Chelsea vs Wolves – Match Preview and team news

The Football Faithful

·20 gennaio 2025

Chelsea vs Wolves – Match Preview and team news

Chelsea welcome Wolves to Stamford Bridge on Monday night as they search for their first league win in six matches.

Reece James was the Blues’ saviour in midweek as the captain’s 95th-minute free-kick salvaged a point at home to Bournemouth.

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Enzo Maresca has revealed that there were a few key casualties from their clash against the Cherries.

MD22. Let's go Chelsea! 🔵 #CFC | #CHEWOL
– lunedì 20 gennaio 2025

Enzo Fernandez, Romeo Lavia, Levi Colwill and Cole Palmer all didn’t train on Friday, with the latter nursing an ankle issue. Trevoh Chalobah is available after he was recalled from his loan at Crystal Palace. Mykhailo Mudryk remains suspended after an adverse finding in a drug test.

Their opponents, Wolves, were swept aside by a high-flying Newcastle side in a 3-0 victory in the North East.

Mario Lemina’s future is uncertain after the former captain asked to be left out of the squad against the Magpies on Wednesday night. Talisman Matheus Cunha is doubtful after the Brazilian missed training on Friday due to illness.

Chelsea vs Wolves – Match preview and team news

Form

Chelsea: LLDWD

The Blues are enduring a dip in form which has seen them draw three and lose two of their last five league outings.

They dropped points again during the week as Bournemouth caused them problems at Stamford Bridge. A Justin Kluivert penalty and a rasping effort from Antoine Semenyo saw the Cherries recover from an early goal from Cole Palmer. But second-half substitute Reece James came to his side’s rescue in stoppage time as his free-kick flew into the bottom corner.

Enzo Maresca’s outfit have dropped to sixth place amid their winless run.

Wolves: WDLWL

Wolves temporarily dropped into the bottom three on Wednesday after a 3-0 defeat at Newcastle.

Vitor Pereira’s side were wasteful and didn’t manage to breach Martin Dubravka’s net despite generating 1.62 xG. Lapses in concentration at the back saw Alexander Isak record a brace before Anthony Gordon sealed the win.

Wolves moved back out of the bottom three on goal difference after Ipswich lost 2-0 to Brighton. Their goal difference advantage has been further strengthened after Ipswich were thrashed 6-0 by Manchester City on Sunday.

Last Meeting: Wolves 2-6 Chelsea, Premier League, 25th August 2024

Chelsea ran riot after the break to demolish Wolves in an eight-goal thriller at Molineux in August.

Nothing separated the two sides at the interval after an eventful half that saw both teams score twice.

Nicolas Jackson opened the scoring inside two minutes when the striker was perfectly placed at the back post to head past Jose Sa.

The hosts responded just shy of the half-hour mark with Matheus Cunha sweeping the ball beyond Robert Sanchez. Cunha came agonisingly close to grabbing his second moments later, but his deflected shot clipped the crossbar.

Cole Palmer then opened his account for the season in style as he audaciously lobbed Sa following a counter-attack.

But Strand Larsen found another equaliser for Gary O’Neil’s men in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time. The Norwegian stuck a leg out to connect with Toti Gomes’ header as a chaotic half ended level.

However, Noni Madueke tore Wolves apart in the second half to claim a 14-minute hat-trick. All three of the Englishman’s goals came from the right-hand side with Madueke’s finishes almost identical. Palmer assisted all three goals as Chelsea raced into a three-goal lead out of nowhere.

Joao Felix found the top corner with ten minutes to go to complete the rout and condemn Wolves to a heavy defeat.

Predicted Lineups

Chelsea: Sanchez; James, Chalobah, Tosin, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez, Neto, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.

Wolves: Sa; Semedo, Doherty, Bueno, Agbadou, Ait Nouri; Andre, J.Gomes; R.Gomes, Guedes, Larsen.

Who is the referee?

Simon Hooper will be the match official. Adrian Holmes and Simon Long are the assistants while Stuart Attwell will be the fourth official. The VAR will be Matt Donohue and he will be assisted by Dan Cook.