This is Wolves' worst start to a season in their history but there are reasons to be optimistic
Four games, zero points and just two goals scored: this is Wolves' worst start to a season in their history. Vítor Pereira's side are rooted at the bottom of the league table. Seventeen sides have started a Premier League season with four losses and just eight have avoided relegation. More worryingly, only one of the past five have managed to stay up: Everton last season.
Three straight one-goal defeats in the league - 1-0 to Bournemouth, 3-2 to Everton and 1-0 to Newcastle - show Wolves are losing by fine margins. Is this a blip or are there deeper problems? Either way, with the three promoted teams coming up in the next five weeks, they need points quickly. Wolves are not getting blown away but there is a clear pattern from their opening games: self-inflicted errors, a lack of cutting edge up front and a disjointed structure that collapses under pressure.
Losing Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri - who together scored 35% of their 54 league goals last season - in the same summer was bound to hurt their attacking intent. Wolves are the league's third-lowest scorers with just two goals; they are bottom in the xG table with 2.6; and they are bottom in the big chances table with just two.
Their defeat to Newcastle on Saturday was the starkest example of their lack of sharpness up front. They burst out of the blocks and created chances in the opening exchanges, Rodrigo Gomes forcing a fingertip save, and a last-gasp sliding challenge from Fabian Schär preventing Tolu Arokodare from scoring on his debut. However, after going in 1-0 down at the break, Wolves came out for the second half and did not have another shot until the 89th minute. They finished the half with just 0.09 xG despite having 46% possession - not what you would expect from a side chasing a game.
Losing Aït-Nouri and Cunha has ripped the drive out of Wolves' attack. Last season those two players provided 13 asists between them and ranked among the league's best for take-ons, progressive carries and goal-creating actions - areas where Wolves now rank near the bottom in the league. Shorn of their creativity, Wolves look static and predictable, lacking the spark to break lines or sustain pressure. They have increasingly resorted to long balls and crosses but, with their target man Jørgen Strand Larsen sidelined with an achilles injury and no one stepping up to fill his boots, this approach often comes to nothing.
Wolves are also struggling at the other end of the pitch, conceding nine goals (only West Ham have conceded more). When Pereira took over from Gary O'Neil in December 2024, he turned a panicky, error-prone backline into a calmer, more compact unit. He stuck with the same 3-4-2-1 every week, gave players clear roles and settled the team. They began to look more structured, composed and made fewer erratic decisions, resulting in fewer shots conceded (14.6 per game under O'Neil down to 10.7 under Pereira last season) and fewer goals conceded (2.5 per game under O'Neil down to 1.3 under Pereira).
But that composure has begun to falter and errors have started to creep back in, from Emmanuel Agbadou's loose pass that gifted Tijjani Reijnders a goal for Manchester City, to a failure to close down Jacob Murphy and track Nick Woltemade's back-post run that allowed Newcastle to score from a simple cross. The avoidable errors that plagued the team towards the end of O'Neil's tenure are resurfacing, with the backline looking unstructured. The lack of cohesion is reflected in the numbers; they are conceding 13.75 shots and 2.23 goals per games this season.
It is no surprise the side look disjointed at times. Since their 4-0 defeat to Manchester City on the opening weekend, Wolves have handed debuts to six summer signings. Pereira lost seven first-team regulars in the summer window and seems to be grappling with many of the same issues he faced when he first took charge. He has made more substitutions (20) than any other manager this season. The team look unsettled at the back, roles are undefined and players seem to be learning on the job.
The good news is that Wolves are accustomed to recovering from slow starts. They did not win any of their first 10 games last season but stayed up comfortably. Since 2018, they have played 23 matches in August, losing 14 and winning just one. Over the last four seasons, they have not managed more than three points from their opening four games. Fans can take some comfort from the fact that, despite these slow starts, they are now in their eighth consecutive Premier League season.
Wolves find themselves at a crossroads. With important players missing, new signings still bedding in and crucial fixtures against the three newly promoted sides on the horizon, the next few weeks will define whether Pereira can steady the ship or if their worst ever start spirals into a season-long battle against relegation.