Four consecutive matches, four losses: are they headed for a drop battle?

Four straight games, zero points and just a mere two goals netted: this is Wolves’ poorest start to a season in their existence. Vítor Pereira’s team are rooted at the foot of the league table. Seventeen different sides have begun a top-flight season with four consecutive losses and only eight have escaped relegation. More worryingly, just a single one of the past five has managed to avoid relegation: Everton last season.

Narrow Differences and Underlying Problems

Three straight one-goal losses in the league – by a single goal against Bournemouth, in a five-goal thriller against the Merseyside club and 1-0 against Newcastle – indicate that the Wanderers are falling short by slim differences. Is this a blip or do they have more serious issues? In any case, with the three elevated sides on the horizon in the next five weeks, they need points quickly. Wolves are not being overwhelmed but there is a distinct pattern from their opening fixtures: self-inflicted errors, a lack of cutting edge up front and a disjointed setup that falters when facing pressure.

Attacking Struggles

The departure of Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri – who together scored 35% of their fifty-four league strikes last season – in the very same transfer window was certain to damage their attacking threat. The Midlands club are the league’s third-lowest goal-getters with just two; they are bottom in the expected goals table with 2.6 xG; and they are bottom in the big chances metric with just two.

Saturday’s loss against Newcastle was the clearest example of their absence of clinical edge in the final third. They burst from the blocks and generated chances in the early minutes, the winger forcing a fingertip save, and a desperate last-ditch challenge from the defender denying Tolu Arokodare from netting on his debut. However, after going in by a goal at halftime, Wolves emerged for the second period and did not have a single shot until the 89th minute. They finished the period with just 0.09 expected goals even with having nearly half of the ball – hardly the output you’d anticipate from a side trying to salvage a match.

Inventiveness Shortage

Losing the full-back and the forward has ripped the dynamism from the team’s offense. The previous season those two players delivered thirteen goal-creating passes between them and ranked among the league’s top performers for take-ons, forward carries and chance-creating actions – areas where Wolves now rank around the bottom in the league. Stripped of their creativity, Wolves look static and predictable, lacking the inspiration to penetrate lines or maintain pressure. They have more and more turned to direct passes and high deliveries but, due to their central striker Jørgen Strand Larsen sidelined with an Achilles tendon problem and nobody stepping up to fill his boots, this approach often comes to nothing.

Backline Instability

The team are also struggling at the opposite side of the field, letting in nine goals against (with just West Ham having allowed more). When the coach took over replacing his predecessor in December 2024, he turned a panicky, error-prone backline into a calmer, more compact group. He stuck with the identical 3-4-2-1 formation each match, gave players defined roles and settled the side. They began to look increasingly organized, composed and made fewer rash choices, leading in a reduction in shots conceded (14.6 per game under the previous manager down to 10.7 under Pereira the previous term) and fewer goals against conceded (2.5 with O’Neil cut to 1.3 under the current manager).

However, that calmness has started to falter and errors have started to resurface back in, including Emmanuel Agbadou’s careless pass that handed Tijjani Reijnders a scoring chance for the champions, to a inability to close down the winger and track the attacker’s far-post movement that allowed the hosts to score from a simple delivery. The avoidable blunders that plagued the team near the conclusion of O’Neil’s reign are resurfacing, with the defensive unit looking unstructured. The absence of understanding is evident in the numbers; they are conceding nearly 14 attempts and 2.23 goals this campaign.

Team Instability

It is little surprise the team look out of sync at times. After their heavy loss against Manchester City on the first weekend, Wolves have awarded first appearances to six new summer acquisitions. The head coach lost seven regular players in the summer window and appears to be wrestling with several of the identical problems he encountered when he first took charge. He has made more changes (20) than every other coach so far this term. The squad look unsettled at the back, duties are undefined and individuals appear to be figuring things out in real time.

Hope from History

The good aspect is that Wolves are accustomed to recovering from slow beginnings. They did not secure a victory a single one of their initial 10 matches the previous season but avoided relegation with room to spare. Since 2018, they have contested twenty-three matches in the first month, suffering defeat in 14 and winning only one. Across the last four years, they have not achieved above three points from their opening four games. Supporters can take some comfort from the fact that, despite these slow openings, they are now in their eighth consecutive Premier League campaign.

Crossroads

The Midlands outfit find themselves at a pivotal moment. With key players missing, recent signings still adapting and crucial fixtures against the three recently promoted sides on the horizon, the next few weeks will determine whether Pereira can steady the team or if their worst ever start spirals into a season-long battle against the drop.