It has been an unexpectedly difficult start to the Premier League season for Wolves.
Seventh last term, this time around they have struggled as manager Nuno Espirito Santo tries to manage the twin demands of domestic and European campaigns.
Six league games without a win represented their worst run under Nuno – and a return to the disappointment Wolves’ Chinese owners experienced in their early months in charge during 2016.
Under the chairmanship of Jeff Shi, the Fosun Group has since presided over a phenomenal rise in fortunes at Molineux, but this week Fosun has been grappling with a sharp downturn in fortunes at another of their businesses, Thomas Cook, in which they have an 18% stake.
Wolves say they will not be affected by the travel company’s collapse, while Fosun themselves say their financial exposure is nowhere near the £1bn reported and is actually about £37.6m.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen what view the Chinese government take over Fosun’s overseas investment. The group made it known a few weeks ago they were looking at an injection of funding from a third party.
Evidently, Wolves are a better side than their recent form suggests – when Doherty scored the opener it was the first time they had been ahead in a league game all season.
Raul Jimenez had already gone close by that point and 19-year-old winger Pedro Neto impressed on his first league start.
If there was some consolation for Watford, it came from the knowledge that at the same time Doherty was scoring the opener for Wolves, seven days previously they had been about to go 5-0 down at Manchester City.
Sanchez Flores is not the most demonstrative coach and he tended to watch the game unfold from the edge of his technical area with his hands behind his back whether Watford was doing well or badly.
Making his first Premier League start, England striker Welbeck worked hard enough but was limited to a single chance in the first half, from an acute angle, which Jonny blocked.
A double save from Rui Patricio to deny Jose Holebas and Tom Cleverley came at the expense of a corner, which substitutes Roberto Pereyra – on for a disappointing Gerard Deulofeu – curled straight out of play.
It was the kind of basic error Watford can ill afford if they are to get themselves out of trouble and much worse was to come as Janmaat seemingly had time to do many other things with Gibbs-White’s header rather than turn it into his own goal.
It completed another bad afternoon for Watford, with goalkeeper Ben Foster having to endure the gleeful taunts of the home fans at the end because of the six years he spent at Wolves’ fierce local rivals, West Brom.
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Source – BBC
