A lack of squad depth was evident in Chelsea’s legged display against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday night, as a four-minute salvo from Nuno Espirito Santo’s men in the second-half was enough to condemn Chelsea to a second successive loss on the road.
Sarri’s rotated midfield controlled the game with Cesc Fabregas playing adeptly in both the offensive and defensive phases of the game, whilst Ruben Loftus-Cheek fortuitously chalked up his third Premier League goal of the season to give Chelsea the lead. Following on from his goal against Fulham at the weekend, the English midfielders’ strike took a heavy deflection off of the head of Connor Coady but found it’s way into the back of the Wolves net. Willian’s free-kick forced a tremendous save from Rui Patricio but aside from two superb last-ditch tackles from Fabregas and Ryan Bennett the first-half lacked any real ebb and flow.
The second half was similarly docile until Wolves began to press Chelsea high up the pitch, forcing the likes of Marcos Alonso and Andreas Christensen into rash decisions and playing into their hands with a more buccaneering counter attacking tempo to the game. Raul Jimenez was the man to make Chelsea pay, collecting the ball from the impressive 18-year-old midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White before firing a powerful shot underneath the body of Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Chelsea still had plenty of time to muster a response, however, but it was to be Wolves who’d strike next and most crucially as Willian gave up possession easily under pressure from Jao Moutinho, who spread the ball out to Matt Doherty whose square ball found the unmarked Diogo Jota to tap home the winning goal.
