On Thursday Nuno Espírito Santo ordered Rúben Neves to do extra
shooting practice after watching the midfielder fluff a penalty here in the Europa League. In the 41st minute of this Midlands derby, Neves demonstrated the value of that practice by firing the ball into the net from over 20 yards. That gave dominant Wolves a deserved lead, and Raúl Jiménez, after thrilling work by Adama Traoré, struck in the 84th minute to confirm the win that propelled Nuno’s team to eighth in the table. So much for Wolves’ season being undermined by their Europa League exertions. Trézéguet struck a nice goal for Villa in stoppage time but the outcome had been decided by then.
Wolves’ only defeat in their last dozen matches in all competitions was to Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup two weeks ago. A repeat of that never looked likely here, not least because the lineups were radically different. After fielding a youthful side at Villa Park, Nuno made 11 changes and deployed his top guns here. They fairly blew away Villa, who, in fairness, were also afflicted by rotten luck.