And that’s your lot. Congratulations to Wolves, who won a Premier League classic; commiserations to Claude Puel, who will be under even greater pressure now. If we see a better game all season, we’ll be doing pretty well. Thanks for reading!
And now a grim-faced Claude Puel. “We have had a lot of emotion in this game, different feelings. We started with poor play, a poor performance at the beginning. This we had to correct. After the second goal we came back with good intention, pressing, quality, chances to come back. We come back in the second half with fantastic desire, we put Wolves under pressure, it was a fantastic feeling. But it was difficult to maintain our pressing. We had the happiness to score the third goal, but we didn’t keep our structure. We wanted to score another goal in extra time, and that is our fault. It is sad. To concede the last goal is difficult, very disappointing. My concern is to keep my focus. Other things are not my focus.”
A beaming Nuno speaks! “A very good game. A game we have to look at, but it’s a game everyone enjoys. Fantastic game of football, two teams that really wanted to win and play the game. Of course I think that when we were in the advantage, we should manage it better. We thought we had the game, but in football you cannot, it is never finished. We are speaking with happiness and relief. I was sent off, but rightly so, you cannot go on the pitch. I went outside it, but then just on. Someone saw me!”
Ben Fisher hit the jackpot this week. He was in situ at Molineux to witness some top-drawer entertainment, and here’s his report of a thriller!
The hat-trick hero Diogo Jota speaks some righteous truth. “This is the Premier League! Every team believes until the end. In a game you win like this, you feel great. We know Ruben Neves’s ability to put long passes in, we practice in training, we believe that the ball is going to be there, and we just have to be there and do the final touch. I thought I had missed the last opportunity, but thankfully there was another one and I could score.” He saunters off with the match ball under one arm, the man-of-the-match award in the other hand. A good day at the office!
Updated
What a game, though. Both teams had an absurd number of chances! Leicester took 16 pots at goal to Wolves’ 12. Not sure what Leicester’s defence was up to right at the end. Piling forward and leaving two at the back, with the manager’s job on the line, was just asking for trouble. And trouble came at them with extreme prejudice. After you, Claude.
It almost seems irrelevant at the moment, with the Molineux masses bouncing in joy to celebrate that sensational victory. But the win’s taken Wolves above Leicester in the Premier League table. They’re in eighth spot now, at least for a wee while. Anyway, you’ll do well to see a better match than that for a while. Both teams put on wonderful attacking displays, even if the defending sometimes left a little to be desired. But Wolves were thoroughly deserved winners, because they looked just that little bit more dangerous going forward, just that little bit more solid at the back. It’s a thin line between success and failure sometimes, and the reactions of both managers illustrated that all right: Nuno’s smile sparkled brighter than gold, while Puel buried his face in both hands.
Updated
FULL TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-3 Leicester City
Wow. Wow! The best game of this Premier League season so far, and it’s been won in dramatic circumstances by Jota’s hat-trick! Claude Puel held his head in disbelief; that late blow could have serious repercussions for the under-fire Leicester manager. But what a win for Wolves, who were magnificent today, Molineux celebrating accordingly!
RED CARD: Nuno (Wolves)
The Wolves boss came racing onto the pitch, Klopp style, to celebrate with his players. And he’s been sent packing as a result!
Updated
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-3 Leicester City (Jota 90+2)
A long rake down the right for Jimenez, another fine Neves pass. Jimenez curls a first-time ball into the middle, and Jota opens his body to slip a shot into the bottom left! What drama here!
Updated
90 min +2: Jota chases an up-and-under down the middle. He very nearly gets in between Evans and Pereira, but can’t poke the ball past Schmeichel. But then ...
90 min +1: The first extra minute is spent dealing with Iheanacho, who took a whack from Doherty there. On the touchline, Claude Puel tells his charges to take it easy. He’ll settle for this point; it might just have kept him in a job.
90 min: The corner’s hit long. Doherty rises at the far post, but is crowded out and can only send a poor header wide left from close range. There will be three added minutes of this marvellous match; if only there could be 33.
89 min: But this one’s cleared easily, and Jota goes racing down the left on the counter. He crosses. Evans can only eyebrow a clearance to Jimenez, in space on the right. Jimenez can’t get the ball down to shoot, but earns a corner. This is relentless! Can anyone find a dramatic winner?
88 min: Evans passes long down the left and Vardy earns a corner off Bennett. The magician Maddison to take.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-3 Leicester City (Morgan 87)
What a free kick from Maddison! From the right wing, he curls it towards the far post, the ball dropping to Morgan on the edge of the six-yard box. Morgan rises highest and guides a header into the top right! Leicester’s captain races off to the dugout, pointing at Puel, dedicating his goal to his manager!
