Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Manchester United

Molineux Stadium is the venue as relegation-battling Wolverhampton Wanderers and top-four hopefuls Manchester United lock horns in a high-stakes Premier League contest.

After dispatching lower-league Gillingham in the Carabao Cup 2-0, Julen Lopetegui marked his touchline debut in the Premier League with a dramatic 2-1 win at Everton on Boxing Day. Rayan Ait Nouri’s stoppage-time heroics at Goodison Park helped Wolves arrest an abysmal five-match winless league run (D1, L4) and reduce the gap on safety to just one point. However, there’s no time to celebrate, as the ‘Wanderers’ are experiencing their worst top-flight start since a fateful 2003/04 top-flight relegation season. On top of that, Wolves have lost three previous three home league outings on the bounce by an aggregate score of 9-2, while they became the last side to reach a 10-goal landmark in the Premier League this term on Boxing Day!

In the meantime, Manchester United eased past Nottingham forest 3-0 in midweek Premier League action, extending their winning league streak to three matches and whittling down the gap on fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur to a single point. Yet after beating Fulham 2-1 on their latest top-flight travel, the ‘Red Devils’ could record back-to-back away league victories for the first time since August, highlighting their form woes on the road. Despite winning 50% of their Premier League fixtures on the road under Erik ten Hag (W4, D1, L3), each of those triumphs yielded a single-goal margin, suggesting they lack conviction outside Old Trafford. Another one-goal margin win would do, though, as Man United could make history on New Year’s Eve by beating Wolves in three consecutive away league H2Hs for the first time.