Chelsea beat Wolves in an eight goal thriller, as the Blues gifted Enzo Maresca his first Premier League win. In the Blue's opening fixture, the head coach suffered a 2-0 loss against Manchester City. Against Wolves, however, the West London boys put up a box office performance in the away fixture at Molineux.
A Box-to-Box First Half
Chelsea opened the scoring in just 98 seconds with a Nicolas Jackson header from six yards, following Matheus Cunha's attempted clearance from the initial corner. Jackson's goal was Chelsea's fastest League goal since 2017. Cunha himself would however go on to draw the hosts level in the 27th minute.
After Moises Caicedo lost possession, Wolves' Rayan Ait-Nouri pushed forward before setting up Cunha. The Brazilian then released a perfect strike to beat Robert Sanchez, netting yet another goal against the visitors after last season’s hat-trick at the Bridge.
Wolves' lead was however cut short by a brilliant finish by Cole Palmer in the 45th minute. Jackson received a long ball from his goalkeeper, and he applied a fine flick to direct the ball towards Palmer. The PFA Young Player of the Year would go on to produce a sublime lob over the Wolves keeper Jose Sa, and he went celebrating in his trademark fashion.
Just when that seemed like it would be the last big action of the half, the Chelsea vs. Wolves plot was not done. Seconds before the half-time whistle, Chelsea failed to properly clear Ait-Nouri’s free-kick and Toti found Jorgen Strand Larsen with a header, and he finished from close-range to level the game yet again.
The Madueke Takeover
Chelsea would go on to bury Wolves in the 2nd half with Noni Madueke putting up an absolute show. Throughout the first half, the England international received loud boos from the home fans with every touch of the ball. This was due to a post made by the winger on Instagram just hours before kick-off.
In his Instagram story, Madueke shared his location in Wolverhampton with a review of the city. The post read: “this place is s**t”. He eventually deleted the post which appeared to be mistakenly public, sharing: “Damn wrong Instagram account. You lot are too fast.”
With this controversial background, Madueke had to silence the opposing fans—and he did. After a half spent torturing the Wolves defenders, the forward scored in the 49th minute after a pass from Palmer. Madueke would strike again nine minutes later, placing the ball through Sa’s legs after receiving the ball from Palmer again.
The 22-year-old completed his first career hat trick in the 49th minute with yet another Palmer assist. Palmer's hat trick of assists means he becomes the only player to be directly involved in 25+ goals in Europe's top five leagues in 2024.
Wrapping Up the Riot
Maresca's boys were not done taming Wolves. This time, Joao Felix, upon coming off the bench in the 80th minute, netted a beautiful finish towards the top left corner. This was Felix's return to Chelsea following his permanent move to the club after a loan spell in the 2022-23 season.
Interestingly, Felix's goal was assisted by fellow Portuguese Pedro Neto, who recently signed for Chelsea from Wolves. The connection promoted another new Portuguese signing Renato Veiga to give the duo the nickname: ‘‘Netflix.’’
Chelsea's win surely sent a statement to their critics who had earlier criticized the club for the number of players signed. It seems Maresca has quickly implemented his system of play in the team, and the players are dancing along nicely.