The dozens of Wolves supporters that stuck around until the final whistle on a grim afternoon in the Graham Hughes Stand, draped in sodden ponchos and exposed to the elements, was an image indicative of the mood here. For Vítor Pereira’s side, a fifth straight league defeat, this one against Leeds, for whom Noah Okafor, Anton Stach and Dominic Calvert-Lewin registered their first goals, the latter scoring for the only second time in 12 months.
Wolves, jeered off at full time, remain pointless, bottom of the pile and in an ominous position. Of the five other teams to lose their opening five Premier League matches, three finished bottom, the anomaly from that pack the Crystal Palace side Roy Hodgson rescued in 2017-18 after a disastrous start under Frank de Boer.
There was little to cheer from a Wolves perspective and there was a din of discontent in the stands, with supporters chanting against the owners, Fosun, and the chair, Jeff Shi. “You sold the team, now sell the club,” sang the South Bank, alluding to another summer of high-profile departures, this time Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri.
It felt as if Wolves played all their cards this week, announcing new contracts for Pereira, a popular figure after fending off the threat of relegation last season, and their main striker Jørgen Strand Larsen in the 48 hours that preceded the game. Strand Larsen had not featured this month because of an achilles problem, but Pereira felt compelled to introduce him at the interval, the Norway forward joining Tolu Arokodare, a £24m deadline-day signing, in attack after a triple substitution that also brought the arrival of Hugo Bueno and Marshall Munetsi.
