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The wolves have made progress in every season under the direction of Nuno Espírito Santo and they look well prepared to continue that trend. Crystal Palace certainly couldn’t stop them and was amply beaten by the effervescent hosts whose goals came from the excellent Daniel Podence and an equally impressive teenage rookie, Rayan Aït-Nouri.
The visitors ended up ragged and unhappy, and Luka Milivojevic was sent off late for a tackle on Joâo Moutinho. And so, despite some recent growing pains, the Wolves have had their best start to a top-flight season since 1979-80.
It has been a quietly impressive campaign so far for the Wolves, where Nuno has declared his ambition to build the club this season by cultivating a more dominant style of play and greater team depth. That last quality was demonstrated after the coach chose to debut Aït-Nouri, the 19-year-old left-back who arrived last month on loan from Angers.
Adama Traoré started on the bench for the fourth consecutive league game, and the coach once again placed his trust in a forward trio of Podence, Pedro Neto and Raúl Jiménez. Only the Mexican had proven to be a consistent scorer, but the other two made it into this game thanks to several promising displays that helped create the feeling that the Lobos were close to clicking. They soon confirmed that impression.
Palace had also had an encouraging start, especially on his travels. The wolves knew they had to be wary of the visitors’ counterattack prowess and they got off to a bold start. Andros Townsend nimbly opened an opening for Wilfried Zaha, who fired wide from the left corner of the area.
The wolves were quick to reply, sending a series of dangerous crosses that Palace defended well until the seventh minute, when Podence connected with Leander Dendoncker, who headed wide from 10 meters.
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The wolves began to stretch Palace with vigorous and expansive passes. The busy Podence threatened again in the 10th minute, when he tried to screw a shot from the left corner of the box into the far corner of the net. Vicente Guaita turned it over on the bar.
Willy Boly should have tried the goalie again moments later, but couldn’t find a corner with a clean header from six yards. It was a disappointing failure, but such was the enthusiasm with which the Wolves were playing that a breakthrough before the break seemed imminent, which would be a positive development for a team that had not scored a goal in the first half since their first game of the season. season. . It turned out that the Aït-Nouri strike was worth the wait.
Podence mounted it with a run down the right and a cross that Cheihkou Kouyaté couldn’t cut, then the young Frenchman ran for the ball in the left corner of the area and fired into the bottom corner. It was a teenage kick to celebrate with a song, if there had been any fans present.
The wolves were far from sated. Dendoncker slammed a shot into the post from 25 yards before Podence scored the goal he deserved. This time the run and the cross from the right came from Neto, who left Podence with the simple task of guiding a shot into the net from six meters.
Palace rebelled enough to give the Wolves a scare in the 36th minute, when Conor Coady did well to block a Scott Dann header off the post from a corner kick. Boly enjoyed a happy escape when, due to an offside, the VAR canceled a penalty against him.
Palace started the second half in attack, Townsend forced a difficult save from Patrício with a volley from the edge of the area. As they continued to push the hosts back, Zaha was horrified that she did not receive a penalty after falling under a combined challenge from Aït-Nouri and Max Kilman. The referee deemed it another timely intervention by a defense that repeatedly blocked and thwarted the best the visitors could muster.
Then Zaha had reason to thank the referee, who decided that a yellow card was punishment enough after the striker, frustrated at being dispossessed, raised his hand to Aït-Nouri. The teenager did not seem intimidated.
