Wolverhampton Wanderers: Premier League 2019-20 revisited – Wolves firmly in the Champions League hunt

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side know if things break their way after the season wakes from hibernation this week, they are within touching distance of a Champions League place

When your social media team are parodying The Simpsons on Twitter during socially distanced training you know your heads are in the right place.

It’s a good time to be a Wolverhampton Wanderers fan right now, and not just those with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Montgomery Burns’ rather peculiar coaching methods.

These are best of times with the old gold mixing it right at the top end in the Premier League, still in the Europa League knockout stages and, if things break their way after the 2019/20 campaign wakes from hibernation this week, within touching distance of a Champions League place.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

2019-20

League position: 6th

Form: DDWWD

Next three fixtures: West Ham (a), Bournemouth (h), Aston Villa (a)

Cups: Out of FA Cup in third round, Europa League last-16 against Olympiacos

Player of season so far: Raul Jimenez

It’s not all that fanciful either. With the majority of the Premier League’s perennial top six already met and seen off there is a real chance that Nuno Espirito Santo’s side could make it to the Promised Land come season’s end.

In its second year as a Premier League ground again, Molineux has once more proved a fortress and with Arsenal the only real bump left in the road between now and the end of the season it really may be time to start dreaming.

They’ll need 16-goal striker Raul Jimenez to hit the ground running once again, of course, with the talismanic Mexican central to everything they do well – which is an awful lot.

A finally fully fit Willy Boly also showed his worth at the heart of the defence before the enforced hiatus, a three-month break that could well work in the favour of a team whose season began way back in July.

How Joao Moutinho, now a healthy distance over the wrong side of 30, copes with starting up again after the lay-off could be key.

How all teams adapt under the revised parameters of the ‘new normal’ will be even more important with football not likely to be the same as it was before in this post-pandemic landscape.

But for a well set-up, superbly organised side who like to dictate the tempo of games, a slower pace of play as teams get fully up to speed again could be another positive.

There is a school of thought that coronavirus will widen the gap between football’s haves and have-nots, with those at the top of the tree more structurally, ideologically and financially able to cope with the uncertainty of what is about to be thrown at them.

What is certain is that Wolves have a manager they can rely on to make a tangible difference over the season’s closing stretch, which is very much shaping up to be a sprint at the end of the marathon.

Nuno will have no doubt used this time away wisely and while his ongoing contract situation remains something of a distraction on the outside, those closer to the club are still calm.

His focus remains on the pitch where he will surely have his team ready to go with the first three fixtures out the gate – trips to relegation-threatened West Ham and Aston Villa as well as hosting Bournemouth – likely to be as good a barometer as any as to just how far they can ultimately go.

Fifth place is well within reach and with Manchester City’s European fate set to be decided far from the pitch that may yet be enough for a tilt at the very top table next term.