This game went from 0 to 100 even before kick-off thanks to Noni Madueke’s quickly-deleted social media post calling the city of Wolverhampton the worst place on Earth, or some such. The city should send him some flowers for restoring all this local pride!
But it were Chelsea who struck first, inside of two minutes in fact, with Nico Jackson nodding in at the far post after a Cole Palmer corner was flicked on at the near post.
Chelsea tried to exert some control on proceedings (presumably), but it was not really working despite some decent passing sequences. So instead we embraced chaos ball just like last season and did threaten repeatedly, including Palmer missing an easy chance after some good work by Madueke down the right wing.
Unfortunately, much of last season’s issues in midfield and defending were also present, and after a bad turnover in our own half, Wolves equalized just before the half-hour mark.
Chelsea responded with a goal of the season contender on 45 minutes (brilliant touch by Jackson and a great finish by Palmer), but Wolves would have time to equalize form a set piece at the very end of six minutes of added-on time.
We were back ahead just a couple minutes into this half as well, and of course it had to be Madueke, who had been giving Ait-Nouri a torrid time (with Ait-Nouri doing the same to us at the other end).
And then it became the Palmer and Madueke show, with the former setting up the latter for not one but two more in the space of five minutes as Chelsea ripped Wolves apart like an apex predator.
Wolves continued to hack and foul away, with Caicedo paying the price. They did score a carbon copy of their second goal late on, but the momentum shift was saved by the offside flag. And then Neto and Félix combined to get our sixth: lovely finish by the kid on his second debut.
That was the cue for the home fans to start going home. We could have more goals in their absence, but would waste several promising counters.
Guess we’ll have to settle for six.
Carefree.
- Two changes from last weekend, with Madueke and Mudryk coming in for Nkunku and Lavia; Lavia misses out completely through a “small” hamstring injury
- Neto on at the half for Mudryk
- Madueke a big fat liar; he clearly loves Wolverhampton
- 3 goals for Madueke; 3 assists for Palmer (first to do it in a league game for us since Fàbregas in 2016)
- Goals for Jackson, Palmer, and Félix as well! Welcome back, João.
- Caicedo, in the wars all day, limps off on 75. Hopefully he’s okay. KDH-Enzo the midfield for the final 15+.
- Nothing worse than inconsistent refereeing.
- Next up: second leg against Servette on Thursday
- KTBFFH
Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
