Match Preview: Brentford v Wolverhampton Wanderers | OneFootball

Brentford take on Wolverhampton Wanderers at Gtech Community Stadium in the Premier League on Monday (8pm kick-off GMT), live on Sky Sports.

The Bees have lost just one of their last six league games, whilst Rob Edwards' side has also found some recent good form, winning back-to-back top-flight matches against Aston Villa and Liverpool.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the game.

Pre-match Analysis

Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Wolves could nullify Brentford's set-piece threat

The Premier League table doesn't lie - but Brentford's next opponents Wolves show that it can occasionally be deceptive.

Rob Edwards’ side visit Gtech Community Stadium for a televised dose of Monday Night Football, sitting three points adrift at the bottom of the division, 12 points shy of safety.

The Midlanders may be staring down the barrel of relegation, but Edwards has lifted the mood at Molineux since succeeding Vitor Pereira last November, and back-to-back league wins over Liverpool and Aston Villa have shown they can beat anyone on their day.

The former Wolves defender has stitched Wanderers' shattered morale back together after a harrowing 11-game losing streak at the end of 2025, and the Black Country club appear to have turned a corner in recent months.

In fact, a Premier League table based solely on results since the turn of the year would see Wolves in 10th position - four points off a Brentford side who would hypothetically sit sixth.

Edwards has injected belief into a side that had accumulated just two points from 11 games when he took over, while also restoring tactical discipline and energy.

Despite their league position, Wanderers rank highly across a range of statistics that highlight their tenacity, shooting accuracy and defensive organisation at set-pieces.

Ranking second in the Premier League for tackles won per game this term (19.4), Wolves have been scrapping for their lives without the ball under Edwards, who has traded pressing intensity for greater defensive solidity.

Although Monday's visitors average the joint-fewest shots per game (9.1) in the Premier League this season, they have the fourth-highest shot-on-target percentage in the division. Brentford (38.5 per cent) notably still top this statistic, but Wolves (35.7 per cent) are not far behind in terms of their shooting accuracy.

The two sides also match up well when it comes to nullifying opponents from corners, set-pieces and throw-ins. They may have conceded more Premier League goals than any other side from open play (40), but Wolves - alongside Brentford and Brighton - lead the division for the fewest goals conceded from set-pieces (five).

Suspended for the recent FA Cup defeat to Liverpool, André is expected to slot back in as Wolves' midfield anchor on Monday - and the former Copa Libertadores winner is a key man for the visitors.

Among central midfielders to play 1500+ Premier League minutes in 2025/26, only Chelsea's Moisés Caicedo (92 per cent) has a better pass completion rate than André (91 per cent), who also ranks in the division's top 20 players for tackles won.

The former Fluminense man has struck up a strong midfield partnership with compatriot João Gomes, but their tenacity can carry a cost.

With nine yellow cards apiece, Gomes and André are the joint-most booked players in the Premier League this season, while the former has conceded more fouls (55) than any other player in the top flight. That can be a dangerous trait, not least because 27 per cent of Premier League goals this season have come from set-pieces - the highest proportion in England’s top flight since 2009/10.

Head coach Edwards hailed the Brentford game as a “cup final” following Wolves’ recent FA Cup exit, and the same could be said for Keith Andrews’ side, given the Bees’ European ambitions.

Can Wolves turn the tables after Brentford’s 2-0 win at Molineux earlier in the season?

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Can Edwards pull off the Premier League's greatest escape?

This season has been one of two halves for Wolves.

The first was - to put it in no uncertain terms - horrifying.

It started with five straight defeats and, after some respite in the form of 1-1 draws against Tottenham and Brighton, continued with another 11 consecutively. That run is the joint-third worst in Premier League history, surpassed only by Norwich (16) and Sunderland (20).

Vítor Pereira was sacked three games into that run and replaced by Rob Edwards, who came in after defeat number four. The pressure increased when he could not get a tune out of the squad, either, leading to seven more losses. More concerningly, Wolves only managed three goals across those seven and conceded 14, at an average of two per game.

By Christmas, they still only had two points and were 16 from safety. Derby’s record-low tally of 11 points looked like it would be obliterated.

"It is another loss, so it is difficult,” said Edwards after the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on 27 December. “I said to the lads, I am getting really fed up with this, and I know they are hurting as well.”

