With an enlarged game list following Europa League qualification, the primary goal was to finish in the top half of the Premier League (combined with a solid run in the previous competition).
Despite all of the extra games, and despite a sluggish start to their domestic season (it’s easy to forget Wolves didn’t win any of their first six top-flight games), Nuno Espirito Santo’s team is entering the final quarter of the season with the Champions League very much in sight.
Of course, there has always been the possibility that Wolves may win the Europa League and thus qualify for Europe’s premier – and far more lucrative – club competition. That is still a possibility.
But, after what feels like months on the periphery of the Premier League competition, back-to-back wins over Norwich and Tottenham have pushed Wolves squarely into the middle of it.
It’s a race that’s never been so wide open. It has been reasonable to ask whether any of the protagonists truly want to win.
Chelsea, who have been in fourth place since November, have taken just 19 points from their previous 15 Premier League matches, preventing them from establishing anything resembling a significant lead over the bunch below.
Their current tally of 45 points from 28 games is only the third occasion in the last 15 seasons that a club has finished fourth with fewer than 50 points. Arsenal earned 56 points after finishing fourth at the same point previous season.
To identify the last time a team finished fourth after 28 games with fewer than 45 points, you must go back to the 2003/04 season.
Then came Charlton (yeah, truly) with 43 points, followed by Newcastle, Blues, Villa, and Liverpool. The latter would finally finish fourth with 60 points at the end of the season.
A similar haul might be enough this time around with Wolves – just two points better off, but 13 closer to the top four than at the same stage last season – among several clubs who now find themselves with a window of opportunity which could become even larger depending on Manchester City’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
How they got to this position or how unexpected it might be really doesn’t matter now. The only important thing is doing whatever they can to grasp the chance and try to finish top of the mini-league which features Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and Sheffield United.
Perhaps the increased levels of competition we have seen across in the Premier League this season (bar Liverpool) is a sign of things to come.
History, however, suggests seasons like this are rare. The last time so many members of the so-called big six floundered so badly, in Leicester’s 2015-16 title-winning campaign, they rebounded strongly the following year.
Wolves are unquestionably a club on the rise and chances are they will have further chances to finish in the top four in the years to come.
But fortunes in football change fast and there are never any guarantees. The shot they have now is a very decent one indeed.
