Accoring to Opta Power Ratings, Wolves have had the toughest start of all 20 teams: Gary O’Neil’s side have already faced Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Liverpool.
And Madeley believes that Wolves can turn things around – starting at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
It’s not been a good start for Wolves, with the side bottom of the Premier League table after six games. How would you summarise how things have gone so far?
In some ways, the table tells you the story – Wolves have played six games and picked up one point – and that is probably what they deserve, based on the goals they have conceded and the chances they have missed.
In other ways, it does not tell the whole story. They have actually played fairly well in significant periods of most of the games so far, with the second half against Chelsea the only time they really lost their way; it went from 2-2 at half-time to 6-2 at the end.
I would say, if you look at their xGA – I know some people love it and some hate it – it is lower than the actual number of goals conceded and the reason for that is that quite a few of the goals have been pinged in from 20+ yards, which you would not expect to continue happening over the course of the whole season. Others, you can say the goalkeeper should have done better.
Another thing to say is that the fixtures have been brutal. We did a piece recently including the Opta Power Ratings, which said Wolves had the toughest start of all 20 teams and, if you look at their fixtures, every home game has been against either a big six club or Newcastle, who have got aspirations to be up there.
I know it is cliché, but there are no easy games in the Premier League. It has been a brutal start, but that mitigates the one point from the first six.
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