Wolves’ upcoming clash with West Ham United could be one of the most pivotal of the 2024/25 season for the Molineux club.
Although Vitor Pereira’s side have built up a decent nine point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone, one more win on April 1 has the potential to all-but secure Wolves’ place in the Premier League for the 2025/26 season.
Having beat Southampton 2-1 in their most recent Premier League game, Wolves will be coming into the game against West Ham full of confidence. That confidence is in stark contrast to the state the club found itself in heading into the last meeting with the Hammers in early December – a game Wolves lost 2-1 during a run of four straight defeats which ended up costing Gary O’Neil his job.
Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
As well as hoping to avenge that loss, Wolves will be keen to avoid creating some unwanted history against West Ham on Tuesday evening too.
Wolves keen to avoid first back-to-back home defeat to West Ham in over 100 years
Having lost 2-1 to West Ham at Molineux last season – thanks to goals from Lucas Paqueta and one straight from a corner kick from James Ward-Prowse – Wolves are hoping to avoid creating some unwanted history on April 1.
If they fall to a second straight home league defeat to the Hammers, it will be the first time that Wolves have lost back-to-back home league games to West Ham since a run of three straight losses between 1920 and 1922.
Those three games coincided with West Ham’s rather remarkable 50-year unbeaten run in all competitions against Wolves.
Between 1910 and 1960, Wolves lost a whopping 10 of 12 encounters, finally breaking their duct on April 11 1960 with an emphatic 5-0 win.
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The Old Gold’s recent form against the Hammers hasn’t been particularly great either. The Molineux club have actually won just one of their last six games against West Ham, losing the other five by an aggregate score of 10-2.
Date Result
27/02/2022 West Ham 1-0 Wolves
01/10/2022 West Ham 2-0 Wolves
14/01/2023 Wolves 1-0 West Ham
17/12/2023 West Ham 3-0 Wolves
06/04/2024 Wolves 1-2 West Ham
09/12/2024 West Ham 2-1 Wolves
Wolves team news against West Ham
Luckily for Vitor Pereira, other than Matheus Cunha, the manager doesn’t have any other notable absentees to deal with for the game on April 1.
Cunha will serve the second-last game of his suspension for violent conduct – received for a sending off in the FA Cup loss to Bournemouth – and will be back for the upcoming clash with Tottenham Hotspur on April 13.
The lack of notable absences means that Pereira looks set to name an unchanged team for a third straight Premier League game; something that he has yet to do during his time in charge of Wolves.