Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui says guiding the Midlands club to 40 Premier League points is his “most important achievement” as a manager – even more so than winning the Europa League with Sevilla.
Wolves were joint bottom of the Premier League when Lopetegui replaced the sacked Bruno Lage late last year, but have won seven of their nine home games in 2023 to climb to 13th.
“It has been my most difficult achievement as a coach, much more difficult than [winning] the Europa League and putting Sevilla in the Champions League,” Lopetegui said.
“It was a very bad situation [when I arrived]. We arrived here in December with 10 points at the bottom. A lot of people called me, ‘you are crazy, why do you go there?’
“To arrive at 40 points, it’s not mathematic but we are very close to our aim.”
Villa have been enjoying a new lease of life under Unai Emery but were wasteful in front of goal at Molineux, enabling Wolves to hold out for a precious victory.
“We have played against the best team in the second half of the season and we deserved to win,” Lopetegui told BBC Match of the Day. “We’re happy for the players.”
‘We tried to be honest after Brighton defeat’
Wolves suffered their heaviest league defeat since 2007 at Brighton last weekend, but Lopetegui’s team delivered the perfect response to register their fourth consecutive home clean sheet and fourth successive top-flight win at Molineux – a feat they last achieved in April 1975.
“We tried to be honest with the players to tell them they are not this team [that lost at Brighton],” Lopetegui continued. “Maybe they can have a bad day, but they are not this team.
“In football, you can win or lose but the most important thing is to say we put it all on the pitch. That’s my only demand and they did it today.”
Lopetegui, who celebrated passionately at the final whistle, reserved special praise for the club’s supporters after they stuck by his side following the humbling defeat at Amex Stadium.
“They had a big disappointment in the last match against Brighton [but] today they showed their best,” he said.
“Without our fans, all of this [would not have been] possible.”
