Observation Time Before Tense Run-In

Molineux regulars picking themselves up after Saturday’s defeat against Leeds will have their own thoughts on the relegation scrap but here are three for starters – and we are not talking VAR for now!

Everton are reviving without Conor Coady in their side, Wayne Hennessey seems as close to starting duty with Wales as at Nottingham Forest and Wolves probably look more dangerous on the road in the eyes of their rivals in the Premier League’s lower reaches.

There are those of us who probably thought Coady would graduate to the regular Goodison captaincy before being catapulted out of the team but he has now spent four successive games on the bench without going on.

The reintroduction of Michael Keane – a man very well known to Sean Dyche from their time together at Burnley – has cost Coady the regular place he held for five months of the season and it must be said that results have been good in the former Wolves favourite’s absence.

Two wins, one defeat and a draw at Chelsea two days ago have been accumulated from that quartet of fixtures, with two clean sheets along the way.

And, although it should be stated that the Toffees won two and lost two of the most recent four games the England international has played – again with two clean sheets – it will be interesting to see how quickly he is restored to the starting 11.

He remains only on loan from Molineux to his native Merseyside after all, so where would he stand if Dyche visualises a longer-term future for the 30-year-old on the fringes? Or if, for example, Wolves stay up and Everton go down?

Hennessey has played only two Premier League matches since joining Nottingham Forest last summer and has totalled a meagre seven senior appearances for the club despite the generous smattering of cup outings he has been given.

He has so far surprised those of us who thought he might well retire from international football at the end of his country’s unhappy World Cup in Qatar and is in Robert Page’s squad for the European Championship fixtures against Croatia and Latvia.

Time will tell whether the former Wolves keeper is ambitious to lengthen his career beyond the next Euro finals or is merely staying as part of the picture for now in the wake of the retirement of Gareth Bale, Joe Allen, Chris Gunter and Jonny Williams.

As for Wolves’ squad as a whole, one surprise trend continued to emerge amid the madness of the weekend clash.

They have now lost at home to Bournemouth and Leeds in the space of four weeks – with both of those opponents in the bottom three at the time of the meetings.

Conversely, though, Wolves have won at Everton and Southampton in their latest two away assignments against struggling teams and that bodes well for when Julen Lopetegui’s men go to Forest and then Leicester next month.