Wolves 4 Watford 0 - Report

After three consecutive Premier League defeats the supporters were demanding a reaction and in just eight first half minutes, the Wolves players obliged.

Raul Jimenez turned home from close range to give the hosts the lead, before a Cucho Hernandez own-goal and a Daniel Podence strike – following a calamitous error from goalkeeper Ben Foster – put Wolves in the driving seat.

For the remainder of the half and most of the second, Wolves were in cruise control. The struggling visitors could barely lay a glove on them and the hosts did not have to get out of first gear to secure the three points.

Ruben Neves added a late fourth goal too, with an exquisite chip over Foster.

Bruno Lage made four changes from the defeat to Crystal Palace, but stuck with the 3-4-3 formation.

Willy Boly came in for his first Premier League appearance of the season and his first game since September and replaced Max Kilman, who dropped to the bench.

Jonny Castro Otto, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Jimenez also came in, as Ki-Jana Hoever missed out with injury and Fernando Marcal and Pedro Neto dropped to the bench. Hoever’s injury also made room for Luke Cundle to return to the bench.

Roy Hodgson made one change to his side and stuck with the 4-3-3 formation.

Joao Pedro tested the positive for Covid-19 the day before the game and was not involved, as Josh King took his place.

The most noteworthy event of the first 10 minutes was a cut Jonny sustained just above his left eye. After the officials noticed his bleeding, the wing-back was forced off to get it cleared up and change his shirt, which left Wolves with just 10 men for around five minutes.

But upon his return Wolves attempted to get the ball down and after 12 minutes they took the lead. Some nice link-up play between Jimenez and Hwang Hee-chan saw the latter pounce on a loose ball in the box, play a low pass to Jimenez who then neatly finished into the bottom corner from five yards.

Wolves were playing some delightful attacking football and shortly after the first goal, they made it two. An intelligent dummy from Podence had Jonny racing down the right. He crossed and found Ait-Nouri, who attempted to pull the ball back across goal, but Hernandez diverted it into his own net from close range.

It was one-way traffic and just as quickly as the first two goals came, a third arrived. Goalkeeper Foster took a poor touch and was closed down by Jimenez. He then scuffed his clearance straight to Podence who finished into an empty net from more than 30 yards.

Watford were all over the place in defence but should have pulled a goal back when King was played in, however he blazed over the bar.

After racing into a lead the Molineux crowd fell silent as the team took their foot off the gas, perhaps shocked at how easily they were able to find the net. As a result, Lage began gesturing to the crowd to make more noise while holding up three fingers to indicate the scoreline.

Wolves coasted into half-time with their comprehensive lead in-tact after some scintillating attacking football in the opening stages of the first half.

The start of the second half was a fairly quiet affair, until Foster almost handed Wolves another goal. In a carbon copy of the strike he handed to Podence, another terrible kick from the goalkeeper once again landed at the winger’s feet, but this time he was close to the half-way line and Foster was able to recover and stop the long-range effort.

Wolves had a handful of chances and were easily cutting through the Watford defence, without ever really getting out of first gear. The visitors, too, were making it easy with a toothless attack and a disastrous defence.

Lage was not holding back on his attacking substitutions, however, as Neto came on after an hour and Fabio Silva was introduced 10 minutes later. Hwang and Jimenez were replaced, with one eye on Sunday’s clash with Everton.

Neto and Silva both came close in the closing stages, too, but were a whisker away from adding to the scoreline.

But the fourth goal finally came in the 85th minute when Neves picked the ball up on the edge of the box, took a touch and delightfully chipped Foster who was two yards off his line.

That moment of genius sealed a superb victory for Wolves who once again made a notch on the win column.

Wolves: Sa, Boly, Coady, Saiss, Jonny (Chiquinho, 81), Neves, Moutinho, Ait-Nouri, Podence, Jimenez (Silva, 71), Hwang (Neto, 61).

Subs not used: Ruddy, Kilman, Marcal, Cundle, Dendoncker, Trincao.

Watford: Foster, Femenia (Kabasele, 30), Cathcart, Samir, Kamara, Sissoko, Louza, Cleverley (Etebo, 73), Hernandez, Dennis, King (Kalu, 45).

Subs not used: Bachmann, Masina, Sema, Sierralta, Kucka, Kayembe.