ON the day Tottenham decided they could do without Nuno Espirito Santo — his old club proved there is life after him!
And it was Raul Jimenez who took centre stage as his first goal at Molineux in a YEAR put the game beyond Everton.
Wolves fans chanted “Bruno Lage’s barmy army,” as they made it five unbeaten to go seventh in the table.
The improvement since Lage kicked off his Molineux career with three straight defeats without scoring has been steady but impressive.
Only Chelsea and Arsenal have won more Premier games than Wolves since the start of September.
Lage even coaxed a first ever senior goal from Max Kilman — before Jimenez added the second.
The fact it came against Everton was less surprising as he has now scored in all five of his Premier League games against the Toffees.
Rafa Benitez will take small comfort that he got a response from his players after a pitiful first half.
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Alex Iwobi gave them hope with a goal after the break and only a brilliant save from Jose Sa denied sub Anthony Gordon a late leveller.
If Benitez wondered whether his players were still mentally scarred by conceding four goals in that bizarre last 15 minutes at Watford — his fears were fast confirmed.
Once Wolves had sparred with them for ten minutes the home side started to throw a few punches and the Toffees simply crumpled.
Only some defiant goalkeeping by Jordan Pickford and a narrow VAR offside call, delayed the inevitable Wolves breakthrough as Rafa’s boys bounced around off the ropes.
Rayan Ait-Nouri’s corner was headed out by Seamus Coleman and Ruben Neves met it on the volley. But Pickford, watched by England boss Gareth Southgate, hurled himself to beat the ball away and then blocked Conor Coady’s attempt from the rebound.
Five minutes later Molineux rose to celebrate the breakthrough — but it was a false start. Jimenez charged at the blue shirts in front of him and glided past three of them.
Hee-Chan Hwang poked the ball past Pickford and in off the far post, then hared off to celebrate.
But referee Martin Atkinson indicated there was a VAR check and the South Korean striker had strayed offside.
Wolves smelled fear and scored from the unlikeliest of sources on 28 minutes.
Ait-Nouri went deep at a corner and Kilman soared between Michael Keane and Ben Godfrey to score his first senior goal on his 44th appearance for Wolves.
The fact his last came for Maidenhead v Dover in April 2018 didn’t say a lot for the Toffees resilience!
But worse was to follow when they fell further behind four minutes later with a real howler.
Keane switched play to Godfrey and the left back’s attempt to play the ball back to Mason Holgate went spectacularly wrong as he played it behind him.
Jimenez was already on the move and expertly dinked the ball over the onrushing Pickford.
It was the Mexican’s 50th goal for Wolves and his first at Molineux for a year — since his horrific skull fracture last November.
Even when Everton did get forward they fluffed their lines as Andros Townsend then Holgate failed to hit the target when presented with golden chances in front of goal.
Rafa hauled off Jean-Philippe Gbamin who was sadly off the pace on his return from injury and sent on Fabian Delph with orders to protect his over-run defence.
It paid off as Everton finally had a solid base to build from, although Jimenez almost added a third on the hour when he nodded a Nelson Semedo cross off the post with Pickford beaten.
The Toffees seized a lifeline six minutes later when Iwobi gave them a shred of hope.
Godfrey’s long-range shot was blocked by Coady but the ex- Arsenal man pounced to slam the ball past Sa for his first league goal of the season and his third for Everton — all of them against Wolves.
Trincao should have restored Wolves’ two-goal advantage but somehow sliced his shot wide from eight yards.
Then ref Atkinson pointed to the spot when Holgate chopped down Trincao in full flow — only to own up to his blunder when VAR confirmed the offence took place a yard outside the box!
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
