A Blue Up North reviews Chelsea’s surprising loss away to Wolves.
On Wednesday evening, Chelsea traveled to Molineux Stadium to face newly promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers as part of a full midweek matchday 15 of this season’s Premier League.
After rejoining the top flight after an absence of 6 years, Wolves started the season with gusto and enjoyed an excellent September as they played on the front foot and surprised a number of opponents with their quality attacking football.
However, their form has taken a downward turn recently and they went into this match after gaining only 1 point in their last 6 league matches. Meanwhile, Chelsea arrived in The West Midlands in 3rd place, but have not looked as dominant or in control in recent matches.
As expected, both managers made changes to their starting line up. Nuno Espirito Santo was missing his talisman and mist creative player Ruben Neves and he was replaced by young Gibbs-White.
Maurizio Sarri made 5 changes and gave Andreas Christensen, Cesc Fabregas and Ruben Loftus-Cheek their first starts in this season’s Premier League. Alvaro Morata was given the nod in attack and Willian restored to the right wing.
The Blues for the most part played well and created chances throughout. N’Golo Kante’s precise cross found Eden Hazard who’s first time shot was a little tame. But then Loftus-Cheek found himself some space just outside the penalty box and rifled a shot that Coady stooped to clear, but placed it neatly past his own keeper.
Chelsea then continued to dominate and looked the more likely to score. Well, at least they were the team trying to score. Hazard was looking more lively than in recent matches and was finding a yard of space for once, while Fabregas, Kante and Loftus-Cheek were clearly in control of the midfield.
However, chances were relatively few and far between, with the home side seemingly playing with 9 defenders at times. Morata was given precious little room and most of The Blues’s forward play was being suffocated all too often 20 yards from it’s target.
The times Chelsea did manage to create, one circumstance after another seemed to deny them the bigger lead they deserved. Willian’s almost perfect free kick was tipped over by an outstanding save, followed by the Brazilian being sent clean through only to be denied by a John Terry style intervention by Bennett.
Early in the second half, Morata was through to tap in an inviting cross from Loftus-Cheek. However, the Spaniard was unable to finish the move off as he was completely taken out from behind by a sliding Boly. Bizarrely no penalty, no red card and no deserved 2-0 lead. With a couple of the Wolves players, especially Joao Moutinho, risking their presence on the pitch with repeated fouls, it did come as an unjust surprise that this match ended with 22 players on the pitch.
As the home side started to attempt to get back in the game, Kante rifled a shot just wide from 25 yards as The Blues continued to maintain the upper hand.
Then on 58 minutes it appeared as though someone flicked a switch. Suddenly the home side were all over their opponents and, in particular their defenders, who now looked unassured. Within a 4 minute period Wolves turned the score line around with their first 2 attempts at goal.
There was still plenty of time left and both Hazard and Fabregas had great shooting opportunities but both had to watch their attempts fly narrowly over the bar. And these chances summed the game up very well. Chelsea created the chances, narrowly missed them and were left with nothing.
Despite the defeat, Sarri will have been fairly satisfied with what he witnessed. For the first time this season, the Italian manager made a number of changes for a Premier League match and his replacements performed well. Loftus-Cheek again shone out and Hazard showed signs of being back to his best.
With the Premier League leaders up next for The Blues, the form of these 2 and a restful week for a few other key players with give Sarri something to focus on. However, his toughest conundrum still remains on getting a striker who is regularly getting chances and is consistently scoring.
The result may have been a terrible one, but it did not reflect how the match was played. The Chelsea team will need focus on the positives of some of the play, and not the negative result with their toughest match of the season coming up on Saturday.
Written by Jon Ellis, home and away season ticket holder. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue
