Nuno hails Wolves’ competitive spirit after gruelling start to season

Nuno Espirito Santo has spoken of his pride at the way Wolves are managing their busy schedule this season.

Wanderers will play their 17th game of the campaign when they face champions Manchester City on Sunday.

Nuno’s side head to the Etihad Stadium buoyed by picking up their first Premier League win of the season and first victory in the Europa League in the past eight days.

The Wolves boss said: “I am very proud of the way we compete. It is all about that – the spirit of wanting always to compete, preparing to compete, no matter which opponent you have, no matter which competition, being always ready and having this character of going all game knowing you are sometimes down but you still want to compete and achieve something.

“I am very, very, very pleased, very, very, very happy on that because we started some while ago in July, we have 17 games and it is a lot of competition already.

“But always the same this spirit of fighting for each ball and we are going to go again.”

Following a disappointing run of five matches without a win in September, which included three defeats, Wolves have recorded back-to-back wins and clean sheets against Watford and Besiktas.

Asked if those results had helped increase confidence in the squad, Nuno said: “It is the same.

“It is about realising that there’re up and downs, we must react to be up again. We achieve good performances, but we still I think have to improve and get better, because sustaining is always our final objective.

“To sustain our level, we know it is hard but we will try and be obsessed with achieving that on a regular basis.”

Manchester City are on a five-game winning streak in all competitions and Nuno knows Wolves will have to be at their best to avoid becoming the latest scalp for Pep Guardiola’s side.

“They have runs like this always. It is what I said about sustaining, sustaining through all the season a level of high performance is very difficult,” he said.

“The big teams do it – City do it, Liverpool do it, other teams do it.

Diogo Jota remains an injury doubt for Wolves. The Portuguese forward – a key player for Wanderers – has been nursing a foot problem recently that caused him to miss the victories against Watford and Besiktas.

Jota did not travel to Istanbul as Nuno opted to leave him in England to receive treatment in the hope that he would recover in time to be involved against City.

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