Wolves 1-3 Chelsea
by Gene Sylvester
at Molineux

A BLISTERINGLY cold and wet afternoon at the Molineux was the setting for the match between Wolves and Chelsea that had showed promising signs for the home side in the opening exchanges, before Chelsea were gifted two penalties in the first half courtesy of some kamikaze defending.

Both penalties were duly despatched by Cole Palmer which contributed to a fairly comfortable 3-1 victory in the end for the away side, leaving the home fans ruing what could have been.

Despite Wolves being the team on the front foot during the first 10 minutes of the game, their early season muscle memory set in with Rob Edwards’ team reverting to being their own worst enemy.

In the 11th minute, Wolves captain Matt Doherty put in a needless challenge on Chelsea’s Joao Pedro with the striker harmlessly moving towards the corner flag in the box as Doherty tried to prod the ball away.

The Irish defender instead clipped Pedro’s leg, sending him sprawling to the floor with referee Jarred Gillett wasting no time in pointing to the spot to award Chelsea the penalty.

Cole Palmer stepped up to dispatch the penalty calmly to the right of Jose Sa as the keeper went the other way to give his side a fortuitous lead.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, 20 minutes later, it was Wolves centre-back Yerson Mosquera who was at it with the Wolves centre-back giving Pedro a two handed, arms stretched shove in the back, despite seemingly being in control of the situation on the edge of the penalty area.

The shove sent the Brazilian striker to the floor in the box once again, giving the referee no choice but to award another penalty.

Palmer stepped up to convert his second penalty of the game and his 50th goal for the club, this time calmly slotting low to Sa’s left with the goalkeeper again going the wrong way.

Wolves manager Edwards was understandably frustrated after a promising start to the game for his team.

“We started really positively, but then a couple of real ludicrous mistakes against a top team with top players and it becomes a difficult day for us.”

He went on to say: “At 2-0 down, the energy of the team looked like it did when we first came in and was disjointed for a period.”

Palmer completed his first half hat-trick following a flowing move started by the England midfielder who sprayed a ball out to the left where Enzo Fernandez collected and then fed Marc Cucurella’s underlapping run.

The Chelsea left-back drove to the byline and cut a ball back to the edge of the six yard box where an unmarked Palmer stepped onto the ball to slam his shot high into the Wolves net from seven metres out.

Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior was full of praise for his number 10 following a period in which the England man had received criticism from some quarters.

“I don’t want him [Palmer] to change. We know what a world class player he is and he’s played a lot of football over the last year with not much rest, but when he’s at his best he is unstoppable and I am delighted to be working with him.”

The home side did get themselves a consolation goal after a corner was flicked on at the near post by debutant Adam Armstrong and prodded home from close range by fellow striker Tolu Arokodare, but it was too little too late for the home side.