From third to third‑bottom: Tottenham's survival fight takes them to Wolves

LONDON, April 24 : The last time Tottenham Hotspur played Wolverhampton Wanderers they were third in the Premier League table and victory would have lifted them to second.

On Saturday, they go to Molineux third from bottom with five games remaining and fighting for their top-flight lives.

Wolves have been bottom of the table all season and are already relegated but any notion that Tottenham will easily avoid equalling a new club record for a winless league run by rolling over Rob Edwards's team can be dismissed.

Tottenham required a stoppage-time equaliser in the 1-1 home draw in September and since then have dropped like a stone with manager Thomas Frank and his interim replacement Igor Tudor both sacked.

Winless in their last 15 league games, they will equal a club record dating back to the 1934-35 season if they do not beat Wolves and more importantly it would increase the possibility of a first top-flight relegation since 1977.

New manager Roberto De Zerbi will hope to earn his first win at Wolves, after a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland and last week's 2-2 draw at home with his former club Brighton and Hove Albion who equalised in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

West Ham United's 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace on Monday left Tottenham two points adrift of the safety zone and De Zerbi knows that victory on Saturday is vital.

"I don't want to put pressure but we have to know the situation, we can't forget the table and that we need to win, and maybe what we have done until now is not enough," De Zerbi said at his pre-match news conference.

"Even if we win at Wolves it's not finished yet anyway, there are four more games. But right now I think we deserve to win a game. We played a very good game against Brighton and were unlucky."

Tot