Express & Star

Nuno so proud of relentless Wolves after Aston Villa win

Nuno Espirito Santo has hailed Wolves' staying power after they beat Villa to enter the international break eighth in the Premier League.

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Wolves won 2-1 – in their 24th game in all competitions this term – amid a raucous atmosphere at Molineux.

A Ruben Neves stunner and a long-awaited second from Raul Jimenez came before Trezeguet came up with a late consolation for the visitors.

"We've played 24 games already and this is what makes me really proud, the way we compete," said Nuno.

"We always compete, and this is very tough to do.

"We're not relying on ups and downs. We're competing in every game. It makes me really proud."

Nuno's men dominated the first half in particular, taking advantage of a Villa team without Jack Grealish, Tom Heaton and Bjorn Engels because of injury.

Stand-in keeper Jed Steer then limped off early on, with Orjan Nyland taking his place, and Matt Targett also went off before the break after taking a knock to the head.

Neves scored from distance after a clever free-kick from Joao Moutinho, and Jimenez converted after a blistering run from Adama Traore in the second period.

"We played very, very good – very, very well," said Nuno.

"We dominated the game, especially in the first half.

"We created a lot of problems for Villa, a lot of chances."

Wolves, though, were again guilty of not converting enough of their chances – although it did not matter in the end.

They had 17 shots, meaning they have now had 62 in their last three games but only scored four goals from them.

"When you produce so many things, you must finish the actions," said Nuno.

"This what we're going to analyse now as we broke a lot of times and we had chances, but some we didn't finish.

"We have to improve on that but the way we produced and combined, the way we defended – kept the shape while always having the threat of breaking – is very good. Well played."

Nuno also confirmed Raul Jimenez was due to be assessed after he was taken off late on.

The striker hobbled off as he was replaced by Patrick Cutrone, and was seen strapping an ice pack to his leg.

"We have to assess Raul now, the medical department will assess him," added Nuno.