Hwang Hee-chan took advantage of calamitous defending from Brentford with two goals to provide Wolves with a festive double after a frantic first half that featured four goals. His team followed up their 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 on Friday week, but their immediate concern will be arresting their alarming slide down the league with Saturday’s game at Crystal Palace now 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 on Collins’s dreadful backpass.
Yoane Wissa responded with a firm finish but Wolves punished the porous Brentford defence again, with Hwang scoring his second and the fourth goal of the game in a frenetic opening 28 minutes.
Brentford made three changes from the team beaten by Aston Villa on 17 December, with Collins replacing the suspended defender Ben Mee. Neal Maupay was promoted to the attack with Yehor Yarmoliuk starting in midfield, while Mikkel Damsgaard and Mathias Jørgensen dropped to the bench.
Wolves were forced into one change from the team that defeated Chelsea with Santiago Bueno replacing the injured defender Craig Dawson. Pedro Neto was back on the bench after the attacker’s two-month layoff with a hamstring injury.
An early scare almost handed Wolves the lead when Hwang’s low cross was nearly diverted into his own net by Vitaly Janelt. 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 worse for Brentford straight from the kick-off when a back pass was left short by the former Wolves defender, Collins. It was pounced on by Hwang and the forward rounded Flekken and tapped into the net.
Brentford struck back almost immediately with a flick-on by 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, before flicking it round Ethan Pinnock and firing a low effort into the net for his 10th league goal of the season.
Hwang did not last the half with the forward taking a knock in injury time before being replaced by Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.
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Brentford should have scored a second goal right before half-time but Maupay snatched at his shot in front of goal and the ball flew agonisingly past the post.
Thomas Frank’s team needed a swift response at the start of the second half and nearly pulled a goal back from Wissa’s cut-back but the ball evaded the half-time substitute Mikkel Damsgaard and Lewis-Potter was unable to get a shot away from close range.
Brentford were swarming over their opponents at the start of the second half and Lewis-Potter’s strike deflected into the arms of Sá as they stepped up the pressure.
Brentford dominated possession during the second half but were struggling to find the decisive touch to threaten a comeback. Wolves had barely troubled the hosts after the break, content to contain, but they 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 with another disastrous mistake from Collins. His hapless sideways pass went straight to Cunha and the forward laid the ball off to the substitute, Bellegarde, for a simple finish. Collins will want to quickly forget the evening after his costly blunders contributed to Brentford’s downfall.
It was another defensive calamity with Wolves taking full advantage to secure their biggest league win of the season and leave Brentford with cause for concern heading towards the new year.