West Ham enter their key trip to Molineux under pressure, with Jarrod Bowen urging the squad to become nastier and more streetwise as the club fights to escape the Premier League relegation zone against
a Wolves side still chasing a first victory of the season after 19 attempts.
Bowen scored in the 2-2 draw with Brighton, a match that featured three first-half penalties and eight yellow cards, yet the point still left Nuno Espirito Santo’s team starting 2026 in the bottom three, four points behind 17th-placed Nottingham Forest and needing a strong response against Wolves.
The Opta supercomputer rates Wolves’ position as especially bleak, assigning a 99.8% likelihood of relegation with 19 league fixtures left, after a sequence of 23 Premier League games without a win that mirrors Derby County’s long barren spell of 32 matches in the 2007-08 campaign.
Wolves’ winless start across 19 Premier League matches places the club alongside Bolton Wanderers’ 1902-03 team as the only sides in English top-flight history to fail to win any of their first 19 league games, underlining how deep this season’s struggle has become at Molineux.
West Ham also arrive in poor form, having gone eight Premier League matches without a victory since early November, with four draws and four defeats, and the last time the club endured a longer winless top-flight streak was a nine-game run between March and May 2011.
Despite that slide, West Ham’s record in the first league fixture of each calendar year has been relatively strong, with just one defeat in the last eight opening games since 2018, although that loss came in a 4-1 reverse at Manchester City in 2025.
West Ham will try to avoid losing the first league game in consecutive calendar years for the first time since the period from 2006 to 2008, when the club suffered three such defeats in a row, adding extra importance to the trip to Molineux in early 2026.
Wolves vs West Ham key statistics and probabilities
Wolves finally stopped a sequence of 11 straight Premier League defeats with a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, when Ladislav Krejci struck an equaliser on 45 minutes, yet that solitary point has not changed the broader picture of a club entrenched in relegation trouble this season.
The Opta model expects a very tight match between Wolves and West Ham, with neither side in form and both operating near the bottom of the table, and the projection leans slightly towards the visitors while still rating a home victory or draw as realistic outcomes.
| Outcome | Opta win probability |
|---|---|
| Wolves win | 35.9% |
| Draw | 26.1% |
| West Ham win | 38% |
That same Opta assessment labels Wolves overwhelming favourites to go down, giving a 99.8% chance of relegation to the Championship, while also highlighting West Ham’s own slide, as the club has not won in the league since back-to-back victories at the beginning of November.
Wolves vs West Ham tactical edge and Nuno factor
Nuno Espirito Santo faces his former club again and carries a strong Premier League record against Wolves, remaining unbeaten over four meetings with two wins and two draws, including away victories at Molineux while managing Spurs in August 2021 and Nottingham Forest in January 2025.
Historically, West Ham have struggled at Molineux in the Premier League era, losing five of the last seven away league matches against Wolves, though the visitors will recall important wins there in April 2021, when they triumphed 3-2, and April 2024, when they secured a 2-1 success.
Six fixtures in January to start 2026pic.twitter.com/fo7IOj3jSDWest Ham United (@WestHam) January 1, 2026
Wolves vs West Ham mentality and Jarrod Bowen view
The feisty draw with Brighton, which included eight cautions shared by the teams, has convinced Bowen that West Ham must lean on aggression as well as technique during this phase of the season, especially with the side sitting in the relegation zone as 2026 begins.
"The handbags and stuff, that fighting spirit is what you need, that fight, that desire to win will get you points in this league," Bowen said. Bowen wants that combative approach every week so West Ham become a side opponents dislike facing at London Stadium or away.
Bowen has warned that West Ham cannot treat the Wolves fixture as a simple assignment just because the hosts have not won in the league this season, stressing that the squad must handle expectations, accept the pressure, and earn the right to play before targeting three crucial points.
Wolves vs West Ham players to watch
Tolu Arokodare has emerged as a bright spot for Wolves in attack since scoring a first Premier League goal against Arsenal, and Arokodare impressed again at Old Trafford, where the forward led the team for touches in the box, chances created and aerial duels won in the 1-1 draw.
Bowen remains central to West Ham’s attacking hopes, having drawn level with Michail Antonio on 101 combined Premier League goals and assists for the club with the strike against Brighton, and Bowen has enjoyed this particular fixture, scoring six league goals against Wolves, more than against any other opponent.
Wolves vs West Ham Wolves response and Ladislav Krejci view
Ladislav Krejci believes Wolves can take heart from the Manchester United draw despite their long winless league run, viewing the performance and result as a possible platform for an unlikely survival effort across the remaining 19 Premier League fixtures of the current campaign.
"We're happy with it, it's something that we can build on when we go into the second half of the season, and also for the next year. Of course, we want more, and we could have got more, but we also could have lost the points in the end. But also, in the end, we were close to conceding, so we were a bit lucky, but this is how it is, and we have to take it and go. It's a good point and a base that we can build on. "
With both clubs winless for months and facing intense pressure near the bottom of the table, the meeting at Molineux shapes up as a tense occasion, and the supercomputer’s expectation of a draw underlines how evenly matched Wolves and West Ham appear despite their contrasting statistical odds of relegation.
