Chelsea 3 Wolves 1 - Report
Wolves’ defensive frailties were once again their downfall as they fell to a third straight Premier League defeat with a loss at Chelsea.
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Tosin Adarabioyo gave the hosts a deserved first half advantage before Wolves rallied to equalise through Matt Doherty just before the break.
But the visitors’ good work at the start of the second half was quickly undone when Marc Cucurella ghosted into the box to tap Chelsea back into the lead.
Noni Madueke added a third from a set piece - the 19th Wolves have conceded this season - to wrap up the points for Chelsea.
As a result, Wolves have now conceded 51 league goals in 22 top flight games, the worst record in the league and one worse than bottom club Southampton.
Analysis
Vitor Pereira made three changes to the team that lost at Newcastle last week.
Nelson Semedo, Pablo Sarabia and Matheus Cunha all came into the team as Rodrigo Gomes, Goncalo Guedes and Hwang Hee-chan all dropped to the bench.
For Chelsea, former Wolves attacker Pedro Neto started out wide.
As the game got under way Wolves looked shaky in defence, with Emmanuel Agbadou in particular giving away a few passes, but the visitors offered some threat on the counter as both Cunha and Jorgen Strand Larsen both came close to going through on goal.
Chelsea were enjoying far too much space down both flanks, however, as they looked for the opening goal.
Jose Sa was called into action when Cole Palmer was afforded too much space and took aim from distance, as the hosts took control of the game.
Wolves made a tactical switch when Semedo and Rayan Ait-Nouri switched flanks, with the latter struggling to mark Madueke.
When Wolves did attack, they were too negative, as shown when Sarabia slowed the game down on a counter-attack and passed backwards to Doherty, who then made an error to allow Nicolas Jackson to charge forward, but Agbadou cleared his lines.
Doherty then made another error when he did not hear Sa’s call and tried to head back to the goalkeeper, who had already come to claim it. He fortunately was able to get to the ball ahead of Neto to clear it.
But from that corner, Chelsea took the lead. The ball fell to Reece James on the edge of the box, who saw his shot deflected into the path of Tosin to finish from close range. It was originally given offside, but VAR gave the goal.
Wolves had an improved spell just before half-time and in six minutes of added time they managed to capitalise on it just before the break.
Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez dropped the ball after a corner, and Doherty reacted quickest to dart in and finish from close range, taking the sides into half-time drawing 1-1.
The second half started in fairly even fashion with little action in either box, until Chelsea restored their lead on the hour mark.
A cross was flicked on by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as Wolves’ defence fell asleep, allowing Cucurella to make his run and finish from close range.
Just five minutes later it got even worse for Wolves as they once again conceded from a set piece.
Palmer whipped in a free-kick near the corner flag, Trevoh Chalobah beat Semedo at the far post to head back across goal, allowing Madueke to head it over the line.
Wolves huffed and puffed for a way back into the game, and Cunha did force Sanchez into a save from distance, but they never looked likely to find the back of the net.
In fact, their best player in Cunha was demonstrating some remarkably poor body language as he showed little interest in helping Wolves get back into the game.
Larsen had a shot on target that was straight at Sanchez, before Jackson fired wide from inside the box when he should have added Chelsea’s fourth.
Wolves’ abject performance came to an end after five minutes of added time, as they were beaten comfortably at Stamford Bridge.
Key Moments
GOAL 24 Tosin fires Chelsea into the lead
GOAL 45+5 Doherty taps home from close range
GOAL 60 Cucurella restores Chelsea’s lead
GOAL 65 Madueke puts Chelsea firmly in control
Team
Wolves: Sa, Semedo, Doherty, Bueno, Agbadou, Ait-Nouri (R.Gomes, 75), Andre (Bellegarde, 75), J.Gomes, Sarabia (Guedes, 75), Cunha, Larsen.
Subs not used: Johnstone, Dawson, Lima, Doyle, Forbs, Hwang.
Chelsea: Sanchez, James (Gusto, 76), Tosin, Chalobah, Cucurella, Caicedo, Dewsbury-Hall (Disasi, 76), Madueke (George, 84), Palmer (Felix, 84), Neto (Sancho, 62), Jackson.
Subs not used: Jorgensen, Acheampong, Nkunku, Guiu.
