Wolves correspondent Tim Nash reveals winger Matt Jarvis’ secret weapon ahead of the four-way battle of the wing wizards against Villa.

There can’t be too many Premier League games with the prospect of four pacy, genuine wingers facing each other.

But that’s the mouthwatering scenario this Saturday lunchtime in the showdown between Wolves and Villa, as Michael Kightly and Matt Jarvis take on claret and blue duo James Milner and Ashley Young.

Despite the obvious quality of the Villa and England World Cup contenders, Jarvis believes Wolves have a secret weapon in their armoury to help them – Molineux fitness coach Tony Daley.

The left-winger revealed Daley, who has played for both clubs, has become his mentor when it comes to preparation and techniques.

He said: “Tony is my mentor – he’s helped me out loads with technique, sprinting and change of direction, but also with strength work and power work too specific to me.

“Having been a quick winger, he knows what to do and what not to do so he’s helped me out loads. I’m still trying to get quicker and quicker – ‘Dales’ keeps testing me.

“I’m sure over my time I’ve got quicker with my times, mainly because of my age and filling out a bit more, but also because I’ve been doing a lot of strength work and power work which has hopefully given me more explosion.

“He got to play for England to and I’m no different – that’s exactly what I’d like to do. Hopefully I can keep doing what I have been doing, and can get better and better.”

To underline how difficult it will be to realise those international ambitions, Jarvis lost his place in the 1-1 draw at Goodison last weekend as boss Mick McCarthy opted to go with Kightly as the only out-and-out winger with Greg Halford at wide left.

The former Gillingham man retained his ever-present record however after replacing Kightly before the hour.

But Jarvis knows he can’t afford to rest on his laurels.

He said: “If you’re not having a good spell, you know you’re not going to be in the team and you’re going to have to work extremely hard to get back into the side.

“The gaffer is always telling us to earn the right to keep the shirt.”

After suffering plenty of injury misfortune in his near two-and-half-years at Molineux, Jarvis wants to stay fully fit for as long as possible – the ‘Daley Way.’

He said: “I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that! I’m fully fit now, the fittest I’ve ever been – I still I can do that 30-metre sprint in the 95th minute.

“It’s a great feeling to be in that condition and hopefully it continues. I’ve had my time in rehab and the physios, masseurs and all the staff who got me back fit again were fantastic.

“I’ve had lots of time to get over that and make myself stronger.”

Jarvis reveals that after missing three months with a torn hamstring last season – a common problem among players who use pace as their main weapon – he can’t afford to be complacent to ensure the problem doesn’t strike again.

He said: “I have to do a lot of work on my legs before the game and work on my hamstrings after matches, just to make sure everything’s fine. Hopefully if I keep doing that and stay on top of everything, I should be alright.

“I’m an explosive player – a lot of my work is short sprints so I suppose if you’re doing longer runs just up and back, it’s not as taxing on the hamstrings as my game.

“It’s harder to play my game if I’ve got little hamstring problems because I’m at full tilt most of the time.”

Because of his own injury history, the 23-year-old understood Kightly’s desire to wait until he was 100 per cent fit rather than rush back early and risk setting himself back again.

Jarvis said: “If you’re not 100 per cent right, you’re going to get found out. You have to be on top of your game every week otherwise you’re going to get punished. We don’t have as many games this season as there’s only the odd midweek match, so you get more time to recover which helps you get over a little knock at the weekend in time for the next game.”

Villa’s renowned threat from setpieces means Wolves have been honing their defending from restarts in training.

But one way to cut down on the threat is to avoid conceding setplays in the first place, and Jarvis has stressed the importance of keeping the ball at this level.

He said: “If you lose the ball at this level, you have to work extremely hard to get it back because of the quality of the teams.

“That’s something we need to keep working on and make sure when we’ve got the ball, we keep the ball ourselves because we know how hard it is when we haven’t got the ball.”