Wolverhampton Wanderers began the
day dreaming of Europe and those
ambitions were crystallised by a well-
crafted victory against Leicester City.
Bruno Lage urged his team to “do
something special” after watching
them win for the fifth time in six
Premier League games, thanks to
goals either side of half-time from
Rúben Neves and Daniel Podence.
And if this form continues to yield a
top-six finish it will be days like this,
when they transitioned from stylish in
the first half to stubborn at the death,
that will have made the difference.
Leicester played their part but there
was no cutting edge to the chances
they created. Ademola Lookman
capped a fine individual performance
with an equaliser before half-time,
but Brendan Rodgers, the Leicester
manager, will rue yet another
performance where his team left it
too late to find their groove and failed
to take their opportunities. For the
first time since the days of Claude
Puel they have gone six games
without a domestic win.
“We won the three points and
scored twice but I think it was [only]
OK,” Lage, the Wolves head coach,
said. “It was not our best4 1GG Monday February 21 2022 | the times
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Weekend talking points
I have always admired
Marcelo Bielsa and the way
he gets lesser players to show an
incredible work rate and great
bravery on the ball.
For opponents, his Leeds United
side are either the best team or the
worst team you can come up
against. West Ham United were
flying and they go and beat them
twice in a week. But then when
Everton needed a result last
weekend, Bielsa’s boys beat them
3-0. There is no middle ground with
Leeds, it is all or nothing.
When they scored two goals in
less than a minute to come back to
2-2 yesterday against Manchester
United, you are thinking: “Don’t
give the game away now.” But of
course they keep on attacking,
going for the win, and end
up losing.
But I don’t want a
Premier League
without Leeds in it.
Very few teams
who get promoted
have their appetite
to attack.
We must never
forget that football
is meant to
be about
entertainment
— it’s about
lighting up the
fans, and you
can’t do better than
what Leeds serve up
week after week.
I really hope they
survive. The league
would be an awful lotpoorer without them. It was a
throwback kind of game yesterday,
with the ball sticking in the
pitch and then skidding off it
with all the rain. But I
thought the referee Paul
Tierney’s handling of it in
a tricky situation was
superb. He made the
game what it was, letting
certain types
of challenges go and
allowing the game to
flow at a fast pace. It is
what you want from the
Premier League and he
was a big part of making
that happen.TEAM OF THE WEEKGuaita
(Crystal Palace)Salah
(Liverpool)Roberts
(Burnley)Walker-Peters
(Southampton)Dawson
(West Ham)Dier
(Tottenham)Weghorst
(Burnley)Son
(Tottenham)
Kane
(Tottenham)Romeu
(Southampton)Odegaard
(Arsenal)4-2-4Burnley have upgraded
Wood with WeghorstTop flight needs Bielsa –
he is our great entertainer
I really didn’t think I’d be
saying this when Burnley
signed him to replace Chris Wood,
but Wout Weghorst is starting to
look like an upgrade. He’s provided
Sean Dyche’s side with a lift and
made it look as though they could
get out of trouble. I thought it would
be a big ask for a centre forward to
come into that situation, and I was
not convinced by what I saw in the
Dutchman’s first few appearances,
but he is now into his stride. He’s got
a physical presence, that much is
clear from his 6ft 6in frame, but his
goal showed that he has also got a
proper striker’s instinct. He has
actually changed the way Burnley
are playing: they are putting far
more balls into his feet, and he got
his reward on Saturday with his first
goal for the club, before setting up
the second for Josh Brownhill with
his back to goal.It’s not Lukaku’s fault he
isn’t what Chelsea needRomelu Lukaku had seven
touches against Crystal Palace
— and one of those was the kick-
off. When I was having a game a bit
like that for Gillingham, when I just
wasn’t really involved, the manager
Keith Peacock said to me at half-
time: “Your shorts aren’t dirty.”
After that, whenever I was wearing
white shorts, I’d get a little handful
of mud and wipe it on them just so
it looked like I was getting stuck in.
I never wanted to have that feeling
again, when a manager called me
out for not trying. The problem
Lukaku has got is who is there in
the Chelsea team on his wavelength
who knows where he’s going to be
and can pick him out? I’m not sure
why they thought they wanted a big
centre forward, but the problem is
worse now with Reece James and
Ben Chilwell out, who would have
been providing crosses for him.Willock’s form proves he is no one-season wonder
Joe Willock was excellent for
Newcastle United against West
Ham United. He was up against a
really tough midfield in Tomas
Soucek and Declan Rice, but caused
them problems. He is never going to
be able to replicate what he did onloan at Newcastle last season, when
he scored seven goals in the last
seven league games. But he is
looking really good now, playing a
role that allows him to get forward.
He will be crucial for Newcastle if
they are going to stay up.35% 65%
POSSESSION37
SHOTS ON TARGET12 9
FOULS21
Neves 9 Lookman 41
Podence 66RATINGS
Wolverhampton Wanderers (3-5-2) J Sá 8 —
M Kilman 7, C Coady 7, R Saïss 7 — N Semedo 7,
R Neves 8, L Dendoncker 7, J Moutinho 7 (Hwang
Hee-chan 58min, 6), R Aït-Nouri 8 (Marçal 88) —
R Jiménez 7, D Podence 7 (P Neto 80). Booked
Aït-Nouri, Podence, Dendoncker, Neves.
Leicester City (4-3-3) K Schmeichel 6 — R Pereira 5,
D Amartey 6, C Soyuncu 7, L Thomas 7 —
Y Tielemans 7, W Ndidi 6 (J Maddison 73),
K Dewsbury-Hall 7 — A Lookman 8, P Daka 7
(K Iheanacho 73), M Albrighton 6. Booked Soyuncu,
Albrighton, Lookman, Pereira.
Referee C Pawson.Wolves Leicester
Cityperformance. The step forward to be a
bigger team is when you play these
sorts of teams, that create problems,
we need to control more of the game.
There are no secrets in football. I
think we can do something special
but we have to continue to work.”
Wolves struck first after ten
minutes with Neves finishing off a
move that he had begun. With the
hosts on top it was his searching ball
into the left channel that picked out
the charging Rayan Aït-Nouri, and
after his cross was hamfistedly
cleared by Leicester it broke for Raúl
Jiménez, who set up Neves to whip it
coolly into the bottom corner of
Kasper Schmeichel’s goal.
This was a day when the conditions
were as likely to play as great a role
as anybody in blue or old gold and
Leicester were first to seek an
advantage from the rain.
First, Youri Tielemans tested José
Sá’s handling from distance, then
minutes later Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
struck from range to try to catch out
the Wolves goalkeeper. Both times
Lage’s No 1 got down to parry the ball
to safety, but the conditions offered
Leicester promise.
Encouragement too was provided
by Lookman and Patson Daka,
continuing to nurture the kind of
lively partnership that could haulWolves close in
ROBERT O’CONNORFew sides can match
Bielsa’s when it comes
to appetite for attack