The Eagles sign off ahead of the September international break with their second home fixture of the season, having only narrowly lost out to league contenders Arsenal last time out at Selhurst Park.
Hodgson cited a resolute draw at Brentford and impressive performances in wins at Sheffield United and Plymouth Argyle (the latter in the Carabao Cup), plus solid displays against Sevilla and Olympique Lyonnais in pre-season, as the basis for his forecast.
“Getting victories before going on international break, everyone knows that’s a very nice thing to do,” the manager said in his pre-match press conference.
“If we can play as well at home against Wolves as we did against Arsenal I won’t be disappointed, that’s for sure, because I thought that was a very good performance. I tend to try not to see things as black and white – you can lose while playing well and win while not playing very well.
“I’m hoping we’ll take the form we’ve shown in the last two pre-season matches, and the four [competitive games] we’ve had [forwards]. I’m looking back over six games with our first-team, and I’m more than happy with what I’ve seen so far.
“Our task now is to keep it up, because this is not anything like an athletic sprint. You can win a few home games and be at the races at the start of the season, but if you win the 100m sprint at the end of the season, you get an Olympic gold medal.
“That’s what we always think: we’ve got to get to that gold medal and keep producing performances, doing well, getting points, and making certain if we do get one or two good results, we don’t start thinking we’re no good when we don’t get them.
“For me, it’s more about preparing the team for the performance and the threat we know Wolves will come here with, and making certain we’re capable of confronting that situation.”