Updated
86 min: Jonny is booked for another foul on Mendy. A kick on the knee, more clumsy than intentional. A free kick out on the right, and Maddison is over this one too.
85 min: Leicester try to move Wolves about. Jota tugs Mendy’s shoulder, and this is a free kick 35 yards out. Maddison is over it. He lays off to Chilwell, who chips weakly into the mixer. Wolves clear easily. That’s extremely poor.
83 min: Iheanacho comes on for Simpson.
82 min: Chilwell crosses deep from the left. Wolves don’t clear, and Pereira is able to hook the ball back from the byline to the right of goal. He finds Maddison, on the edge of the six-yard box. Maddison appears surprised, and scuffs a first-time effort wide right. A real chance there.
81 min: Gibbs-White comes on for Moutinho.
79 min: Gray wedges a pass down the left and nearly releases Vardy into the box, but the ball clacks off the striker’s heel. A cute effort. Both players hold their head in their hands; that wasn’t far from opening Wolves up.
78 min: Leicester stroke it around in Wolves territory awhile, but don’t really go anywhere, the hosts holding their shape. Admirable patience by Leicester, though, who could be forgiven for getting a bit desperate, given their manager’s plight.
Updated
76 min: Jonny drives down the Wolves left; Mendy dribbles down the Leicester right. There’s a pleasing basketball rhythm to this match now.
74 min: Gray sends a daisycutter goalwards. It’s deflected into the path of Vardy, and nearly pinballs in the direction of Maddison, who would have been clear in the area with a little luck. But the ball rolls Wolverhampton’s way, and the home side clear. Nearly an immediate impact from the Leicester sub.
73 min: Apologies to Barnes for the previous entry, because he’s now hooked for Maddison. Pulitzer, please! Meanwhile Doherty comes on for Wolves, replacing Vinagre.
72 min: Barnes bowls down the left and nearly sends Gray clear with a little dink forward. Not quite. That very early loose pass apart, Barnes has impressed today. He can take heart from his first Premier League start, whatever the result.
70 min: Jimenez grafts down the left to earn Wolves a corner. Moutinho takes. Chilwell half clears. Neves attempts an ambitious volley from 30 yards and nearly hits the corner flag on the left. He’s earned the right to take such an ambitious dig; that pass for Jota’s second was sensational.
68 min: So that Barnes equaliser ... turns out the shot was curling just wide of the right-hand post, and took a flick off Coady. So that’s an own goal. It never rains but it pours, eh Leicester fans.
66 min: Jimenez does extremely well to keep a Jonny pass in play down the right. He sprays a crossfield pass towards Vinagre on the left. Vinagre dinks into the centre. Schmeichel gets proactive and races from his line, tapping the ball out of a thicket, then hacking clear from the edge of his box. Jota goes over Schmeichel’s leg, but the keeper got there first and it wasn’t a foul. No penalty. The momentum shifts in this game have been absurd.
Updated
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 Leicester City (Jota 64)
Wolves have steadied the ship all right! And how! Simpson crosses into the Wolves box from the right. Bennett heads clear. Neves picks up possession from deep, and quarterbacks a stunning pass down the inside-left channel for Jota, who takes down, strides into the box past Morgan, and then blasts a shot through Schmeichel and into the net! Route one can be beautiful too.
Updated
63 min: Signs that Wolves have steadied the ship a little, if nothing else. Leicester were pouring forward with great regularity during the opening exchanges of the second half; now the game’s settled a bit.
61 min: So having said that, Wolves show in attack for the first time since the break. Neves scoops a pass down the inside-left channel for Jota, who enters the area looking dangerous. Jota looks to bring the ball down, but only succeeds in playing it back into Morgan’s chest. Morgan clears, though Jota goes down in the process. There’s not enough in that for a penalty, though Wolves want one.
60 min: Wolves are struggling to retain possession. Credit to Claude Puel for a thoroughly effective half-time bollocking.
58 min: Ndidi is booked for a rash slide on Moutinho. A few players now one poor challenge away from an early bath. This has been such an entertaining game, it’d be a real shame if it was decided by a red card for either side.
57 min: Gray drives down the inside-left channel and is stopped by a brave tackle from Bennett just inside the area. That was perfectly timed; it had to be. Wolves are seriously rocking here.
56 min: Leicester’s corners haven’t been much cop today, and that trend continues here.
