Bournemouth are always going to be a tricky opposition but Nuno and his Wolves have packed another three points on Saturday. This stands their third win in a row and many Wolverhampton fans would be over the moon watching their performances week-in-week-out.
Bournemouth did make The men in Orange to work hard, they would expect to lay this into bed far too early but that was not the case against Eddie Howe’s Cherries. The outcome was something which many of the reliable betting sites across Europe predicted it to turn out, although the most satisfying of all from Wolves point of view is watching Raul Jimenez perform.
Raul Jimenez, probably the centre of the talk coming into the game, delivered as expected and showed exactly ‘Why he is valued so high’. The technicality complemented by the chemistry he has with players around him, just a pleasure to watch.
Wolves did open up Bournemouth on multiple occasions – Diego Jota had a commendable first half before injury and his replacement, Helder Costa just grew into the game.
Talking about goals; Wolves only took twelve minutes to make their mark on the game, rather cheaply though. Bournemouth have away the ball to Jota from a throw-in in their own half. Jota broke in diagonally with pace and precision went with a cross into the box (which I think was more of a shot luckily falling in-line rather than cross) and Jimenez was on the other end to make sure the ball rolls past Begovic and into the net.
Wolves did have that lead, but had to wait until the injury time before the final whistle to get the cushion second. The attack for this one started from defense with Coady heading the clearance down to Cavaleiro which was followed by a brilliant one-two with Costa, the ball was behind Bournemouth’s defence and Cavaleiro was one-on-one with Asmir Begovic, who was beaten on the driven.
I think the temperature was more challenging than the opponent, but to be honest, Wolves were playing better in the first half of the season and the quality, in my opinion, is starting to fade. You don’t see, those tactical switches mid-match, or those fake runs in the final third and mainly those admirable ‘personality defining’ short passes.
Nothing to take away from Nuno and his boys, 9 points in the Premier League in 10 days is something magnificent-but also their 2018/19 stats, but to continue with this they need to step up and focus. Legs start to tire up now and the challenges get tougher day by day.
