It took less than 45 minutes of Vítor Pereira's Wolves tenure for the fans to sing his name as he witnessed his new side thrash Leicester. The Portuguese will, however, want to take note of his opposite number, Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has gone from triumph in his first game to being booed off in fewer than three weeks.
The atmosphere at Wolves has been dark in recent weeks. Mario Lemina lost the captaincy after an altercation with West Ham's Jarrod Bowen, Matheus Cunha was charged by the Football Association for taking out his anger last weekend on spectacles belonging to a member of the Ipswich staff and Gary O'Neil paid with his job for securing only nine points from 16 games, but that was forgotten here.
There was greater cohesion for Wolves but they were aided by a brittle defence. First-half goals from Gonçalo Guedes, Rodrigo Gomes and Cunha were avoidable but the backup goalkeeper Danny Ward, on his first league start since March 2023, was the focus of the home fans' ire, receiving sarcastic cheers when he successfully completed the simplest of tasks.
The Leicester owner, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, threw soft fox toys and scarves out to fans before kick-off but his defence were even more generous, removing plenty of the festive spirit from those in blue.
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