By Sunny Badwal, PA
Marc Guehi’s equaliser denied Wolves their first win of the Premier League season as Crystal Palace took a share of the spoils in an entertaining 2-2 draw at Molineux.
After Southampton’s victory over Everton earlier in the day, the result left Wolves languishing rock-bottom in the table and are without a victory from their first 10 matches.
Wolves have the league’s leakiest defence and came close to going a goal down several times in the first period courtesy of chances from Daichi Kamada and Eddie Nketiah before Trevoh Chalobah blocked his own team-mate Jean-Philippe Mateta’s effort.
Jorgen Strand Larsen and Joao Gomes helped Wolves come from behind and take the lead after Chalobah opened the scoring, but Guehi’s leveller ensured Wolves’ winless run continued.
It could have been worse for the hosts as Mateta had a last-gasp effort ruled out by VAR, but both sides had to settle for a point.
Only five teams have survived relegation after failing to win any of their opening 10 games, and it leaves Wolves as one of only two sides in the division without a win, alongside Ipswich, while Palace hover just above the drop zone on seven points.
Pablo Sarabia came in for Mario Lemina in Gary O’Neil’s only change, while Oliver Glasner was forced to opt for Daichi Kamada and Ismaila Sarr following injuries to key pair Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton.
Glasner’s side were first to threaten – Craig Dawson threw his body in the way of Will Hughes’ powerful goalbound effort before Kamada’s follow-up found the gloves of Jose Sa.
Palace ought to have been a goal up in the 30th minute.
Chalobah beat the offside trap from Guehi’s header across goal as his miskick fell nicely for Mateta from five yards, but the striker blasted the ball straight at the on-loan Chelsea defender with the goal gaping.
Matheus Cunha looked the livewire for the hosts, and he teed up Sarabia, who blasted straight at Dean Henderson as he took one straight in the face to keep the scores level straight after the interval.
Crystal Palace caught wind of the nervous energy inside Molineux and broke the deadlock on the hour mark.
Sa failed to deal with Hughes’ floated free-kick which ended up in the path of Chalobah, who buried it into an empty net.
O’Neil reacted and made three substitutions, which did not go down well with the home support. Chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” were aimed in the way of the Wolves boss.
The home side were in danger of losing the plot as Ismaila Sarr capitalised on Nelson Semedo’s lazy pass but curled wide.
Molineux erupted in the 67th minute. A wonderful pass from Santiago Bueno picked out the run of Cunha, and he squared across for Strand Larsen to coolly slot beyond Henderson.
Wolves turned the game on its head five minutes later. Cunha was again central to the move and slipped in Goncalo Guedes, who pulled back for Gomes to make it 2-1.
Palace hit back as Wolves failed to deal with another set-piece situation.
Daniel Munoz was first to react from a corner and flicked Kamada’s delivery on to Guehi, who was waiting at the back stick to tap home.
Palace thought they nicked the winner deep into stoppage time as Sa spilled into the onrushing Mateta, but his celebrations were cut short by Anthony Taylor for Munoz’s foul on the goalkeeper.