55 min: Molineux has fallen quiet. It’s all Leicester. Chilwell battles down the left and wins a corner off Jonny.
53 min: Well that’s quite the turnaround. Perhaps we shouldn’t be totally surprised, given only Arsenal have won as many points from a losing position in the Premier League this season as Leicester (12). Wolves are stunned, and now it’s the away end making all the noise.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Leicester City (Barnes 51)
Chilwell turns on the jets and runs at Wolves down the inside-left channel. That’s one of the most determined runs you’ll see! He enters the area at great speed, threatening to break clear, but Jonny blocks. But the defender’s falling backwards, and can only flick the ball a couple of yards back up the pitch. It’s bouncing free just inside the area, and Barnes nips in to smash a low shot across Rui Patricio and into the bottom right! The power took that through the keeper and into the net, there was no stopping it!
Updated
49 min: And suddenly it’s all Leicester. Vinagre plays a poor pass inside from the Wolves left. That allows Vardy to zip towards the Leicester box, and slide a pass to Barnes, bombing in from the Leicester left. Barnes shoots hard from a tight angle, forcing Rui Patricio to tip to the ball over the bar. The resulting corner comes to nothing, but good luck guessing how this game’s going to end up.
Updated
48 min: But it’s not all good news for Leicester, because Maguire has taken a whack to the nose, and he’s replaced by Evans.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Leicester City (Gray 47)
Wolves are immediately on the front foot, Simpson gifting the ball to Jota on the left. Jota feeds Vinagre, whose cross isn’t too great. Leicester clear, and Vardy outmuscles Bennett in the centre circle to turn into space. He slips a pass wide to Gray, who immediately tears off down the inside-right channel, enters the area, and threads a shot across Rui Patricio and into the bottom left! Game immediately back on!
Updated
Leicester get the second half underway! No changes at the break.
And some half-time reading ...
Half-time viewing from ATV Land.
HALF TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Leicester City
Leicester have been half-decent in attack. But wholly dreadful at the back. As a result, Wolves could easily be out of sight. A big half-time teamtalk coming up for Claude Puel.
45 min +1: The first of two added minutes sees Wolves load the Leicester box. But the free kick’s no good. Coady goes long for Jota, who is shoved in the back by Simpson. No penalty, though you’ve seen them given. Then the same players come together in the centre circle, and Jota is booked for not very much at all. He’s incensed, and no wonder, because Simpson kicked him on the thigh when completing a boot upfield. That’s preposterous.
45 min: Leicester’s free kick is a non event, and Jota is allowed to charge back upfield on the counter. Pereira unceremoniously hacks him down from behind, and that’s a no-brainer of a booking.
Updated
44 min: But they deal with the corner well enough. They race up the other end, in the hope of reducing the arrears just before half-time. Vardy knocks the ball past Bennett down the left wing, and clatters into the defender, knowing full well he’ll earn a free kick. And Bennett goes in the book too.
43 min: Jonny bustles his way down the right and earns a corner off Chilwell. That’s wonderful harrying, though Chilwell should never have allowed that. Leicester have been pitiful at the back.
41 min: Wolves are after the third goal that would put this game to bed. Jota tries a spectacular bicycle kick from the edge of the box. It’s blocked. Then Moutinho has a shot that’s sliced miles wide right. And then Jota dribbles in from the right and runs slap into Morgan. The crowd scream for a penalty but they’re never getting that.
40 min: Vinagre glides in from the left and feeds Jimenez, who turns Maguire inside out down the channel. He makes enough space for a shot, just inside the box, but Schmeichel saves well with his feet.
38 min: Jota is this close to releasing Vinagre down the left with a crossfield rake, but Maguire does well to intercept and put a stop to Wolves’ gallop.
Updated
36 min: Vardy slides Simpson into space down the right. Simpson earns a corner, but the set piece is easily cleared, Rui Patricio and Moutinho combining to end the danger.
35 min: The game enters its first lull. It couldn’t keep going like that forever.
33 min: Vardy is slightly fortunate to get away with clumping Neves upside the head as he contests a high ball a bit too vigorously. He wanders off effing and jeffing, clearly frustrated at Leicester’s current plight.
Updated
31 min: Ndidi opens up down the left, and nearly hits the right-hand corner flag with something that could have been a cross, could have been a shot. Not really sure. No Ndidi.
29 min: Jonny should send Jimenez clear down the inside-left channel, with Wolves three on two. But the pass is no good, and Leicester, who are an utter shambles at the back, escape again.
