05 February 2024 , 22:30
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Max Kilman insists Wolves are not dreaming of Europe after manager Gary O’Neil warned they must still guarantee safety from relegation.
After completing their first league double against Chelsea for 45 years on Sunday, Wanderers moved into the Premier League's top half. And with only a four-point gap to seventh-place West Ham, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Wolves could reach the Europa Conference League.
But O’Neil has stressed that the pre-season favourites for the drop need more points to guarantee their top-flight status because the 32 they have accumulated so far will not be enough. Until that primary objective is achieved, captain Kilman says that a continental tour is not on their mind.
“We don't want to set too many goals,” he said. “We've got to take it game by game but hopefully we can finish in those positions towards the end of the season. It's not an aim, we can keep that to ourselves. We just have to finish as high as we can at the end of the season.”
Yet Wolves are making a habit of claiming the scalps of big guns - with wins against Manchester City and Tottenham on top of the double against struggling Chelsea.
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“It is hard to tell [why] but Wolves have always been a club who perform against big teams,” Kilman added. "Not taking any credit away from this, the team this season have really kicked on. We've been working hard, listening to the manager and the cohesion in the squad is really good.
"To win two times against Chelsea this season and the style we did it in was phenomenal. Coming away from home against a big club like Chelsea, we were brave on the ball and showed our quality. After going a goal down we didn't change our gameplan. Kept working, you can see our team spirit."
Moises Caicedo tries to get close to Wolves' Matheus Cunha on a day when the latter scored a hat-trick to inflict more misery on Chelsea.Kilman also had special praise for the outstanding Matheus Cunha, who scored a hat-trick at Stamford Bridge.
"He's a brilliant lad, such a nice guy off the pitch. You can see his work rate on the pitch too, down the line in the last 10 minutes and tracking his runners. Credit to him. He has been really good, he deserved the hat-trick. We've got a team of really good people, we all want to work hard together.
"He's new to the Premier League and now you can see he's really kicking on. He's played different roles this season but off the left coming in he's showing his real strengths. In the last 30-40 minutes of the game when legs are tired he can really hurt players."