'They're worse than Southampton!' - Charlie Austin drops Wolves claim that may interest Derby County fans | OneFootball

Wolves look destined for an EFL return after suffering yet another Premier League defeat on Monday

Former Southampton and Queens Park Rangers striker, Charlie Austin has made a claim on the Premier League's bottom club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, that may interest supporters of Derby County.

It has been a dire start to the top-flight season for the Old Gold and Black under both Vitor Pereira and now Rob Edwards, with the latter unable to instil a sense of belief back into Molineux after he made a well-documented and controversial managerial switch from Championship high-flyers, Middlesbrough midway through November.

Wanderers returned to the Premier League under the management of Nuno Espírito Santo back in 2017/18 after a stunning season where they blew almost all other second-tier outfits out of the water, largely down to the magical technical ability of players such as Ruben Neves and the late Diogo Jota.

However, they were defeated for the 13th time already this league campaign on Monday night, as Manchester United put four goals past Jose Sa either side of half-time courtesy of a Bruno Fernandes brace, Bryan Mbeumo and Mason Mount, which secured a resounding 4-1 away victory for the Red Devils.

It is a result which leaves the West Midlands outfit on just two points, 13 points from safety with 23 games remaining. They have only emerged victorious twice this season, albeit their successes, ironically against fellow Premier League sides in the form of West Ham United and Everton, came in the early stages of the EFL Cup.

Despite possessing a handful of extremely talented players, such as the previously sought-after Jorgen Strand Larsen and central midfielder, Andre, comparisons are now being made between Edwards' current crop of players and those who accumulated the top-flight's all-time record low points' total for the Rams under in the 2007/08 campaign.

Charlie Austin drops Wolverhampton Wanderers claim involving Derby County and Southampton

Indeed, it has been 17 years since Derby last tasted the riches of the Premier League under Billy Davies and Paul Jewell, although the aforementioned campaign is certainly in the history books for all the wrong reasons.

The East Midlands side achieved promotion through the Championship play-offs in 2006/07, defeating the Saints at the semi-final stage before Stephen Pearson netted the decisive winner at Wembley Stadium against Wolves' bitter rivals, West Bromwich Albion, who, ironically, won their own semi-finals against the Molineux club before losing out to the Rams.

Whilst they would achieve a dire total of just 11 points across the 38-game season, it is particularly damning on Wolves' part at present that Derby had accumulated over half of said total after the same number of games which Edwards' new chargers have played this term.

Indeed, the Rams had earned a 2-2 draw at Pride Park against Portsmouth on the opening day of the season, before winning for the only time in the league against Newcastle United in their sixth game of the campaign courtesy of Kenny Miller's strike on 39 minutes.

Further draws against Bolton Wanderers and Fulham came before Christmas, and, although Derby would be rooted to the foot of the table at this stage of the season, they had racked up four more points than Wolves currently boast, with the Black Country side's two points coming against Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton and Hove Albion over two months ago.

As such, Austin, who also featured for West Brom between 2019 and 2021, believes that his former side's fierce rivals could be on track to break the aforementioned unwanted record, which another of his ex-clubs, Southampton, avoided equalling by just one point last season.

"Wolves are so bad, they’re worse than Southampton last year!!! Lowest prem points tally is definitely on the cards," the former striker said.

Derby County support will hope they lose tag of worst Premier League team in history

As previously mentioned, Derby supporters will, once again, have a vested interest in developments at Molineux given Wolves' beyond sluggish start to the campaign.

At this point, it seems that a miracle would be required for Wanderers to remain a Premier League side heading into next season despite there being previous evidence of them being in the bottom three at Christmas and eventually pulling clear of danger.

Monday's defeat means they are guaranteed to prop up the table on Christmas Day. Ironically, Wolves are one of four clubs in the history of the Premier League to survive after doing exactly that alongside West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester City.

Yet, whilst those at Pride Park will have a stronger focus on seeing whether John Eustace's side can achieve a play-off place amid talk of a takeover, it would also make their season if they were to lose the statistical tag of being the worst side in Premier League history.