We explain why Gary O’Neil’s side will have to wait for another week to play their first Premier League football in 2024.
Wolves ended 2023 extremely well. The side picked up three Premier League victories on the bounce including a 4-1 away win at Brentford and an incredible 3-0 demolishing of Everton at Molineux.
The football O’Neil Wolves has got playing is some of the best fans have seen in years. Multiple players have hit a great run of form including Hwang Hee-Chan and Rayan Ait-Nouri.
This has helped push Wolves further up the table and away from the relegation zone. By the end of 2023, the club were 11th allowing fans to dream of European football once again.
However, after an action pack festive period, Wolves don’t play again in the Premier League until January 22nd. In this article, we explain why this is the case.
Winter break starts once again in the Premier League
There had been talk of a winter break in the Premier League for years. Multiple managers advocated for a stoppage in games to give their players a rest such as Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp.
However, unlike multiple leagues throughout Europe, the Premier League does not stop completely. Instead, they stagger the games. The first five games take place across January 12-14 while the next five take place between January 20-22.
Therefore, football fans across the country can still watch Premier League football throughout the weekend while players still receive a much-needed rest after the festive period.
Why wasn’t there a winter break last year?
The winter break was first introduced to the Premier League in 2020 after it was agreed back in 2018.
In 2021, COVID-19 put an end to any hopes of continuing this trend. Multiple factors caused by the pandemic meant there was less space in the calendar so it was dropped.
In 2022 and 2023, the Qatar World Cup intervened with any plans to bring it back. As the tournament was played in the winter, the league had to take a break in the 2022/23 season for over a month, with multiple players receiving a rest in this period.
However, with no interruptions this year, the Premier League has decided to bring it back after a three-year spell out.
How will Wolves benefit from the winter break?
During the festive period, Wolves had the second-least time to recover from the games. This was mainly due to the fact that the club had to face Chelsea on Christmas Eve, in which they came out on top 2-1.
The club then quickly faced Brentford before taking on Everton. O’Neil asked the Premier League if the match against the Toffees could be put back a day. However, this was seen as not possible.
However, after their 1-1 draw away to Brentford in the FA Cup, the club have had time to rest and even went away to the UAE.
Before the replay, Wolves were set to benefit the most from the break, with 17 days between their FA Cup game and their next Premier League match. However, this has now been cut to 11 days due to Tuesday’s replay at Molineux.
The break will certainly be a much-needed break for the squad who were clearly worn out after a busy period. Hopefully, they will now come back fresher to face Brentford once again next week.