28 min: Leicester have enjoyed 57 percent of possession, and taken eight pops at goal. They’ve attacked in numbers, entertainingly so. And yet they could easily be four goals down before the half-hour mark. Nothing’s going right for Claude Puel right now.
26 min: Leicester Could Be Three Down Now pt.II. Jimenez makes good ground down the right and, from a tight spot, whips a cross in from the byline for Jota. Morgan is sleeping, and Schmeichel does extremely well to gather Jota’s downward header on the line.
25 min: And yet they could be three down now! Jimenez slips a ball down the left for Dendoncker, who whips a magnificent low cross through the six-yard box. Schmeichel’s position isn’t great, and if Jonny had read Dendoncker’s intention, he’d have had a tap-in at the near post. But he was hanging back a bit. That was a fine, incisive move by Wolves, and a great run by Dendoncker.
24 min: Wolves have drawn a little of Leicester’s sting in the last couple of minutes, but the majority of the play is still in their half. Leicester haven’t played badly at all.
22 min: Wolves knock the ball around for a bit in the sterile style. They really need this breather. This has been a very strange, but very entertaining, opening period.
20 min: Barnes, receiving pelters from the home support on account of his sojourn at West Brom, wheels down the left and sets up Ndidi, who in turn tees up Gray; his shot sails wide. Then Simpson sends Pereira off down the right; he tees up Gray again, but once more no luck. Leicester have now had eight attempts on goal, while Wolves have made just the three. That’s the joy of football, right there.
18 min: Pereira drives down the middle and slips a pass down the inside-left channel for Gray, who fires a shot towards the bottom right. Rui Patricio fingertips it round the post for a corner that, you guessed it, isn’t up to much. But the visitors are in this game all right, despite the scoreline.
16 min: That corner isn’t up to much either. But Leicester, despite being two goals adrift already, are looking dangerous in attack. They come back at Wolves yet again, Chilwell winning a third corner in short order down the left. It comes to nothing, but that completes a passage of play that will give Leicester a little hope of getting out of this mess.
15 min: Leicester’s corner isn’t all that, but Rui Patricio makes another mistake with the ball at his feet, sending a clearance straight to Barnes. Leicester come straight back at Wolves, the ball slipped right for Gray, who shoots diagonally for the bottom left. That’s deflected out for another corner.
14 min: On the touchline, Claude Puel is beyond anger, throwing semaphore shapes and screaming abuse at his players. “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” trill the Wolves fans. Barnes responds with a shot from distance. It’s deflected out for a corner.
Updated
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Leicester City (Bennett 12)
Coady rakes a glorious long pass down the inside-left channel to send Jota into an awful lot of space. Jota wins a corner, which Moutinho takes long. Bennett rises above a flat-footed Maguire, and plants a header into the top right! Once again, Schmeichel had no chance, and this is a superb start by Wolves! Star soccer!
10 min: Maguire’s back up and about.
9 min: Jota threatens to break clear down the inside-right channel, but he’s stopped in his tracks by Maguire. The ball squirts through to Schmeichel and the danger is gone, though Maguire’s hurt himself there and is down receiving treatment. Meanwhile here’s Gary Naylor, coming straight at you from the 1970s: “A drizzly day in ATV Land? I literally (and involuntarily) heard Hugh Johns’ voice in my mind when I read that. Thank you for that Proustian rush.” Wait until I start banging on about Hartley Hare.
7 min: Both of these teams are all over the shop! Gray breaks out of a brouhaha and reaches the byline down the left. His cross is blocked by Moutinho for a corner. From the set piece, Maguire rises highest in the six-yard box, but the ball slaps off his grid and over the bar. A fine chance spurned.
5 min: Rui Patricio nearly gifts Leicester and immediate equaliser! He faffs around with the ball at his feet, taking way too long to weigh up his options. Vardy nips in and nearly rounds him on the right, but can’t slot home from a tight angle and the keeper does just enough to recover. This is a wonderfully entertaining start!
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Leicester City (Jota 4)
Leicester clear the corner easily enough. But Gray loses the ball in the midfield, and Moutinho’s racing down the right as a result. He crosses into the centre. Jota nips in ahead of a snoozing Simpson, and sidefoots powerfully into the right-hand side of goal! Schmeichel had no chance!
Updated
3 min: Vinagre makes ground down the right and pulls the ball back from the byline. Neves, racing in from deep, meets the pass 25 yards from goal, and sends a first-time power curler towards the top right. It’s a sensational effort, and one tipped round the post in similar style by Schmeichel. Corner, from which ...
