Thomas Tuchel takes charge of his first game as Chelsea boss on Wednesday, but Jake Pearson is backing Wolves to make it a tricky affair.
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Chelsea v Wolves
- 18:00 GMT on BT Sport 1
- Match odds: Home 3/5 | Draw 29/10 | Away 19/4
Vitinha found the feet of Pedro Neto on the Wolves left and the Portuguese youngster headed straight for the Chelsea defence. A drop of the shoulder, a quick shift onto his favoured left foot, and before Edouard Mendy had time to adjust his feet, the ball was in the back of the net, completing the comeback and giving Wolverhampton Wanderers a 2-1 victory over Chelsea.
Was that the beginning of the end for Frank Lampard? It came on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Everton and began a run of form that the Chelsea legend could not recover from; 41 days on and Super Frank had been handed his P45.
Lampard’s dismissal came after his side progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 3-1 victory over Luton on Sunday, and while Tammy Abraham helped himself to a hat-trick, Timo Werner continued in his remarkably accurate impression of both Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres’ time at Chelsea.
The Thomas Tuchel reign begins at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, and he will have his work cut out. The Blues having won just one of their last five Premier League matches, being comfortably swept aside by Arsenal, Manchester City and Leicester in that time.
Chelsea are undoubtedly out of sorts, but it has also been anything but plain sailing for Wolves since their dramatic come-from-behind win against Chelsea last month. In fact, Nuno Espírito Santo’s men haven’t won a Premier League match since then, losing four times and drawing twice.
It has been a difficult month for the Old Gold, but they have arguably been performing a little better than the bare results might suggest. They showed good character to grab a draw against Tottenham and, after defending like the Wolves of old, were terribly unlucky to go down to a late deflected goal against Manchester United. They let a two-goal lead slip against Brighton at the beginning of the month, created better quality chances than Everton, and limited West Brom to a non-penalty expected goals against total of just 0.98 (xGA) – two of the Baggies’ goals coming from the spot.
Wolves’ style of play is no secret, Nuno Espírito Santo embodies modern Portuguese coaching with his meticulous, pragmatic approach to football, but this style of play is no doubt better suited to playing against higher quality opposition, that is clear from Wolves’ results against the Premier League’s bigger hitters over the last few years.
Wolves do tend to struggle against a team who possess similar, or even less ability than themselves, their approach making it difficult to dominate games and ultimately put teams to bed. This explains defeats to Burnley and West Brom, as well as the 3-3 draw away at Brighton.
This type of game should show Nuno’s Wolves to much better advantage however, with Chelsea expected to take the game to the visitors, allowing Wolves to draw more Blues players forward and eventually exploits the gaps left, particularly in the channels between full-back and centre-half.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. It is exactly what Wolves did against Chelsea last month, and there is no reason why they will not adopt a similar approach this time around.
Both these teams are struggling for form, which makes it difficult to pin down exactly who is going to come out on top, but the fact that Chelsea are as short as 4/7 in places pretty much makes the decision for us.
That is way too short a price for a team suffering the crisis of confidence that this Chelsea team are currently suffering, and though Wolves are in no better position in terms of form, they have an extremely strong character in Nuno Espírito Santo at the helm, and they have a clear direction.
Premier League matches seem to be getting edgier and edgier of late, and this game is likely to be no different. Since the beginning of last season, Wolves have only lost five matches by more than one goal, so expect there to be little between these two sides at the Bridge on Wednesday.
The longer the game stays tight, the more bodies Chelsea will flood forward, leaving them susceptible on the counter-attack, with the pacey Pedro Neto and Adama Traoré lying in wait.
Score prediction: Chelsea 1-1 Wolves (Sky Bet odds: 13/2)
Opta facts
- Wolves, who were 2-1 winners at Molineux earlier in the campaign, are looking for their first top-flight league double over Chelsea since the 1974/75 season under manager Bill McGarry.
- Since their return to the Premier League in 2018, Wolves have earned 23 points from their 13 league games in London (W6 D5 L2) – only Liverpool (31) and Manchester City (28) have won more away points in the capital in this time.
- Wolves have only lost three consecutive league games under Nuno Espírito Santo once previously, losing three in a row in October/November 2018.
- Wolves forward Fábio Silva is only the second teenager to score more than once in the Premier League for Wolves, after Pedro Neto (also 2 goals). The only Portuguese teenagers to score more than twice in the Premier League are Ricardo Vaz Tê (3) and Cristiano Ronaldo (8).
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