Date: Sunday 25th August 2024
Venue: Molineux Stadium
Kick-off: 14:00 BST
The opening game of the 2024/25 season was forgettable. I
suspect there’ll be many of those because for all his bravado in front of the
press, it could have been Graham Potter on the touchline last week its been that
underwhelming.
Whilst some might argue the 2-0 against City last weekend
wasn’t the worst result or performance going, the fact is, the current Premier
League champions were below par and still didn’t need to get out of second gear
against us.
Today’s game sees us travel to Molineux to take on Wolves,
who also lost 2-0 on the opening day, against Arsenal. Wolves have beaten us in
our last three games and will be encouraged that our defence appears about as robust
as Andrew Tate’s moral code and despite buying players at a rate suggestive of
a pending transfer ban, the Clearlake circus remain averse to the idea of
having a proper goalscoring number 9 anywhere near the club.
.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into
today’s game, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil, says “It’s pretty much impossible
for me to predict the Chelsea line-up but, there are so many there. We know some that definitely won’t be in the
team but figuring out what they’re going to do will be tough. We will try and
give the best account of ourselves and try start the Premier League season at
home with a win, which will be huge for us.”
Enzo
Maresca, meanwhile, says “All the places in the Premier League are very
difficult to go and try to get the points. But we are going to try, we are
going to do our best. Hopefully we can start Sunday to get some points in the
Premier League and from there to build some momentum.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Wolves, Leon Chiwome (ankle), Sasa Kalajdzic (knee) and Enso Gonzalez (knee) are
long-term absentees and Nelson Semedo is suspended.
For Chelsea, Reece James (hamstring) is injured/suspended.
Cole Palmer limped off against Servette but is expected to be available
although Pedro Neto is likely to be rested, because it seems it’s the done
thing to shell out £54m for players who can’t give us more than 60 minutes in a
week. Joao Felix, now apparently ‘home’, is available.
TEAMS
WOLVES (Possible line-up): Sa; Doherty, Mosquera, Toti, Ait-Nouri; Hwang, Lemina, J. Gomes,
Sarabia; Cunha, Larsen
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Sanchez; Gusto, Fofana, Colwill,
Cucurella; Fernandez, Lavia; Madueke, Dewsbury-Hall, Nkunku; Jackson
LAST SEASON
Wolves 2-1 Chelsea (24
December 2023)
CURRENT FORM (PL)
WOLVES: L
CHELSEA: L
OTHER STUFF
- Wolves have won the past three Premier League
meetings.
- Chelsea are without an away win in four league
games against Wolves.
- Wolves have lost four successive Premier
League games for the first time since 2021.
- Wolves have only won one of their last 12
competitive matches in all competitions
- Chelsea can lose their opening two games of a
league season for the first time since 1973-74.
- Chelsea have failed to keep a clean sheet in
any of their last 18 away games in all competitions.
PREDICTION
Sportsmole: Wolves 1-2 Chelsea
