Fresh from kicking off 2022 with a famous victory over Manchester United, Wolverhampton Wanderers switch their attention to the FA Cup on Sunday as Championship side Sheffield United travel to Molineux.
Both sides have suffered from coronavirus-related cancellations in recent times, with Wolves playing just once since December 19 and their visitors not playing since the day after that.
Match preview
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Postponed Premier League matches against Watford and Arsenal meant that it was a quieter festive period than expected for Wolves, although they made sure that their return to action was well worth the wait on Monday night.
Joao Moutinho's 82nd-minute strike earned Wolves their first away win over Manchester United in over 40 years, picking up where they had left off before their COVID-enforced break.
Bruno Lage's side are now unbeaten in their last three outings and have kept a clean sheet in all of those, including that win over Man United and a respectable goalless draw with title-chasing Chelsea.
That form has lifted Wolves up to eighth in the Premier League table and a European push could be on the cards following a slow start to the campaign, although for that they will probably need to improve their goalscoring abilities.
Wolves have found the back of the net just 14 times in their 19 outings this season - the second-worst record in the division behind rock-bottom Norwich City - although they have also only conceded 14 at the other end, a tally only leaders Manchester City can better.
Indeed, the last seven games involving Wolves have only produced four goals in total, and you have to go back to November 1 for the last time that both teams scored in one of their games, so they are not the team to watch for excitement right now.
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Lage will not care too much about that, though, particularly heading into a one-off cup tie like Sunday's, which must be decided on the day with no replays at this stage of the competition.
That said, it has been more than a month-and-a-half since Wolves fans saw their side even score a goal at Molineux, yet alone win, while in all competitions they have netted just seven times in 10 home games this season.
The visit of lower-league opposition this weekend may be greeted with greater anticipation of goals, though, as Wolves aim to make it past the third round of this competition in successive seasons for the first time in over a decade.
Their hopes may be boosted by Sheffield United's frustrating lack of action recently too, with manager Paul Heckingbottom recently admitting that his side are "desperate" for a game.
Remarkably, the Blades have not been in action since December 20, having seen games against Queens Park Rangers, Hull City, Preston North End and Middlesbrough all called off during the usually-packed festive schedule.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of all is that the postponements were all due to coronavirus outbreaks in the opposition camps, meaning that Sheffield United could yet face more disruption to their schedule should they suffer a significant outbreak of their own.
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For now, Sheffield United will relish the chance to get back on the field and will hope to quickly shake off any rust and pick up where they left off before their enforced break.
The Blades have won their last four games in a row, the first of which came shortly before Slavisa Jokanovic was sacked and the subsequent three coming under the stewardship of Heckingbottom, lifting them up to 13th in the Championship table.
Sheffield United, relegated from the top flight last season, are now closer to the playoffs than the relegation zone as they look to rebuild a campaign that had begun so poorly, and claiming a Premier League scalp in the cup will only increase confidence that they could still salvage something from 2021-22.
However, Sheffield United have lost their last four FA Cup games against top-flight opposition, and have also been knocked out on each of the three previous occasions they have faced Wolves in the competition.
Incidentally, the last of those came in 1966, which was also the last time Wolves won three consecutive matches against Sunday's opponents - an achievement they have the chance to pull off again this weekend.
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Team News
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Lage may have been planning to use this match as a chance to rest first-teamers and give fringe players a run-out, but their lack of action recently means that it is now a good opportunity to get minutes into the legs of some of his bigger names too.
The Wolves boss is limited by injuries, though, with Willy Boly, Pedro Neto, Hwang Hee-chan, Jonny and Yerson Mosquera all currently sidelined.
Romain Saiss has now joined up with Morocco at the Africa Cup of Nations too, meaning that Leander Dendoncker could fill in at the back.
Some fringe players are still likely to get a start, with John Ruddy, Fabio Silva and Ki-Jana Hoever among those pushing for a place.
Sheffield United will be without Morgan Gibbs-White, who is on loan from Wolves and therefore ineligible to play against his parent club.
One positive from their recent break from action could be the return to fitness of some players, although Robin Olsen, Jack O'Connell, Rhian Brewster and John Fleck are all still expected to miss out.
Sander Berge is now fit again, though, and he could be handed his first start since August having missed a big chunk of the season so far through injury.
Veteran striker Billy Sharp is expected to lead the line, having scored three and created three more in his last four FA Cup starts.
Wolverhampton Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Ruddy; Dendoncker, Coady, Kilman; Hoever, Neves, Moutinho, Ait-Nouri; Traore, Silva, Trincao
Sheffield United possible starting lineup:
Foderingham; Bogle, Basham, Robinson, Stevens; Berge, Norwood; McGoldrick, Ndiaye, Osborn; Sharp
We say: Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Sheffield United
A 1-0 scoreline seems like a safe bet in any Wolves game at the moment, and given that they are likely to field a fairly strong side, they should be favourites to come out on the right side of it this weekend.
Sheffield United will be raring to go, but so long without a game will surely leave them rusty, and an away trip to Premier League opposition is not the ideal match for them to return in.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Wolverhampton Wanderers win with a probability of 37.38%. A win for Sheffield United had a probability of 34.7% and a draw had a probability of 27.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Wolverhampton Wanderers win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.4%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (7.93%) and 2-0 (6.88%). The likeliest Sheffield United win was 0-1 (10.88%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.14%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 2.8% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Wolverhampton Wanderers would win this match.
