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At least one team has failed to score in each of Wolves’ past 10 matches in all competitions, as they’ve registered seven clean sheets of their own over this spell. Nine of these games featured fewer than three goals, with the exception a 3-0 win over Championship side Sheffield Utd in the FA Cup, while eight of the games saw just a single strike or none at all.
Thrilling encounters may not have been served up, but the sturdy nature of their performances leaves Wolves with just two defeats across their last nine outings. Both came by 1-0 scorelines in tough assignments with Liverpool and Man City, though their backline will surely be tested here given their visitors have been in fine fettle going forwards of late.
Southampton landed a 3-2 extra time win over Swansea in the FA Cup before trouncing Brentford 4-1 midweek, as they’ve only failed to score in two of 16 appearances since going down 1-0 to Wolves when these two last met in September.
Away trips to Liverpool and Arsenal were the exceptions, and the goals have come from different quarters with as many as seven different players finding the net across their past three matches alone.
Although the Saints have been much better going forwards, they’re still a mess defensively and have failed to register a clean sheet in 10 games now. Including extra time against second-tier opponents Swansea, they conceded at least twice in seven of these games, with that occurring in all six road trips over this period.
Wolves To Win By One Goal
There’s certainly a clash of style between these two sides then, but Wolves are unlikely to allow this to become an open affair. Defenders Willy Boly and Romain Saiss are away at the Africa Cup of Nations, while further forward Hwang-Hee Chan and Pedro Neto both miss out through injury.
Given both sides are expected to line up with a back three, the battle of the wing-backs could be crucial to determining the fate of this encounter. With that in mind, Ralph Hasenhuttl will be mindful that the exciting Valentino Livramento is unavailable through injury, while the Saints don’t have a great recent record facing Wolves having gone W1-D2-L3 since 2019/20.
Each of those victories Wolves managed came by one-goal margins and that has been a familiar theme for them going back quite some way. 15 of their last 16 league wins have come by that same margin, including seven that finished 2-1 and another seven that ended 1-0.
PREDICTION:
WOLVES TO WIN BY ONE GOAL
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