Wolves travel to Stoke on Tuesday night knowing they missed a golden opportunity to ease their relegation fears against Fulham on Saturday. They must now win at a ground which has been described as a ‘bear pit’ if they are to climb out of the relegation zone.
While most Stoke fans will be concentrating on May 15 and the FA Cup final, manager Tony Pulis will be more concerned with picking up the handful of points they need to make sure of Premier League football for another season.
How pivotal the draw against Fulham was for Wolves won’t be discovered until the dust has settled on this season. 1-0 up and with ten minutes left Mick McCarthy’s side were looking good to scramble out of the relegation zone. That was until Andrew Johnson popped up with a late equaliser and let all the air out of Molineux.
After such a disappointing result Wolves haven’t got long to pick themselves back up and put a winning formula together ahead of the derby with Stoke.
Tuesday’s trip to the Britannia Stadium is their game in hand over the majority of the relegation strugglers around them. But the Britannia isn’t exactly the place you want to go when you are looking for nice, easy away day.
Stoke have lost just four times at home all season, picking up maximum points in half of their games on their own turf. Contrast that with Wolves’ shocking away form and you can see why Stoke are 20/23 for the win and Wolves are 10/3, with the draw at 12/5. Wolves have won just twice away from home all season, losing 12 of their 16 matches on the road.
With those stats in mind you might think Wolves were in line for a hammering but that shouldn’t be the case. McCarthy’s men looked pretty solid on Saturday and while Stoke racked up five against Bolton a couple of weeks ago that was seemingly a one-off.
Traditionally these two sides don’t share too many goals between them, with two goalless draws in the last six meetings. For that reason you might look at one or less in the total goals market at 11/5, or under 2.5 goals at 8/11.
With just five games left for Wolves they will look at the trip to Stoke as their toughest game left, with trips to Birmingham and Sunderland to come, along with home games against West Brom and Blackburn. Somewhere in those remaining games they are going to have to find an away win, but it looks very unlikely to come against Stoke.
The Potters look to have been galvanised by their Wembley success and Pulis might argue they deserved to win at Aston Villa on Saturday, rather than share the spoils.
With Stoke on 38 points and still not mathematically safe from relegation Pulis will be eager to make sure they secure their league status quickly so they can turn their attentions to the FA Cup.
With Arsenal and Manchester City still to come they might look at Wolves as their golden ticket to safety. Expect Wolves to put up their usual spirited fight but, in the end, be no match for Stoke.
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The Carling Cup has been much maligned by football supporters in its history, but things have changed in recent seasons and the clash between Arsenal and Birmingham City (4pm) is an intriguing battle of differing styles.
Monday sees arguably the game of the Premier League season so far as Arsenal travel to Old Trafford to take on their old rivals Manchester United (United Evs, draw 12/5, Arsenal 11/4).
Vincent Kompany insists that Manchester City’s Europa League clash against Lech Poznan (City 2/9, Lech 12/1, Draw 5/1 90 Minutes) at Eastlands on Thursday is the side’s priority and not whether Wayne Rooney could be set to join them in the future.
Giovanni Trapattoni believes Republic of Ireland (6/4 To Qualify) still have every chance of qualifying for Euro 2012, despite a disappointing home defeat to Russia.
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has laid down the challenge to fellow Premier League rivals by declaring his team are good enough to win the treble this season (6/4 Chelsea 11/5 draw 15/8 Man United – 90 minutes).
Argentina (4/1 to win the World Cup) head coach Diego Maradona has played down the hype surrounding his side as they comfortably qualified from Group B at the World Cup in South Africa.
The Serie A leaders conceded a goal after just 12 minutes at home to Chievo when a right wing cross was pushed into his own net by Thiago Motta. Jose Mourinho’s side were behind for no more than a minute when an Eto’o pass into the Chievo box was turned into an own goal by Chievo player Andrea Mantovani.
Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry will see a specialist this week about his ankle injury but it is not thought that problem is serious enough to keep him out of the World Cup (11/2 England – World Cup 2010 outright).