There was still soccer to be played in the Premier League on Christmas Day. At the end of matchday 18, Wolverhampton inflicted Chelsea FC’s fourth away defeat in a row with a 2-1 defeat
Wolves, who had three points fewer than the Blues after their 3-0 defeat at West Ham, made two changes to their manager Gary O’Neil: regular keeper José Sa (back from shoulder injury) replaced Bentley in goal and Ait Nouri came in for Bellegarde.
Chelsea had recently followed up a 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup with a 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory over Newcastle to reach the quarter-finals of the League Cup. Mauricio Pochettino started a new trio: Gusto, Ugochukwu and Broja came in for Badiashile, Caicedo and Fernandez.
Chelsea took control of proceedings at the Molineux Stadium in the early stages. Pochettino’s side produced some promising combinations but ultimately failed to create any compelling goalscoring opportunities, partly because Jackson failed to get the ball in a promising position against a mostly compact Wolves defense (21st).
The absolute top chance: Sterling too stubborn
The Wanderers were initially unable to do more than make a few attempts in attack, and it was only when Sarabia’s deflected free-kick was deflected over that the hosts began to look dangerous (32′). The Blues should have taken the lead in the same minute: Sterling stole the ball from Joao Gomes and marched towards goal with two teammates. Instead of crossing, he decided to finish and failed to beat José Sa.
Wolverhampton woke up shortly before the changeover and finally became more compelling in their best phase – but even Hwang, who had broken through, did not have his sights set accurately enough (45′).
Lemina crowns the series of chances
The Wanderers picked up where they left off after the restart. Joao Gomez (47) and Toti (48) failed to make it 1-0, before Lemina was allowed to nod home from Sarabia’s corner in a scramble against a careless Chelsea defense without having to jump up (51).
The Londoners were visibly shaken and Pochettino reacted. The coach brought on Mudryk and the long-injured Nkunku (Premier League debut) and immediately injected new momentum (59′). The Blues now pressed for an equalizer, with Toti (64) and Dawson (65) saving their team from a 1-1 draw from Nkunku and Sterling.
After that, Wanderers found little relief, but gradually adapted better to the visitors’ more varied attacking play. The Blues went on the attack, but became increasingly desperate and got bogged down more and more often.
Nkunku’s reply comes too late
Wolverhampton thought they were on target after sacrificial defensive work and Doherty’s joker goal (90.+3), but had not reckoned with Nkunku, who made it exciting again with his first Premier League goal (90.+6).
However, the goal came too late and both series held: Wolverhampton have not lost any of their last seven home games (4/3/0), while Chelsea have now lost four away games in a row.
Wolverhampton have drawn level on points with the Blues and are at Brentford on Wednesday, while Chelsea host Crystal Palace at the same time (kick-off at 8.30pm).
