DDecember was always going to be a tough month for Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham. Spurs faced exciting domestic and continental encounters with the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Rangers and Bournemouth and failed to win all four. Of the eight games this month they won two, namely Southampton and Manchester United, and the latter they tried with all their might to throw away.

Next up for Postecoglou’s team is the home game against Wolves on Sunday. On paper, a meeting with a team threatened by relegation should hardly pose a threat to Spurs. However, Wolves head into the capital at the weekend having won back-to-back league wins against Leicester and Manchester United. Vítor Pereira made the desired impact when he replaced Gary O’Neil at the helm at Molineux earlier this month, watching his side score five goals and not concede a single one.

This will be a real test for the Spurs side, who lost their fourth centre-back, Radu Dragusin, to injury in the 1-0 Boxing Day defeat to Nottingham Forest. With injuries mounting due to Postecoglou’s relentless schedule and intensive training sessions, Spurs ended the defeat at the City Ground with a centre-back team of Archie Gray and Yves Bissouma, two central midfielders by trade.

Even if Spurs were at full strength, they would have struggled to contain one of the Premier League’s best players. Matheus Cunha was again influential as Wolves beat United, scoring the ‘Olympico’ from a corner in the second half, Ruben Amorim’s side’s second goal in eight days, before setting up Hwang Hee-chan’s late strike . With the January transfer window fast approaching, it’s no wonder the Brazilian has attracted interest from some of the Premier League’s top players.

Wolves can ill afford to be without a highly-rated striker in the new year who has been directly involved in 14 of their 29 league goals this season, scoring 10, as they look to cement their place in the top flight. Even before Pereira’s appointment, Cunha’s performances ensured that Wolves remained effectively alone and overcame the drop. He scored the goals he perhaps shouldn’t have, Thursday’s goal being a case in point.

The fact that Cunha exceeded his expected goal yield by 6.02 is the largest overperformance in the division. Given the quality of the opportunities he was given, he should have only scored four league goals this season. Although unsustainable, Cunha’s performances in the final third are a key reason why Wolves have scored 29 league goals in the 2024-25 season – just one less than reigning Premier League champions Manchester City – and are now one point behind outside the relegation zone.

The 25-year-old is the driving force of this Wolves side in the final third, having completed the fifth-most dribbles (38) and the 11th-most key passes (33), the former key for a Wolves side averaging the seventh-lowest possession return (46.6%) as they aim to reduce pressure on the defense. It is this ability to slide past a marker that will undoubtedly prove crucial in Sunday’s game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Not only do Wolves have a very good record against Spurs, having won four of their last six trips to the capital, but Postecoglou’s side continue to be short of key players in defence. Even at full strength, Spurs would have had problems with Wolves’ lightning-fast counterattacks. In fact, at the time of writing, only Sunday’s opponents have scored more counterattack goals (10) than Wolves (7).

This is a Spurs team that really struggles with transitions. Without Micky van de Ven’s pace in defense, opponents find it easy to turn defense into attack and break the lines with a single pass due to Postecoglou’s desire to send men forward. For this Wolves side, capable of moving forward quickly and with Cunha acting as a catalyst in the final third, things could get ugly for Spurs in the capital this weekend.

Wolves proved at the start of last season how effective they can be when their runners are given enough space to capitalize on. While Wolves failed to get a result in the 1-0 defeat at United last August, proving their undoing, Cunha and Co. scored more goals to pick up vital points. Postecoglou may have to compromise his principles – something easier said than done for the Australian – if Spurs want to avoid Cunha-induced embarrassment.