Chelsea will be hoping to bounce back from a disappointing away draw in Baku against Qarabag on Wednesday against the Premier League’s bottom side, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
After losing 3-0 on Saturday away at Fulham and getting knocked out of the Carabao Cup by none other than Chelsea, Wolves decided to part ways with their former manager Vitor Pereira, thanking Pereira for guiding Wolves through a challenging period last season, but also stating that performances simply have not been good enough recently.
Upon first reflection, I would expect Maresca to line up quite attacking based for this game but upon analysing recent performances, he will want to get the fundamental defensive aspects correct this Saturday.
In the Carabao Cup tie last week, Chelsea conceded 3 avoidable goals, with the 3rd being courtesy of a string of errors from the Chelsea back line. On Wednesday evening against Qarabag, Jorrel Hato showed his vulnerability especially with how the 2nd goal was scored, not only giving the ball away cheaply but also conceding a penalty that he should’ve dealt with a lot better.
Although in recent weeks he looks like he has been rested for the cup games and used as a ‘super sub’ in Premier League fixtures, I would expect Estevão Willian to start this game on the wing. He has been incredible recently with exciting performances against teams such as Liverpool, Ajax, Wolves and Qarabag, and I feel he could expose Wolves on several occasions this weekend just as he did last Wednesday in the cup. Another man who I’d expect to start and come back to haunt his former club would be Pedro Neto, with Jamie Gittens rested for this game.
Wolves are coming into this fixture off the back of several disappointing results in the Premier League. Under their former manager Vitor Pereira, they had only accumulated 2 out of a possible 30 points, which ultimately led him to be sacked by the board. Despite the run of form, 25-year-old Jørgen Strand Larsen seems to still be finding the net frequently for Wolves. He has scored 15 goals in 42 games for them, including a goal in our 6-2 away win at The Molineux last term, which was almost enough for Todd Boehly to submit a bit to Real Sociedad in the summer to buy the striker. So, not much good has come from Wolves this season but the rare moments that they have had have mostly come from Strand Larsen – watch out for him!
I personally don’t think that this one will be as high scoring as others may think. Enzo Maresca will focus on getting it right at the back more than mastering something that has almost been mastered already – the attack. I am going to go for a 2-0 home win, with maybe 1 or 2 more goals in the final stages of the game, but with the 2 Chelsea goals fairly spread out. Delap will get on the scoresheet for the first time in the Premier League as a Chelsea player along with Enzo Fernandez, who seems like he loves to put the seal on cagey affairs at Chelsea.
