The Premier League: Should Wolves feel safe after beating Bournemouth?

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Our expert panel takes a look at the relegation battle and discusses why Wolves, Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton are in trouble - and which of them will get out of it.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Matthew Gregory, and welcome back to the Premier League panel. This week, we're

00:08going to take a look at the relegation battle. Who's going down and why? And is the gap between

00:12the Premier League and Championship getting too wide? To help me discuss all of that,

00:17I'm joined, as always, by an expert panel. National World Football reporter Curtis Leland

00:22is here, as is the Express and Stars digital sports editor Nathan Judah. Now, for the sake

00:27of our viewers, I should say that we're recording this before the midweek Premier League fixtures,

00:31so about half of what we say will probably be completely invalid by the time you watch

00:34this. But bearing that in mind, Nathan, Wolves beat Bournemouth over the weekend to move

00:39five points clear of Leicester and Ipswich. Are you starting to feel comfortable about

00:44the situation? I've always felt comfortable. Always felt comfortable, Matt. Never been

00:48in doubt. Yeah, it makes a massive difference. That was a huge win, going to fifth place

00:55against Bournemouth. They've been one of my favourite teams to watch this season, to

00:59be honest. Absolutely fantastic. And I expect them to make European football. But that was

01:05a big win. Big win on the South Coast. Important win. Real team effort. 1-0. Vito Pereira used

01:1216 players. And yeah, it couldn't have been a more perfect weekend, really. I felt like

01:17it was probably a pivotal weekend, really, in the relegation battle in terms of Ipswich

01:22losing against Spurs, Leicester losing heavily on Friday night and Southampton. I'm not really

01:28considering them in the hunt for survival, I guess. I think they've been down for a while

01:33now. So, yeah, in terms of five points and not only that, but a difference of 12 in the

01:39goal difference between them and Ipswich. Players starting to look more threatening.

01:44Players getting into better form as well. Injuries starting to disappear as well. He's

01:50got a fully fit squad, Vito Pereira, nearly to choose from now. It's ominous, I think,

01:55for the chasing pack in terms of them trying to overtake Wolves now. Look, a lot can happen

02:01between now and then. And looking at the fixtures, and we'll probably go into that in a little

02:06while, everybody still has to play everybody. So, you know, Wolves have still got to go to

02:10Ipswich and Leicester, there's a home game there as well. So there can be six-point swings very

02:17quickly. But at this moment in time, when you've got the sort of plays that Wolves do, who are,

02:22as I said earlier, in better form now, smiling, happy, enjoying their football scoring goals,

02:29I feel like it was a big weekend and they shouldn't hopefully be looking over the

02:33shoulders too much now if they can get a couple more wins on the board.

02:37You mentioned Vito Pereira. It's been a couple of months since he took over from Gary O'Neill,

02:41but I think on a national level, there hasn't felt there's been much discussion about what

02:45he's doing at Wolves. So tell us a bit about how he's changed things at Wolves from O'Neill's

02:49tenure. What's better? Do you think that he's sort of doing the right things to make sure Wolves do

02:54survive and go forward in the future as well? Yeah, you're right what you say, mate. He's

02:58quietly gone under the radar. And I think that's maybe because you've got bigger so-called names

03:03joining football teams in the middle of the season, likes of, you know, Graham Potter or

03:07Ruben Amerim. And yet actually out of all the managers that have joined mid-season,

03:13he's got the best record of anyone. And when you're in the bottom two as he when he joined,

03:18they were 19th in the table. They were four points away from Leicester in 17th. He's turned it

03:22around. There's a lot of things, really a lot of intricacies. First of all, he's gone on record

03:27and backed his plays. He trusts his players. And I think towards the end of Gary O'Neill's tenure,

03:32he was almost digging them out a little bit. And when you start doing that, then you're not really

03:36going to be helped by by the 11 that you're fielding on the pitch. He's also changed and

03:41made them more solid. Four clean sheets now. Wolves had, under Gary O'Neill, conceded the

03:46most goals in the Premier League by a country mile. So four clean sheets in 10 games has been huge.

03:52And going from a back four to a back five has been a revelation, really. Defenders getting back.

03:58He's had money to spend in January. He's brought in the likes of Emmanuel Agbidu

04:03from Romes, who's been very, very good. Unfortunately, picked up an injury at Anfield,

04:06but it's been an absolute rock and man mountain. Marshal Manezzi from the same club as well,

04:11who looks like a really good number eight box-to-box midfielder. So when you get better

04:16players coming who maybe haven't been affected by the previous frustrations of the season and

04:22losses, and they're not as wounded as some of them, it's almost giving them a bit more of an

04:27impetus. There's been a lot of issues this season. He's got rid of a lot of problems as well. Mario

04:32Lamina almost went not on strike. Well, he did for the Newcastle game and then Pereira basically

04:38said, you're not going to be in my squad until January's finished. And then he went to Feyenoord,

04:42but right at Nuri fighting, we've had Lamina fighting at the end of the game. We've had

04:46Jose Sarri in the stands arguing with the fans. So it's been a bad look all around and he's kind

04:51of just eradicated all that, got that discipline back in and got smiles on faces. So yeah,

04:58by the end of the day, points mean prizes and they've got wins and that's the most important thing.

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