goals so I’d have a punt on Wolves to win or draw and Under 3.5 Goals which can be backed at 11/10 with the Bet Builder on Bet365.
A statistic that I found particularly interesting was that Tottenham are yet to score an equalising goal this season, meaning that when they’ve conceded the first goal, they’ve lost the game. On the other hand, Wolves have only conceded one equalising goal, which shows that they’re particularly impressive in holding onto a lead.
You can back Wolves to score the first goal (which they’ve done in three of their five home games this season) and win the game at 5/2 with 188BET. As I’ve already mentioned, this is Spurs’ third games in six days, and I think they’ll succumb against a Wolves side that will be raring to go on Saturday evening.
Best Bets
Wolves v Tottenham – Wolves double chance and Under 3.5 Goals (11/10 Bet365)
Wolves v Tottenham – Wolves to score first and win (5/2 188BET)
