Wolverhampton’s match against Sheffield Wednesday last week was emblematic of their season so far in many ways. A victory, combined with a key contribution from a Portuguese player, this time Rúben Neves scoring the solitary goal.

Since his arrival at the club in May, Wolves manager Nuno Espírito Santo has leaned heavily on the Portuguese internationals, as well as Willy Boly and Léo Bonatini, whom once plied their trade in the Primeira Liga. In a short time, Espírito Santo has built a winning side, one that has the West Midlands club sitting on top of the English Championship at Christmas.

What have been the key factors to this success story? PortuGOAL takes a closer look at the ongoing Portuguese experiment at Wolverhampton, with help from Thomas Baugh of Wolves Blog.

This has inadvertently become an annual tradition for me.

That is, to compose a defense of Cristiano Ronaldo against the stream of accusations that continually spew from a diverse collection of tabloids and on social media.

Addressing each individual allegation would be impractical such is their collective volume, but I consider it judicious to periodically offer a contrasting perspective to the customary and unimaginative drivel aimed at the 4-time Ballon d’Or winner.

If I don’t do it, who else will? Pause a moment and use the Google to see if you might find any article from a non-Portuguese outlet that even attempts to cast Ronaldo in a positive light.

A daisy if you do.

More than a few eyebrows were raised in the summer when it was announced that Renato Sanches, European football’s ‘Golden Boy’ award winner for 2016, would be joining perennial English Premier League strugglers Swansea in a season-long loan deal from Bayern Munich.

It was a move that was greeted with outright surprise in some quarters – why on earth would he trade life at the German champions for a basement battle in England?

After all, the 20-year-old was the toast of Euro 2016 after helping to guide Portugal to the title, and he was duly named the Young Player of the Tournament. Not bad for a teenager barely out of short trousers.

Wolverhampton. A city in the heart of England that bares almost no resemblance to the sun-kissed lands of Portugal.

However, of late, this city has become a haven for some of Portugal’s finest up and coming talents, the reason being Jorge Mendes, unsurprisingly. One particularly sparkling addition to the ever-growing tribe of Portuguese talents to make their way to the Black Country is Atletico Madrid loanee, Diogo Jota.

Jota was named the PFA Championship Player of the Month for September last week. PortuGOAL takes a look at the immediate impact the 20-year-old has made in England’s second tier.