Wolves might be the worst team in Premier League history

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The numbers just keep on getting worse for Wolverhampton Wanderers in a season that is threatening to set a new low in Premier League history.

Heading into the 16th round of the campaign Wolves are still winless. Sitting bottom of the standings, relegation to the Championship looks inevitable and the job for recently hired coach Rob Edwards now appears to be a case of damage limitation.

Unwanted records are in sight and on Saturday Wolves travel to first-place Arsenal.

With just two points from 15 games so far Wolves are tracking toward a record-low points tally of five if they maintain that form for the rest of the season. That's less than half the lowest-ever Premier League total of 11 points by Derby County in the 2007-8 campaign.

“We’ve got to try to improve. We’ve got to try to find that belief,” said Edwards this week, but a 4-1 home loss to Manchester United on Monday saw fans protest against the club's Chinese owners Fosun.

Some fans boycotted the first 15 minutes of the game and protested outside the stadium. There were further protests during the match as Wolves fell to an eighth-straight league loss.

The last win in the league was in April against a Leicester team on course for relegation. That was at the end of a six-game winning streak that helped Wolves avoid the drop last term, but it has been bad news ever since, with coach Vitor Pereira fired in November and Edwards so far failing to inspire a turnaround.

But Wolves are still some way from the longest losing run in Premier League history. According to statistician Opta, Sunderland lost 20 games in succession — spanning two campaigns.

A streak of 15-straight losses in the 2002-3 campaign was the most in a single season and Sunderland went on to lose another five games when it return to the top flight in 2005.

Wolves appear to be paying the price for a talent drain in recent years, which has seen a series of top players sold.

Pedro Neto left for Chelsea last year. That was followed by the sales of Rayan Ait-Nouri to Manchester City and Matheus Cunha to Manchester United in the last transfer window. Matheus Nunes (City), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest) and Ruben Neves (Al-Hilal) have been other high profile departures to weaken a team that had back-to-back seventh-place finishes in 2019 and 2020.

While Derby's record has stood for the best part of 20 years, Wolves' troubles point to a recent trend in England's top flight.

Southampton was relegated last year with the second worst points total of 12 points. It took an unlikely draw against Man City in the third to last game of the season to avoid equaling Derby's total.

Sheffield United has the fourth-lowest points total — 16 — recorded in the 23-24 campaign.

Derby also has the record fewest wins in a Premier League season, with just one in that 2007-8 campaign.

Wolves are currently 13 points adrift of safety with a goal difference of -25, but defender Emmanuel Agbadou insisted this week: “we’re not going to give up.”

“We’re going to try to give everything to at least finish our season well,” he said.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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