Wolves vs West Ham news: Both teams need a win to keep up European pursuit

Joe Hewlett
26 February 2022

West Ham's Michail Antonio and Wolves' Conor Coady

Wolves entertain West Ham at the Molineux and both teams are looking to keep up their challenge in the race for European football next season.

Wolves have been one of the surprise sides this season under new manager Bruno Lage and they are well and truly in the mix for a top six finish.

Meanwhile, West Ham have drifted down to 6th spot and know they must win at Molineux to keep up with Manchester United for the final Champions League place.

When: Sunday, February 27 14:00 GMT

Where: Molineux Stadium

Where to watch: Sky Sports

Who is the referee for West Ham vs Wolves

Anthony Taylor will be in charge of the game. A recent study found that the 43-year-old was the most trolled referee in the Premier League online.

Figures show that over the past 12 months there were more than 295,000 incidents of trolling against Premier League referees and Taylor received the most abuse with 10,141 posts.

Anyway, he has been the man in the middle in 17 Premier League games this season, dishing out 67 yellows and four reds. This will be his first visit to Wolves this season.

Recent form

West Ham have just two wins from their last six. Since their last minute defeat to Man United, they have only beaten Watford and Kidderminster in the FA Cup, plus scraped draws with Leicester City and more recently an in-form Newcastle United.

Meanwhile, Wolves are looking to bounce back from their most recent defeat to Arsenal on Thursday night, where they lost in the dying seconds.

Wolves and West Ham players in form

Goalkeeper Jose Sa deserves a lot of the plaudits for his performances at Wolves this season and has nine clean sheets for this season. Aside from Sa, Ruben Neves and Max Kilman have been praised for their performances under Lage.

For West Ham, Jarrod Bowen has eight goals and 10 assists in the Premier League this season. His form has seen him linked with Liverpool and there have been calls for him to be in Gareth Southgate's next England squad.

Last three times they have played each other

Wolves 1-0 West Ham (November 20, 2021)

Raul Jimenez scored the only goal as Wolves ended West Ham's four-game winning streak.

Daniel Podence cut it back to Jimenez and the Mexican striker converted, scoring his third goal of the season in the process.

West Ham's Kurt Zouma scored for West Ham but had the goal disallowed for a foul on Romain Saiss. The victory moved Bruno Lage's Wolves up to sixth place.

Wolves 2-3 West Ham (April 5, 2021)

West Ham fought off a late fightback to move above Chelsea into fourth place at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

On-loan midfielder Jesse Lingard opened proceedings with a goal of the season contender. The Manchester United academy product won the ball from the half way line before going past Wolves' defence and clinically finishing.

Lingard was part of their third goal too as he assisted substitute Jarrod Bowen in the 38th minute before Leander Dendoncker scored before the end of the first half.

Fabio Silva provided the second goal for Wolves with a fine strike but West Ham held on to grab a vital three points.

West Ham 4-0 Wolves (September 27, 2020)

Jarrod Bowen bagged a brace as West Ham earned their first Premier League victory of the season.

An own goal by Raul Jimenez and Sebastian Haller's goal in the 90th minute completed a fine performance for David Moyes' West Ham.

It moved the Hammers from 18th place to 10th while Wolves dropped to 16th after three games.

Last ten matches

Wolves wins: 5

Draws: 1

West Ham wins: 4

Managers' thoughts

Looking back on the 1-0 win over West Ham in November, Bruno Lage said: "It was a very important game. I think in that moment, we did our best performance in October and November.

"It was very good for us, that was a good victory because we played very well in that game.

"In that moment they were doing very well, like now it is our moment to be doing very well and that is why, in football, it is so crazy."

Moyes said: "I am hoping Wolves are tired but in football you never know. We've had very few games where we had advantage over the opposition with time. Wolves have had a difficult week but that's the way it's going with the games called off during COVID.

"We have a really difficult week with three games in six days, with Sunday, then going to Southampton in the FA Cup in midweek, then Liverpool next Saturday."

Predicted West Ham vs Wolves teams

West Ham have granted Ukrainian winger Andriy Yarmolenko compassionate leave, while right-backs Vladimir Coufal and Ryan Fredericks are both out with groin injuries. Ben Johnson will strp in

Manuel Lanzini is back in training after an Achilles problem but Arthur Masuaku and Angelo Ogbonna are still recovering from a knee injuries.

Nelson Semedo is likely to miss out for Wolves with a hamstring injury. Pedro Neto will be pushing for his first start having returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines, while Willy Boly and Yerson Mosquera are fit.

Possible West Ham United starting line-up: Fabianski; Cresswell, Dawson, Zouma, Johnson; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals; Antonio.

Possible Wolves starting line-up: Sa; Kilman, Coady, Saiss; Jonny, Neves, Dendoncker, Marcal; Trincao, Jimenez, Podence.