Hwang Hee-chan took advantage of chaotic defending from Brentford with a brace to provide Wolves with a festive double after a frantic first half featuring four goals. His team followed up their home victory over Chelsea with a first win in London in 15 league trips.
Nathan Collins dished out two late Christmas presents to his former club to complete a miserable evening for depleted Brentford. Their fourth successive defeat leaves them looking over their shoulders with third-bottom Luton lurking within four points.
Brentford will have the chance to put this emphatic defeat right with a home FA Cup tie against Wolves in just over a week, but their immediate concern will be arresting their alarming slide down the league with Saturday’s game at Crystal Palace assuming greater significance. Brentford conceded three first-half goals for the first time in the Premier League and were architects of their own downfall. Mario Lemina’s header delivered the breakthrough for Wolves and Hwang scored the second – within 12 seconds of the restart – after seizing upon Collins’s dreadful back pass.
Yoane Wissa responded with a firm finish but Wolves punished the porous Brentford defence with Hwang scoring his second, and the fourth goal of the game, in a frenetic opening 28 minutes. Another Collins clanger gifted Wolves their final goal in the second half.
Thomas Frank offered his backing to Collins after the defender’s disappointing evening. The Brentford head coach said: “I told him ‘it will be impossible to be worse than this’ ironically with a smile on my face. He’s been very positive for us this season. It happens.
“Today it will be tough and tonight he will be down but one thing’s for sure, tomorrow the sun will rise again with a new opportunity. I expect him to walk in to the training ground with his head high and go again. Nathan will be fine. It will be tough and he will never forget it but he will be stronger for it.”
An early scare almost handed Wolves the lead with Hwang’s low cross nearly diverted by Vitaly Janelt into his own net. Brentford did not heed the warning, though, and Wolves opened the scoring from their next attack. Pablo Sarabia delivered a pinpoint cross for Lemina to head past the goalkeeper Mark Flekken for his second goal in four days.
It got even worse for Brentford straight from the kick-off, with a horribly short back pass from Collins pounced on by Hwang for the forward to round Flekken and tap into the empty net.
Brentford struck back almost immediately with a flick-on by Neal Maupay enabling Wissa to smash the ball past José Sá to continue the chaos. Janelt should have equalised shortly afterwards but his header from Keane Lewis-Potter’s cross was straight at Sá.
Brentford’s generosity at the back again cost them dearly with Wolves restoring their two-goal lead. A poor clearance by Collins, after a short pass from Flekken, was headed firmly back by Toti and Hwang controlled the ball, flicked it round Ethan Pinnock and fired a low effort into the net for his 10th league goal of the season.
Hwang was forced off in first-half injury time and replaced by Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, but Gary O’Neil played down any long-term concern for the South Korean forward. The Wolves head coach said: “It was a back spasm. He will be fine for the Asia Cup and hopefully we’ll get him back for the Everton game [on Saturday]. It’s a tight turnaround but he’s already moving better since he came off. Ten goals for us is an unbelievable return.”
Brentford needed a swift response at the start of the second half and nearly pulled a goal back from Wissa’s cutback but the ball evaded the half-time substitute Mikkel Damsgaard and Lewis-Potter was unable to get a shot away from close range. Frank’s side were swarming over their opponents and Lewis-Potter’s strike deflected into the arms of Sá as they stepped up the pressure.
Wolves had barely troubled the hosts in the second half, as they were content to contain their opponents, but almost added a fourth goal on the break through Matheus Cunha with the Brazilian forward’s low strike cannoning off the far post.
Wolves were handed a fourth goal by another nightmare mistake from Collins. His hapless sideways pass went straight to Cunha and the forward laid the ball off to Bellegarde for a simple finish. It was another defensive blunder, with Wolves pouncing to secure their biggest league win of the season.