Since then, though, they have channelled that hurt into their performances.

On 30 December, they held Manchester United to a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, before starting 2026 with their long-overdue first league win of the season. It came in style, too, with a 3-0 half-time scoreline leaving too much for West Ham to do. Four points from the next eight slowed momentum, but in the last two Premier League games, Wolves have given their supporters a reason for cautious optimism.

First, there was the 2-0 home win over Aston Villa, which ensured Derby’s record would stay intact for another season. “That’s a moment that will live with me forever,” said Edwards afterwards. Then came the shock 2-1 victory over Liverpool. Rodrigo Gomes put Wolves in front, Mohamed Salah equalised, and Andre struck in the 94th minute to dramatically seal the points.

There was a repeat of the latter in the FA Cup fifth round three days later, but Liverpool managed to avoid an upset in that one. Afterwards, Edwards said: “We have got eight games. The next game against Brentford has to be our cup final.”

The gap to safety is now 12 points, and the chances of actually completing the greatest of escapes are slim at best. But there is hope at long last - and that is a priceless commodity.

In the Dugout

Rob Edwards

Rob Edwards had a 14-year career as a professional footballer that started with Aston Villa in 1999 and ended with Barnsley in 2013. Largely owing to injuries, the centre-back played less than 250 games in club football, but did appear in each of the top four divisions in English football, as well as earning 15 senior international caps for Wales.

In October 2013, Edwards confirmed his retirement aged just 30, but returned to Wolves, where he first managed the club’s Under-18s. He later became first team coach, then had a two-game spell as interim head coach following the sacking of Walter Zenga. His first managerial job was at hometown club Telford in 2017/18, which preceded a third return to Molineux to take charge of the Under-23s side.

After he embarked on role in the England youth set-up, Edwards was appointed Forest Green Rovers head coach. In his first season, he led Rovers to the 2021/22 League Two title, but jumped ship for Watford just over a fortnight later. He was afforded just 11 games there before being dismissed, but two months later, he took over at Luton and guided the Hatters to the Premier League for the first time in May 2023.

Luton were relegated in 2023/24 and on the way to a second when Edwards was relieved of his duties in January 2025. But after just six months out of work, Middlesbrough provided him with a return to the Championship and they were third in the table after his final game on 4 November, a 1-1 draw with Leicester. He signed a three-year deal to return to Wolves for a fourth time on 12 November.

The Gameplan

With Steve Madeley, The Athletic

Steve Madeley of The Athletic explains how Wolves are likely to line up on Monday night.

"They generally play a three/five at the back, so three centre-backs, two wing-backs and, ahead of that, it has been flexible, but it is generally a midfield diamond," he told brentfordfc.com.

So, three midfielders, one holding and two either side, and one just ahead of them, playing off a central striker. It is a 5-3-1-1 kind of system.

Last starting XI v Liverpool in the FA Cup (3-5-1-1): Johnstone; Mosquera, S Bueno, T Gomes; Tchatchoua, Bellegarde, J Gomes, Mané, H Bueno; A Gomes; Arokodare

Match Officials

Attwell returns to the Gtech

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis and Tim Wood

Fourth official: Tim Robinson

VAR: Paul Howard

Stuart Attwell made history on 23 August 2008 when he became the youngest referee of a Premier League game, taking charge of Blackburn Rovers v Hull City aged just 25. That completed a remarkable rise for the Nuneaton-born official who had only taken charge of his first EFL game 12 months previously.

This season, he has refereed 21 games in all competitions, showing 94 yellow cards and two red cards.

His last Brentford game was earlier this term at Gtech Community Stadium, when he was the man in the middle for the Bees' 3-1 win against Newcastle United.

Last Meeting

Wolves 0 Brentford 2 (Premier League, 20 December 2025)

Keane Lewis-Potter’s well-taken brace earned Brentford a 2-0 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League in December.

Following a first half at Molineux that produced little goalmouth action, the Bees took charge after the break.

Lewis-Potter struck twice in 20 minutes to give the west Londoners a commanding lead, and Caoimhín Kelleher saved Jørgen Strand Larsen’s penalty during the closing stages to keep Brentford's clean sheet intact.