Here we go, then! The home heroes get the party started. A drizzly day in ATV Land. And it’s not long before a loose Barnes pass allows Jimenez to tear down the right. Mendy comes in to clatter, and that’s the earliest of early yellow cards. Not an ideal first touch for the Premier League debut starter.
The teams are out! Wolves are in their storied old gold, while Leicester sport their famous blue. Hi ho, Wolverhampton, we’ll be off in a minute. In the meantime, and speaking of shirts, here’s our old pal Mac Millings. “My real concern about that dressing room pic isn’t the horror of the folding job that’s been done on the kit (although I can, in truth, barely bring myself even to look at it). Instead, I’m wondering why Harvey Barnes has been given an entire roll of toilet paper. Perhaps of more concern is the fact that his neighbour to our right doesn’t have one. Has he used the whole thing up already?”
And now it’s the turn of Claude Puel. “It will be fascinating to see how Harvey Barnes starts the game. He has good qualities. I hope he can give his best, with the character and personality he showed at West Bromwich. We have shown a lot of quality in other games and now we have to find a good consistency. We can go seventh and that is our only focus today.”
Nuno speaks to Sky Sports, and is asked why Matt Doherty isn’t in the starting XI. “Cos Jonny’s gonna play. Options, options, I’m always trying to better the team. We are totally confident that the decisions we make are the right ones. We have a small squad but a versatile enough one to know that when a player is missing we have other options, and we can maintain our performance. Today is a tough challenge, Leicester is a good team and we look forward to playing them.”
Harvey Barnes makes his first start in the Premier League for Leicester City today. This is what the 21-year-old midfielder will find in the Molineux away dressing room. Hopefully superstition isn’t an issue for the young man, because the way his shirt’s been folded, the bottom of the numbers aren’t in view. And those socks have been paired to different lengths. It’s chaos. Who could concentrate in the face of such disorder? I’d be spinning like a top. A free bottle of calming isotonic pop, though, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
Updated
Two changes for Wolves off the back of their 3-0 defeat at the Etihad. Romain Saiss and Ruben Vinagre take the place of the suspended Willy Boly and the benched Matt Doherty, neither of whom particularly covered themselves in glory on Monday night.
Leicester make three changes to the team that lost 2-1 at home to Southampton last Saturday. Danny Simpson, Demarai Gray and Harvey Barnes replace James Maddison, Marc Albrighton and Hamza Choudhary, who all drop to the bench. Barnes, who impressed on his recent loan spell at West Brom, makes his first Premier League start for the club.
The teams
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Rui Patricio, Bennett, Coady, Dendoncker, Jonny, Saiss, Neves, Ruben Vinagre, Joao Moutinho, Jimenez, Jota.
Subs: Doherty, Ivan Cavaleiro, Helder Costa, Gibbs-White, John Ruddy, Giles, Traore.
Leicester City: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Maguire, Chilwell, Mendy, Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira, Gray, Barnes, Vardy.
Subs: Evans, Iheanacho, Maddison, Albrighton, Ward, Fuchs, Choudhury.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire).
Preamble
Wolverhampton Wanderers are one of the success stories of the season. No doubt about that. Last year’s Championship winners are in no danger of going back down. Nuno Espirito Santo’s team can beat the best of them on their day: they’ve taken a point off the champions Manchester City, won at Spurs, and knocked league leaders Liverpool out of the cup. The 1954, 1958 and 1959 champions of England are back, baby!
Even so, their recent form hasn’t been so hot. Beating Tottenham just after Christmas was some result, but it’s their only win in their last five Premier League outings. That sequence has seen them well beaten at home by Liverpool and Crystal Palace, scrape a draw at Fulham, and lose heavily at Manchester City. They could do with a big result here to get themselves back into the top half of the table.
Midlands rivals Leicester City may well oblige. The 2016 Premier League winners been dismal of late, losing at home in the league to Cardiff and Southampton, and getting themselves knocked out of the FA Cup by Newport, the biggest shock of the third round. Claude Puel isn’t popular with the punters and the pressure is rising. He’ll take heart from the way his unpredictable side occasionally hit a rich seam of form - they saw off Manchester City on Boxing Day, then won at Chelsea. Also the Foxes have only lost two of their last 13 matches against Wolves, a run that includes a 2-0 win at the start of this campaign and victory on penalties in the League Cup to boot.
Not so easy to predict this one, then. That’s 11th versus eighth for you. It’s on!
Kick off: 12.30pm GMT.
Updated
