ON the day Spurs decided they could do without Nuno Esperito Santo – his old club proved there is life after Nuno!
Wolves fans chanted “Bruno Lage’s barmy army,” as their team stretched their unbeaten run to five matches to move into seventh in the table.
The improvement since Lage kicked off his Molineux career with three straight defeats without scoring has been steady rather than spectacular but the new guy from Portugal is impressive.
Only Chelsea and Arsenal have won more Premier games than Wolves since the start of September.
Lage even managed to coax a first-ever senior goal from Max Kilman – while Raul Jimenez added a second with his first Molineux goal for a year.
The fact it came against Everton was less surprising as he has now scored in all five Premier games he has played against the Toffees.
Rafa Benitez will take small comfort that he got a response from his players after a pitiful first half.
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.
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If Rafa Benitez was wondering if his players were still mentally scarred by conceding four goals in that bizarre last 15 minutes at Watford – it didn’t take long for his darkest fears to be confirmed.
Once Wolves had sparred with them for 10 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.
After 10 minutes Rayan Ait-Nouri’s corner was headed out by Seamus Coleman and Ruben Neves met it on the volley.
However, Pickford, watched by England boss Gareth Southgate, hurled himself to his left to beat the ball away and then blocked Conor Coady’s attempt from the rebound.
Five minutes later Molineux rose to celebrate the breakthrough goal – but it turned out to be a false start.
Raul Jimenez, looking back to his fearsome best, charged at the blue shirts massed in front of him and glided past three of them as if they weren’t there before slipping a pass inside.
Hee-Chan Hwang picked up the baton and poked the ball past Pickford and in off the far post, then hared off to celebrate.
However referee Martin Atkinson indicated there was a VAR check and once the lines were drawn in it was clear the South Korean striker had strayed offside.
Everton breathed again but Wolves smelled their fear and were enjoying the freedom of midfield and picking the visitors off between the lines.
Seamus Coleman’s frustrations boiled over after Wolves sliced through his non-existent middlemen again and lashed the ball off the advertising boards after desperately blocking Jimenez.
The old warhorse clearly knew what was coming because Wolves scored from the corner from the unlikeliest of sources.
Ait-Nouri went deep and Max Kilman soared between Michael Kean and Ben Godfrey to score his first senior goal on his 44th appearance for Wolves.
The fact his last one came for Maidenhead against Dover in April 2018 didn’t say a lot for the Toffees resilience!
However, 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-Phillipe 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 Semedo cross off the post with Pickford beaten.
However, the Toffees seized a lifeline six minutes later when Alex Iwobi gave them hope.
Godfrey’s long-range shot was blocked by Coady but Iwobi pounced to slam the ball past Sa for his first goal of the season and his third for Everton – all of them scored against Wolves.
Trincao should have restored Wolves two-goal advantage but sliced his shot wide from eight yards.
Then Martin Atkinson pointed to the spot when Holgate chopped down Trincao – only to own up to his blunder when VAR confirmed the offence took place a yard outside the box!
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