Wolverhampton Wanderers vs West Ham United

High-flying West Ham United will be looking to pick up where they left off before the international break when they take on Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux Stadium.

A dismal 2-0 away defeat to Crystal Palace on the eve of the international break knocked Wolverhampton down from a five-game unbeaten run in the Premier League (W4, D1). Coming back to Molineux after three weeks, Wolves will be gunning for their third consecutive top-flight home win for the first time since November 1980. Scoring first could be of the utmost importance here, as each of Wolves’ five Premier League home games won/lost this season witnessed the winner on the day draw first blood (W2, L3). Though they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last eight top-flight outings on home turf, it’s worth noting that they’ve conceded more than once on just two occasions in that run of games.

Meanwhile, West Ham headed into the international break on the back of a 3-2 home win over Liverpool. They currently sit in third in the Premier League standings, only three points adrift of pacesetters Chelsea. What’s more, the ‘Hammers’ have won their last four Premier League matches by an aggregate score of 9-3 and could make it five top-flight wins in a row for the first time since February 2006. David Moyes’ men must be relishing their chances of making that happen, having avoided defeat in their last 11 competitive outings away from home (W8, D3), their longest ever undefeated such run as a top-flight club. Last season, West Ham completed their first league double over Wolves since 1922/23 and could now win three successive league matches against this opposition for the first time since 1958.