Wolves Vs West Brom: Big Bet Preview

Wolves Vs West Brom
(SUN 20th Sep, 12:00PM UK - Sky Sports)

Somewhere deep in the Black Country, a beast is stirring. The locals have only heard tales and whispers of such a creature passed down through generations, and it hasn’t reared its head for centuries. Until now. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s Black Country Derby weekend! The way people have been going on, you’d think these two hadn’t played for a lifetime. In reality, it’s been 5 years since they last met in the Premier League, and they faced off in the FA Cup in 2024! It is, however, the first meeting between the two at second tier level since 2008. Obama was president, Britney Spears was in the charts, and Derby County were a (record-breakingly bad) Premier League side. Good times. Media-fuelled false narrative aside, these two really do properly hate each other, and it’s bound to be a brilliant watch for the neutral. Be careful who you side with in this week’s Big Bet, you’ll incur the wrath of whichever team’s fans you bet against. Unless, of course, you go for a draw. Boring.

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To have a game of this magnitude early on in the season that already feels like it has loads riding on it is a real treat. West Brom have started brilliantly after their shambolic 25/26 season and find themselves in 4th place after 7 games, only separated from top spot by goal difference. This will seem like something of a miracle if you watched your team play West Brom at any point last year before James Morrison took charge, as they were absolutely dreadful up until his interim appointment dragged them to safety. Having a club legend at the helm can go one of two ways, and it looks like the Baggies have avoided a heartbreaking disaster thus far, the perfect way for Morrison to cement himself even further into WBA folklore would be an away win at their bitterest rivals.

Wolves had a similarly awful time of it last season, finally succumbing to the slow creep of relegation after 8 years in the top flight as they failed to properly reinvest and build a competent side capable of survival. They were just 21 points from safety in the end, and had they had played 78 league games at their ppg rate last season they might have just pipped Spurs to survival. What I’m trying to say is, they were poor. Relegated teams are usually tipped for big things the following year, but Luton and Leicester fans will be the first to tell you that dropping down a level isn’t all 5-0 home victories against teams with less than half of your financial capabilities, there’s always a danger of the hangover bleeding through into the new season. To stop the rot, Wolves got rid of Rob Edwards, the man that seemed purposefully hired to engineer Championship promotion, and replaced him with the as-yet-untested at this level Cesar Peixoto. Things have gone well, to a point, and Wolves now find themselves in 7th, 3 points behind Albion with a game in hand. It’s hard to work out if they’ve actually been good, or their breadth of attacking talent is just so much stronger than the rest of the division that they can win games on player capability alone. One thing they have been rubbish at is defending, particularly when it comes to making big errors. Always an exciting thought heading into a high pressure game. 

We love hatred here at Tipple, and there aren’t many games in the EFL with quite as much zing as this one. Will the Baggies be boing boing bouncing into work on Monday morning? Or will a comfortable victory leave Wolves fans howling with laughter? It’s huge, it’s nasty, it’s the Big Bet!

Form

It’s still so early that it’s hard to get a read on almost anyone in the Championship. Nobody has really blown the division to pieces so far, and we’re left picking over middling form tables to try and work out who has the edge coming into this weekend’s action.

Wolves started strongly, but since their 4-1 win at home to Stoke they’ve stuttered. They took a 4-2 shellacking from West Ham in a big game in the promotion race before travelling to another rival in Birmingham and drawing 2-2. They were probably the better side against Blues and, had it not been for a comedy own goal, may have even won the game, but these two results highlight a problem. These were two huge games, and Wolves just couldn’t get a result over the line. They went to Sheffield United the following week and won 1-0 in a game that meant very little, before losing 1-0 in midweek to Everton in the cup. It’s all well and good being able to pick up wins against the mid table sides, but we’re get to see any evidence that this Wolves side can put a performance together when it really counts. Maybe they’re just homesick after 6 away trips in their last 7 games!

Great news! West Brom have only conceded twice in 4 games! Bad news. West Brom have only scored 4 times in 4 games. The Albion’s early season attacking prowess seems to have tempered slightly, but in it’s place is a newfound defensive solidity that could serve them well against a side like Wolves. Wolves will certainly gift West Brom chances if they continue to defend how they have been doing, so it’s down to their forward line to convert them when they come their way. The Baggies are unbeaten in 4, with two 1-1 draws sandwiching two 1-0 wins, and they are cementing themselves as a formidable force in this season’s Championship.

Will it be West Brom’s steady solidity or Wolves’ manic box-to-box action that sways you this week?

Head-to-head

West Brom famously beat Wolves home and away in the 2007 play-off semi-finals, before losing 1-0 to a stunningly well-worked team goal at Wembley, and since then the clubs have only met on 9 further occasions. There have been 3 draws, 4 West Brom wins, and 2 victories for Wolves. One of those Wolverhampton wins was when they were a league above their rivals and played in the FA Cup, but they all count!

All in all, West Brom have had the better end of this particular stick in recent memory, even managing to win 3-2 away at Wolves in one of just 5 wins they managed all season in their most recent Premier League relegation campaign. If Don Cesar wants to prove his ability to take Wolves back to the big time, a win over their mortal enemies in a big clash at the sharp end of the league would be a great place to start. 

Key Matchup

Fer Lopez vs Nat Phillips

The young Spanish forward returned to Wolves after spending the latter half of last season back on loan at Celta Vigo and has set the Championship alight. He has 3 goals and 2 assists across his first 6 games at the level, but that doesn’t even tell the full story. Lopez one of the silkiest dribblers in the division, boasts amazing passing numbers, and isn’t shy getting stuck into a tackle every now and then while he’s at it. To have a player as capable as Fer Lopez in all aspects of attacking play is an amazing luxury for Wolves. He can win the ball high, and when he does he offers the triple threat of being able to pick out a perfect pass to a teammate, dribble through the defence to create more space, or simply use his quality finishing ability to score the goal himself. How do you stop a player like that?

Well, you might want to get your resident big lump to go crashing through him. That’s being harsh, Nat Phillips is much than a big lump. I mean don’t get me wrong, he is a big lump, but he’s more technically gifted than he looks. After multiple loan spells of varying success levels, Phillips secured himself a permanent move away from Liverpool last summer to West Brom and has looked at home in the Championship. Even through the hard times last season, Phillips stood out as one of the few Albion players who could hold their head high. He gives his all in every game he plays, and he is a fantastic defender for the level. Maybe being forced into those Champions League nights at the San Siro marking Zlatan when Liverpool had no fit centre halves has rubbed off on him.

Lopez has buckets of talent, but he’ll have to get through big Nat if he wants to show it off.  As Liam Gallagher’s son in law, Phillips will be hoping he’s more of a Wonderwall than a Wall of Glass this weekend. 

Preview

Which of Wolves and West Brom will take home the W this weekend? It’s a huge game at the top, even for this early in the season, and it’s always important to get one over on your rivals no matter the context.

This result could be the one that starts to help form opinions on each of these teams. I’m still unsure of Wolves’ chops when push comes to shove in high-pressure games, but a win this weekend could give them the belief to push on. As for West Brom, beating a top team as full of talent as their noisy neighbours’ squad is would be a significant marker in their recovery from last season’s shambles. They’re back at the top, and they’re here to stay.

Will all that in mind, and after hours of deliberating, I’m going for a draw. Boooo! Boooo! I know, I know. It’s never popular, but I just can’t separate them. Derby days are always unpredictable anyway, any analysis renders itself fairly moot when so much emotion gets involved.

I’ve chickened out of falling on either side of the Black Country fence, are you braver than me? Who have you got prevailing in this weekend’s Big Bet?