A second-half goal from Fer Lopez handed Wolves a 1-0 victory in their derby meeting with West Brom in the Championship at Molineux on Sunday.
In the first league meeting between the two former Football League founder members in more than five years, it was the hosts who secured the bragging rights with a dominant performance against James Morrison's Albion.
Wolves could have been out of sight had it not been for an inspired performance from Baggies goalkeeper Max O'Leary, who produced a collection of impressive stops to thwart Cesar Peixoto's side.
Ultimately it was a wretched mistake from Nat Phillips that created the breakthrough as the West Brom defender played a pass straight into the path of Lopez and the Wolves forward was clinical as he netted his fifth goal of the season.
The result leaves Wolves on a high heading into the international break, while West Brom will be looking to regroup as they shrug off the disappointment of a derby day defeat.
EFL expert Gab Sutton provides his insight on the contest, highlighting Wolves' defensive improvement and West Brom's final third struggles.
Successive clean sheets for Wolves
Wolverhampton Wanderers have begun their Championship return as one of the highest scoring teams in the division, with a whopping 23 goals scored at either end in their opening five games.
They had thrilled through the velvet-like touch, assurance and control provided by Andre, and the graceful creativity of Fer Lopez.
At the other end, they had looked erratic, with Toti Gomes appearing an unconvincing centre-back partner for the aggressive Nasser Djiga, and one or two individuals like Adam Armstrong and Mateus Mane not doing their out-of-possession jobs for their team in full.
As such, boss Cesar Peixoto will be delighted with successive 1-0 wins: at Sheffield United last weekend, and then such a controlled performance against high-flying rivals West Brom this Sunday.
Andre and Munetsi are starting to strike up a real understanding in midfield, with the former holding and the latter flying forward on turnovers, where the team always looks incisive because of Lopez’s excellent decision-making.
Derby-day disappearance from West Brom
After an impressive August, West Brom’s performances have taken a drop-off in September, with four consecutive games for James Morrison’s side in which their xG For began with a 0.
It’s been down to individual quality, typically of Thomas Myhre or Jimmy-Jay Morgan, that the Baggies have scored in each of them, but perhaps it’s symptomatic of the dilemma for Morrison that he’d struggle to get two of his best performing players into the team simultaneously.
Myhre is a beautifully creative footballer, while Morgan is a joy to watch, but the former has to play as a number 10 in this 4-2-3-1, because he’s not really a central midfielder, and the latter has to play as a second striker, because he’s not really an out-and-out centre-forward.
It’s a nice problem to have, but Morrison must find solutions quickly.
There’s an argument for a 3-4-2-1 with Morgan in for Isaac Price, him and Myhre behind Heggebo, then George Campbell in for Callum Styles to play right centre-back, the two pre-existing centre-halves shuffling leftwards with Conor Townsend shifting to left wing-back, and Rabbi Nzingoula dropping to right wing-back.
