Leeds end goal drought with first-half blitz to leave sorry Wolves pointless

The dozens of Wolves supporters that stuck around until the final whistle on a grim afternoon in the Graham Hughes Stand, draped in sodden ponchos and exposed to the elements, was an image indicative of the mood here. For Vítor Pereira’s side, a fifth straight league defeat, this one against Leeds, for whom Noah Okafor, Anton Stach and Dominic Calvert-Lewin registered their first goals, the latter scoring for the only second time in 12 months.

Wolves, jeered off at full time, remain pointless, bottom of the pile and in an ominous position. Of the five other teams to lose their opening five Premier League matches, three finished bottom, the anomaly from that pack the Crystal Palace side Roy Hodgson rescued in 2017-18 after a disastrous start under Frank de Boer.

There was little to cheer from a Wolves perspective and there was a din of discontent in the stands, with supporters chanting against the owners, Fosun, and the chair, Jeff Shi. “You sold the team, now sell the club,” sang the South Bank, alluding to another summer of high-profile departures, this time Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri.

It felt as if Wolves played all their cards this week, announcing new contracts for Pereira, a popular figure after fending off the threat of relegation last season, and their main striker Jørgen Strand Larsen in the 48 hours that preceded the game. Strand Larsen had not featured this month because of an achilles problem, but Pereira felt compelled to introduce him at the interval, the Norway forward joining Tolu Arokodare, a £24m deadline-day signing, in attack after a triple substitution that also brought the arrival of Hugo Bueno and Marshall Munetsi.

Anton Stach (second right) and his teammates show their delight after he scored Leeds’s second goal. Photograph: Getty Images/Sportsphoto/Allstar

Leeds recorded the first attack of note, Gabriel Gudmundsson’s ball across the six-yard box unmet after a neat one-two with Stach, but Wolves earned the lead on eight minutes, Ladislav Krejci capping an incisive three-pass move involving four summer signings. Jackson Tchatchoua punched a pass into the feet of Arokodare, whose layoff allowed Fer López to play a first-time pass towards the penalty spot where Krejci, who eluded Sean Longstaff, arrived to finish.

Pereira will ponder how Wolves imploded in the final 15 minutes of the first half. Calvert-Lewin sent a looping header into the top-right corner after leaping above Yerson Mosquera to meet Jayden Bogle’s deflected cross and then Krejci barged into Calvert-Lewin 20 yards from goal, presenting Leeds with an inviting free-kick; Stach assumed duty and used Jean Ricner-Bellegarde, furthest left of the Wolves wall, as a mannequin and dispatched an unstoppable effort past José Sá.

João Gomes had an effort blocked after an intricate move and Arokodare flicked an effort towards the Leeds goal but, on the stroke of half-time, Leeds added a third. Stach intercepted a poor pass by Emmanuel Agbadou and spied Okafor to his left; he did the rest, drilling low across the Wolves goal and under the diving Sá.

Jhon Arias and André also came on as the rain drove down and the game edged away from the hosts. Even the notification of four minutes of second-half stoppage time was received with a communal groan. For Wolves, another dispiriting afternoon.