English Premier
2021-09-18 - Wolves vs Brentford
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 18th September 2021 - Kick Off 12:30pm
This game is live on TV
Wolves
If points were awarded for performance and chances created you might have expected to see Wolves topping the early Premier League table. Bruno Lage may have been getting a sense of deja vu after seeing his Wolves team continue to create opportunities in the final third without hitting the back of the net, but his team finally made the breakthrough at Watford last weekend.
The victory has pushed Wolves up to 13th in the Premier League table and it was the first win of the season. They will be returning home this weekend and will be playing in front of the television cameras again as Wolves look to improve their 0-0-2 record at Molineux. The side have lost their opening two League games here by the same 0-1 scoreline.
Wolves have beaten Nottingham Forest in the League Cup Second Round, but they had lost 6 Premier League games in a row before the win at Vicarage Road last Saturday. They have lost 6 of their last 8 Premier League games at Molineux including the last 3 in a row. Wolves have also not had a clean sheet in any of their last 5 Premier League games at Molineux.
There look to be no new injury concerns for the manager ahead of this League fixture.
Brentford
An injury time winner has consigned Brentford to their first Premier League defeat of the season and Thomas Frank will be looking for his team to show some resolve and bounce back immediately. There are some difficult fixtures ahead for the newly promoted club and the manager will be looking for better in the final third from his team if they are going to pick up any points from the tougher looking games coming up.
The Bees are 10th in the Premier League table and they have picked up 5 points so far this season, but they have only scored 3 goals in their 4 Premier League games played. They have a 0-2-0 record away from home in the League where Brentford have scored and conceded 1 goal.
Brentford had been unbeaten in 6 games in all competitions and they had won 4 of those fixtures before the 0-1 defeat to Brighton at the Brentford Community Stadium last Saturday. The side have only been beaten in 1 of their last 9 away games in all competitions and Brentford have earned draws at Crystal Palace and Aston Villa in the top flight.
Mads Sorensen and Joshua Dasilva are both expected to miss out.
Head to Head
Wolves and Brentford last met in the 2017/18 Championship season and it was Wolves who took four points from those League matches.
Wolves have won 3 of the last 4 at home against Brentford including a 3-0 win when they last met here in January 2018.
Prediction
There will be plenty for these two clubs to look at from the early season fixtures and they will largely be happy with what the players have produced.
Bruno Lage's Wolves were finally rewarded for a very positive start to the season with a first win of the campaign. They have deserved so much more than they have gotten from the early fixtures, but Lage will be still be demanding his players work on their finishing which has been letting them down.
Last Saturday they finally took a couple of chances in the 0-2 win at Watford, while Wolves continue to play well defensively. They are not giving up a lot of chances and Wolves fans will head to Molineux expecting to see a first win of the season.
Brentford are a team that has to be respected, but Thomas Frank has to be a little concerned with the attacking side of their game. The side have scored a single goal in 3 Premier League games and Brentford are not exactly creating a lot of chances in their recent games either.
Defensively they can be stubborn and hard to break down and only an injury time goal prevented Brentford from making it 4 unbeaten in the Premier League. While there are questions about them in the final third, Brentford have produced encouraging displays defensively, although the fixture list looks much more difficult in the coming weeks than in the opening month.
It will be a challenge for Thomas Frank to pick his players up after the setback of last Saturday and Brentford are going to have to weather a storm that Wolves have brought against every opponent they have faced this season. Containing the home team will not be easy considering how effective they have been at creating chances and much is going to depend on how efficient Wolves are in front of goal.
Wolves are not easy to trust when you think of some of the glaring misses and they needed an own goal to get going at Vicarage Road. Brentford will not give anything away easily, but I think Wolves have the momentum of the win at Watford behind them and I do think they can back that victory up with another this weekend.
Goals may be hard to come by, but the feeling is that Wolves are going to create the better chances and it feels like the win last weekend will be important to them going forward.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Wolves 1-0 Brentford
