Wolves secured bragging right over local rivals Aston Villa with a 2-1 derby win that lifted them up into eighth in the Premier League table.
Ruben Neves curled in a superbly taken opener as Wolves boss the first half, and Raul Jimenez sealed the points six minutes from time when he finished off a lightning break from Adam Traore.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have made a relatively slow start to the season with the Europa League no doubt playing a part, but they started this derby match strongly.
Villa suffered an early blow when back-up keeper Jed Steer limped out early on leave third-choice Orjan Nyland with the task of keeping Wolves out.
The home side were dominant throughout, and managed to go in at half time ahead for the first time this season when João Moutinho cleverly cut a free kick on the right edge of the box back for the lurking Neves.
As he’s shown time and time again, Neves is a wonderful finishes from outside the box, and he made no mistake when curling the ball into the corner four minutes before the break.
Villa came on strong towards the end of the game, forcing Wolves’ back to the walls on more than one occasion, but just as they pressed for an equaliser, Traore sprung free and the jet-heeled winger raced away down the right, cutting the ball back for Jimenez to fire home expertly.
Trezeguet pulled a goal back for the visitors deep into injury time but it was too little too late for Villa.
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 – 1 Aston Villa Opta stats
- Wolves picked up their first top-flight home victory against Aston Villa in 10 games (W1 D3 L6), since a 3-1 win in May 1978.
- Wolves have only lost one of their last 14 Premier League home games (W8 D5), a 2-5 loss to Chelsea in September.
- Aston Villa have only kept one clean sheet in their last 24 Premier League matches on the road, a 0-0 draw with West Brom in January 2016.
- Rúben Neves has now scored 14 goals for Wolves in all competitions, with 11 of those coming from outside the box.
- Amongst Premier League players, only Raheem Sterling (14) has scored more goals in all competitions this season than Wolves’ Raúl Jiménez (13), who netted on his 50th Premier League appearance.
- Since the start of last season, João Moutinho has provided more Premier League assists than any other Wolves player (11). In fact, only Matt Jarvis (13) and Kevin Doyle (12) have registered more assists in PL history for Wolves than Moutinho (11).
- Aston Villa’s Jed Steer made only his second Premier League appearance (which lasted just eight minutes), 1631 days after his first in May 2015 (v Burnley) - it's the largest gap between two appearances for a Villa player in the competition's history.
- Aston Villa boss Dean Smith is winless in five league meetings with Wolves (D1 L4), since defeating them 3-0 as Brentford manager in a Championship tie in February 2016.
