Wolves doomed: Edwards’ side will get relegated barring miracle or Saudi takeover | OneFootball

Wolverhampton Wanderers are doomed. If they somehow avoid relegation from the Premier League, it will either be a miracle or the result of a Saudi Arabian takeover.

Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Midlands rivals Aston Villa was their 11th loss in 13 games this season, leaving them rock-bottom of the table with a dismal two points.

People were worried about this team going into the season after a weak transfer window that included losing talismanic forward Matheus Cunha – their best, most influential player and the main reason they finished as high as 16th last term. The biggest reason they stayed up, though, was how terrible the three relegated teams were, plus Tottenham giving up on their domestic season with months to spare.

With Cunha off to Manchester United, Wolves desperately needed a sufficient replacement, which was always going to be difficult given how influential he was under Vítor Pereira. His replacement, Jhon Arias, has done nothing of note so far, but Wolves’ problems can’t be pinned solely on him.

They haven’t had a single standout performer this season. Sure, combative midfielders Joao Gomes and Andre are good players, but they don’t have the creativity to win games and can’t do everything themselves defensively.

Keeping Jørgen Strand Larsen was a boost, yet despite signing a contract extension, it’s clear his head is elsewhere as Wolves continue to lose games.

Their latest defeat came at the hands of Aston Villa, who climbed to third thanks to Boubacar Kamara’s screamer. After a poor start to the campaign, Unai Emery’s team are flying, with Champions League qualification suddenly a very realistic target.

Wolves’ only target is survival after eight years in the top flight. The Premier League table says their chances are slim, while history says they’re screwed, unless they get taken over by some filthy-rich Saudi sheikhs in time for a colossal January window.

Among the worst starts to a Premier League season is the 2021/22 Newcastle United team, who didn’t win any of their first 14 league games and accumulated six points. That’s the fourth-longest winless start, and 14th on the list of worst starts after 13 games, which is exactly where Wolves sit now.

In that ranking, Newcastle are the first team who avoided relegation, but their Saudi takeover is what kept them up, not grit or determination. In 15th you have 2023/24 Everton, but they had a points deduction so they don’t count. Below them is the first genuine survival story: Southampton, who had seven points after 13 games but finished 17th, avoiding relegation by five points.

Five points is how many more than Wolves they had at this stage, and it’s still hard to imagine anything other than relegation for Wolves, even if it is only 13 games in.

After losing to Villa, Rob Edwards’ side now have the second-worst start to a Premier League season, behind Sheffield United in 2020/21, who drew just one of their first 13, only one fewer than Wolves’ colossal two. Sure, Portsmouth technically had -2 points after 13 games in 2009/10, but without their deduction they’d have had seven.

From the 30 worst starts ever, 10 teams survived, but the 30th-ranked worst start still had eight points, six more than this Wolves side. The first team in the ranking that survived, Newcastle in 2021/22, had six.

The one ray of hope for Edwards is that Derby County were also winless after 13 games in 2000/01, went as many without a win to start the season, and still stayed up.

Sunday’s defeat puts Wolves joint-sixth for the longest winless start to a Premier League season, tied with that Derby team and 2004/05 Norwich City. They sit behind Newcastle in 2021/22, Swindon Town in 1993/94, QPR in 2012/13, and Sheffield United in 2020/21, who went 17 games without a win.

Derby managed to reach 42 points and finished 17th. Can we seriously see Wolves getting 40 points in their remaining 25 games, equalling last season’s total? Absolutely not.

There simply isn’t enough quality in this team, and the promoted sides are actually competent this year. They’re doomed. In fact, even the 23 points Sheffield United somehow managed in 2020/21 seems unrealistic.

Edwards has given himself the impossible task of rescuing this mess. It won’t just require the second-worst starters in Premier League history to dramatically improve, it’ll need the teams around them to collapse to their level.

This is a team that started worse than all of these: Burnley 2023/24, QPR 2012/13, Sheffield United 2023/24, Sheffield Wednesday 1999/00, Swindon 1993/94, Southampton 2024/25, Sunderland 2005/06, Aston Villa 2015/16.

So yes, Burnley and Leeds United will need to do them plenty of favours, but even that wouldn’t be enough. Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Fulham and/or Everton would also have to get sucked in. Right now that seems unlikely, though not completely impossible, especially in West Ham’s case.

But too much has to go in Wolves’ favour, and history tells us they’re absolutely gubbed. Having to replicate a 2000s Derby escape is… quite the position to be in.