Wolves failed to earn a priceless first Premier League victory of the season after letting in a late equaliser against Brighton, drawing 1-1 and seeing their top-flight H2H run without a victory stretch to eight matches (D3, L5).
Key stats
- Brighton have won seven points from losing positions in the Premier League this season, more than any other team
- Wolverhampton Wanderers have failed to win in their last 11 games in the Premier League, their last longer winless streak was from May 4th, 2024 to November 2nd, 2024, a run of 13 games
- Wolverhampton Wanderers have lost seven points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, only Brentford (eight) have lost more
Highlights
Analysis
Brighton's Jan Paul van Hecke netted his side's leveller late on and completed 74/85 (87 per cent) of his passes against Wolves. (edited)
Brighton has the lion's share of momentum at Molineux and deserved to come away with at least a point.
Match report
The contest started scrappily, with arguably the biggest potential opening in the first 10 minutes coming when Jan Paul van Hecke’s attempted clearance hit João Gomes and was collected by Marshall Munetsi, who fed Hwang Hee-chan, but the South Korean elected not to shoot and couldn’t pick out Jørgen Strand Larsen either.
Wolves then received a red card, but it was given to their head coach rather than any of their players, seemingly following Vítor Pereira’s reaction to the non-award of a free-kick to the hosts.
He may not have got to his new vantage point by the time that his side took the lead, as seconds later, a Jhon Arias delivery was flicked on by Strand Larsen and not sufficiently headed away by Danny Welbeck, with Munetsi following up with a wonderful volley that was pushed onto the bar by Bart Verbruggen, which unfortunately for the Dutchman, then went in off his back.
Moments afterwards, Verbruggen was forced to keep out Ladislav Krejčí’s header, while at the other end, Jackson Tchatchoua’s underhit pass to Sam Johnstone was almost capitalised on by Brajan Gruda.
Fabian Hürzeler opted to make a change at HT, bringing on Georginio Rutter for the out-of-sorts Carlos Baleba.
However, it was Wolves who had the first big chance of the second half, with Arias wastefully firing over from Hugo Bueno’s cutback.
Johnstone was duly called on to make a phenomenal save as he just managed to paw away Rutter’s effort from Yankuba Minteh’s cross.
To shore things up defensively, Emmanuel Agbadou was sent on for Wolves in place of Hwang, but the West Midlanders’ approach seemed to be inviting more pressure, even if Brighton were not making the most of the possession that they had.
Against the run of play, Strand Larsen struck a post as Molineux groaned, and that moment proved pivotal, as Wolves switched off from a short corner late on, with Van Hecke heading home from substitute Maxim De Cuyper’s cross.
The result means that Brighton are now on a four-game unbeaten run in all competitions (W2, D2) as they sit 12th ahead of Brentford against Manchester City, while Wolves stew after letting in another late goal having been pegged back by Tottenham last weekend.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ladislav Krejčí (Wolves)
Post-match comments
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler to Sky Sports:
"I think we started quite well, we controlled the game and had chances, but made an easy mistake and conceded out of nowhere. We lost a bit of our rhythm, and Wolves had confidence.
"We always tried, never gave up. Overall, we are not happy with a point, but we know why we didn't win and have positives to take on. We have to analyse, push on and continue."