Wolves pass another test after Aston Villa failed to heed Manchester City’s warning.

The talking points from Molineux after Wolves and Aston Villa drew 1-1 on Sunday.

Wolverhampton Wanderers earned another point in the Premier League on Sunday, drawing 1-1 with rivals Aston Villa at Molineux in their final game before the next international break.

Hwang Hee-chan scored his sixth goal of the season, his fifth in the Premier League. Pau Torres equalized for Villa on a day when Mario Lemina was sent off in stoppage time.

With 12 minutes put on at the end – such was the number of stoppages at Molineux during the second half – Villa came out on top, and Ollie Watkins rattled the side netting from an unusual angle. John McGinn then set up Douglas Luiz in the box, but Wolves bodies were on the ground.

Villa failed to learn the lesson.

Wolves’ goal here was nearly identical to the one they scored eight days earlier against Manchester City. Pedro Neto will certainly punish you if you give him too much time and space to run at you. Neto outpaced Nathan Ake with his quickness and direct running against City. This resulted in the opening goal, which was scored by the unlucky Ruben Dias.

Here, Neto was largely kept an eye on by Lucas Digne, who was playing as a wing-back for Villa. He was caught upfield, though, when Neto was fed the ball and left to run at Torres, who would redeem himself minutes later with the equaliser but who, in that moment, looked as though he was running in treacle compared to the Portuguese.

Neto and Wolves didn’t need a stray opposing leg to turn the ball home, either. Hwang had started the move when he won a 50-50 with Douglas Luiz through sheer desire inside his own half before latching onto that low cross, which deflected off the leg of the retreating Digne and into his path.

Tip top form

Wolves have now scored in every game since the opening night of the season, up at Old Trafford – and let it not be forgotten that they could’ve had a hatful on that night, too. For a side whose worry last year was often goals, despite having natural strikers Raul Jimenez and Diego Costa on the books, continuously finding the net isn’t a trait which should be overlooked.

Hwang is in excellent form. He now has six for the season, including five in the Premier League, and that is already on par with last season’s top scorer Daniel Podence. By October. That’s some going by the Korean and Gary O’Neil will need that to continue. Alongside Hwang in levels of importance is Neto.

The winger is looking like he’s back to his very, very best form, the best we’ve seen of him since before his injury blow which set him back earlier in his time at Molineux. He’s an obvious outlet with his pace and agility, and when Matheus Cunha fed him on the counter, you felt like something would happen. He now has six assists, and three of them have been for Hwang.

Held at bay

Molineux is clearly not a happy hunting ground for Villa. While this game didn’t end in three points for Wolves, as five of the last six meetings have, it’s another winless visit for the Villans, who return to their corner of the West Midlands with at least a share of the spoils.

Nuno Espirito Santo, Bruno Lage, Julen Lopetegui and, erm, Paul Lambert have all had the edge on Villa in the Black Country in recent years, going back to the days when Wanderers were in the Premier League intermittently under Mick McCarthy. Villa’s only victory here came in Covid, in front of no fans, so we needn’t remember that even happened.

While the players couldn’t get over the line here for Gary O’Neil, in his first experience of a West Midlands derby, there’s always the reverse fixture at Villa Park, which takes place at the end of March. There’s a whole lot of football to be played between now and then, but this is another year where Villa have failed to breach the Molineux fortress.

Selection issues

There’s now a two-week break between now and Wolves’ next Premier League outing, down at winless Bournemouth – and that’ll of course mean a reunion for O’Neil, who was let go by the Cherries in the summer. They’re in poor shape, having failed to post a single win under O’Neil’s successor Andoni Iraola and will still be fragile when Wolves visit.

They’ll have to try and post another top flight victory without a couple of key players, though. Lemina, of course, will serve a one-match suspension on that afternoon after his marching orders were delivered to him late in the day here for a couple of soft fouls. He’ll be joined on the sidelines by the also suspended Nelson Semedo.

The wing-back collected his fifth yellow card of the campaign here, believed to be for preventing Villa from taking a quick free kick in the second half, so he’ll also be unavailable for selection. O’Neil, who admits his squad isn’t the biggest, must turn to his personnel in reserve.