Matt Maher: Wolves will make it tough - but Aston Villa have few excuses not to end Molineux hoodoo
By next Wednesday night, Villa could have one foot in next season’s Champions League.
Beat Wolves on Friday and follow it up with a home victory over Chelsea and Unai Emery’s team may well find themselves with a 12-point advantage over the London club, depending on how the latter fare at Premier League leaders Arsenal on Sunday.
Yet to give themselves even the opportunity of delivering a near knockout punch to their top-five rivals, Villa must first make sure they do not make a mess of the set-up at Molineux.
Friday’s fixture sees almost all of the pressure weighted on the visitors.
True, Wolves still need two more points to avoid the ignominy of being the Premier League’s worst-ever team. Their supporters would love nothing more than it to be achieved while also damaging the dreams of their near neighbours.
It is Villa, however, who in the context of the season have comfortably the most to lose.
Their recent record at Molineux, no-one needs reminding, does not make pleasant reading.
In eight visits they have won only once and then when there were no supporters in attendance.
Not even Emery has yet been able to conjure a victory. The Spaniard even lost his one trip to Molineux while manager of Arsenal.
In none of those fixtures, however, has there been such a difference in class between the teams.
Villa have more than five times the points tally of Wolves who, for all their ability to make things difficult for opponents - as this month’s comeback against Arsenal proved - have still lost all but four of their home Premier League fixtures.
Emery’s men, meanwhile, boast the league’s joint-best away record behind the Gunners, with their most impressive win so far of 2026 coming last month at Newcastle, a venue where they hadn’t tasted victory in 20 years.
Just maybe, this is the season for ending hoodoos.
That fixture, admittedly, saw Villa lose Youri Tielemans to injury and without the Belgian they have lacked rhythm in attack, scoring just three goals in their last four top flight matches, two of those from corners.
Yet this is still a fixture any team with serious designs on the top-five must be winning.
Wolves rarely make it easy for Villa but for all the visiting team's recent struggles there can be few excuses if they do not emerge the victors from Friday’s tussle.
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