Premier League Preview: Liverpool’s Collapse & Wolves’ Relegation Dishonor How Jota Defined Both Clubs

Premier League Liverpool vs Wolves– The red yellow battle is about to erupt!

Key Highlights Inside | Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes | Don’t Miss This Tactical Battle!

How to watch the Premier League match Liverpool vs Wolves, as well as kick-off time and team news

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• Date & Local Time:  3:00pm, Saturday 27th December 2025
• Venue:  Liverpool, England
• Stadium:  Anfield

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Click here to watch the match LIVE now! 🔴 ▶️

Diogo Jota: The Fatal Crash That Fractured Two Premier League Identities

The Premier League has not recovered from the shock of Diogo Jota’s fatal car crash in January 2025—just 10 days after he signed a five-year extension with Liverpool, and 5 years after he left Wolverhampton Wanderers as their promotion-winning hero. The 29-year-old was not just a goalscorer: he was the thread connecting two clubs’ recent glories. For Liverpool, he was the “unselfish star” who turned 1-0 leads into 3-0 wins; for Wolves, he was the forward who dragged them from the Championship to the Europa League. This Saturday’s clash is the first time the two sides have met since his death—and their abysmal 2025 form has turned a “tribute match” into a bitter indictment of how far both have fallen.

Liverpool’s Midtable Drift: The Jota Void Isn’t Just Goals—It’s Their Will

Look at the 2025-26 Premier League table: Liverpool sits 5th (29 points) after 17 games, 10 points worse than their 2024-25 tally (when Jota scored 14 goals in 19 matches). The slump isn’t just about replacing his 0.7 goals per game—it’s about losing the edge he embodied. Opta data shows Liverpool’s pressing intensity against bottom-half teams has dropped 24% without him (from 11 high turnovers per game to 8); their win rate against relegation candidates has crashed from 82% (Jota’s final season) to 57% this term.

Jota didn’t just finish chances—he created chaos: dropping deep to disrupt midfielders, harrying full-backs into mistakes, and dragging defenders out of shape for Salah and Gakpo. Now, Liverpool plays like a side that expects wins to fall into their laps (they’ve dropped 12 points from winning positions this season)—a far cry from the team Jota led to the 2024 FA Cup. His absence isn’t an excuse for this slump; it’s the reason for it.

Wolves’ Relegation Abyss: Forgetting the Jota “Fight to Survive” Ethic

Wolves’ 2025-26 campaign (0 wins, 2 points, -28 goal difference) is the worst in Premier League history—and it’s a betrayal of the legacy Jota built here. Between 2017 and 2020, he scored 44 goals to drag Wolves from the Championship to the Europa League quarter-finals. In 2019, his 89th-minute winner against Burnley kept Wolves in the top flight; in 2020, he outran three Manchester City defenders to score a solo goal that secured European football.

That Wolves side was defined by Jota’s grit: they didn’t have star names, but they had his “never say die” energy. Now? They concede 2.2 goals per game, average 9.2km of running per player (Jota alone logged 12.3km per match), and have surrendered in 11 of their 17 games. This isn’t the Wolves Jota played for—it’s a side that’s given up. His name still hangs in the Molineux stands, but his spirit is nowhere to be found.

This Clash: A Tribute That Feels Like a Betrayal

Liverpool is billing Saturday as a “Jota Memorial Match”: black armbands, a minute’s silence, his face on the hoardings. But if Liverpool rolls out a lazy 4-3-3 and Wolves plays like they’re already on holiday? That’s not a tribute—it’s a disrespect. Jota would have hated this: he once skipped a post-match interview to do extra sprints after a 3-0 win over a relegation side, saying “you don’t take any game off—for the shirt, for the fans, for the lads.”

This game isn’t about 3 points for Liverpool’s top-4 push, or a faint hope of survival for Wolves. It’s about whether two clubs can honor the man who defined them by playing like he did: with rage, with grit, with pride. If they don’t? This “tribute” will be nothing more than a marketing stunt.

Team news & squads

Liverpool possible starting lineup:

Alisson; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Jones, Gravenberch; Gakpo, Mac Allister, Wirtz; Ekitike

Wolverhampton Wanderers possible starting lineup:

Sa; S Bueno, Mosquera, Doherty; Hoever, J Gomes, Andre, Krejci, Wolfe; Arokodare, Hwang

Liverpool Team News

The aftermath of Van de Ven’s “reckless” challenge has left Isak with an ankle injury that will sideline him for around two months, while the man he replaced in that contest, Conor Bradley, is rated ‘’50–50’’ due to fitness concerns.

Cody Gakpo could return on Saturday following a brief layoff with a muscle issue, though Wataru Endo (ankle), Joe Gomez (muscle) and Giovanni Leoni (ACL) remain confirmed absentees.

Dominik Szoboszlai is suspended after collecting his fifth Premier League booking of the season last time out, while Ibrahima Konate sits one caution away from a one-match ban.

Mohamed Salah has meanwhile inspired Egypt to a positive start at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, and his absence will be felt despite a reduced role prior to his departure.

Florian Wirtz’s assist for Isak’s goal marked his first direct Premier League involvement since joining this summer, while Ekitike, having scored five times in the last three top-flight matches, could become the first Liverpool player other than Salah to net in four consecutive games in England’s elite since Sadio Mane in February 2019.

Wolves News

Containing the Frenchman is made even more daunting for Wolves, with centre-back Toti Gomes ruled out for a prolonged period with a hamstring injury, further limiting Edwards’s options in the backline as Emmanuel Agbadou is away on international duty at the AFCON.

The return of Yerson Mosquera should offer some relief, though, after the 24-year-old defender missed last weekend’s defeat to Brentford through suspension, while Edwards will hope Hugo Bueno – absent for the last two outings – is fit enough to make the trip to Merseyside.

Rodrigo Gomes (groin), Jean-Ricner Bellegarde (hamstring), Marshall Munetsi (calf), Daniel Bentley (ankle) and Leon Chiwome (knee) are also unavailable, with Tawanda Chirewa representing Zimbabwe at the continental tournament in Morocco.

Centre-forward Jorgen Strand Larsen has looked a shadow of his form from last season, managing just one goal in 15 Premier League appearances, and will aim to make amends after missing a late penalty last time out, while Tolu Arokodare pushes for a starting role up front.