Date: Wednesday 27th
January 2021
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Kick-off: 18:00 GMT
Another
game, another manager, so what’s new? It’s the Chelsea way.
We
don’t have to like it, but it would seem that because we love the club, we have
little choice but to live with the manager merry go round that goes with it. Honestly,
there may have been the odd appointment we were glad to see the back of but
this one is different. Not only was this one Frank Lampard, an absolute Chelsea
legend, but I’m with Pat Nevin, I genuinely believed it would be different this
time. I’d totally bought into the whole, ‘bringing youth through’, ‘building
for the future’, ‘give him the time he needs’ dream. It’s all a bit of a nightmare
in reality though, because from what I can see, Frank’s been used to bide the
time through a transfer ban and there was never any real future investment in
him at all.
I’m
not sure why I’m surprised, no one outside of Chelsea is, that’s for sure and
what’s worse is, they’re right, it’s not our squad that lacks depth. Anyway,
supporter sentiment cuts no ice at Chelsea, so back to business as it were.
Our tea-time game sees us play host to a Wolves side who beat us last month, it was also their last win as it turns out. Wolves haven’t had a win for a while, in fact, they’re in the sort of form that would make Nuno glad he’s not a Chelsea manager. Not that we’ve anything to brag about, we’ve hardly stacked up points ourselves since we played at Molineux.
Wolves
will be ready to take advantage of any disarray, but will there be any though? I
suspect any potential emotion will be given a rest for this one. Stiff upper
lip, let’s see who remembers how to play.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into today’s game, Wolves manager Nuno
Espirito Santo, says “We don’t know exactly how Chelsea are going to
present themselves. We don’t know the manager. What we know is the quality and
talent of the Chelsea players. We expect
a tough match and whoever the manager is, he won’t have much time to impose his
own ideas, so we think it’ll be close to what Frank was doing before. We’re talking about a good team, a squad full
of talented players, so we are aware tomorrow is going to be very demanding and
tough for us.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Chelsea,
N’Golo Kante (hamstring) remains out injured, and its not certain Christian
Pulisic (leg) is available.
For Wolves, Raul
Jimenez (fractured skull), Jonny (knee) and Marcal (groin) remain long-term
absentees, Morgan Gibbs-White (Covid-19) and Daniel Podence (calf) are also out.
TEAMS
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Silva, Rudiger, Chilwell, Kovacic, Jorginho, Ziyech, Havertz;
Pulisic, Werner
WOLVES
(Possible line-up): Patricio; Semedo, Coady, Boly, Saiss; Neves,
Moutinho, Dendoncker; Traore, Silva, Neto
LAST SEASON
Chelsea 2-0 Wolves
(26th July 2020)
CURRENT FORM (PL)
CHELSEA: WLDLWL
WOLVES: LDLDLL
OTHER STUFF
- Chelsea are
unbeaten at home in six previous Premier League games against Wolves.
- Wolves won the
reverse fixture 2-1 at Molineux last month.
- Chelsea have won
just two of their last eight games in the league.
- Wolves have lost
nine matches so far this term.
- Wolves are in
danger of losing three successive league matches for just the second time under
Nuno Espirito Santo.
- Chelsea have kept
13 clean sheets in 29 games in all competitions.
- Wolves have
conceded at least twice in each of their past three league fixtures.
PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Chelsea 2-1 Wolves
Sky Sports: Chelsea 2-0 Wolves
Sportsmole: Chelsea 1-1 Wolves
